José Manuel da Silva Fernandes (born 22 February 1975), commonly known as Zé Manel, is a Portuguese retired professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a winger. He amassed

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

totals of 270 matches and 51 goals over ten seasons, mainly in representation of

Paços de Ferreira Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km². Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...

(four years) and Boavista (three).

Club career

Zé Manel was born in Fraião, Braga District. He started playing professionally for

Clube Caçadores das Taipas Clube Caçadores das Taipas is a Portuguese sports club from Caldas das Taipas. The men's football team plays in the Braga Football Association Serie 2. They played for many years in the old Terceira Divisão, but had stints on the third tier, ...

, moving from the

Portuguese third division Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

the second ''The Second'' is the second studio album by Canadian-American rock band Steppenwolf, released in October 1968 on ABC Dunhill Records. The album contains one of Steppenwolf's most famous songs, " Magic Carpet Ride". The background of the orig ...

as he joined

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal s ...

at the age of 24. In his debut season he contributed 24 games and three goals, helping the northerners to return to the

as league champions. In the following years, Zé Manel continued to be a regular attacking unit for Paços: in his last season he scored on 11 occasions, not good enough, however, to avoid relegation. From 2004 to 2007 he represented

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube, commonly known as Boavista (), is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Porto. Founded on 1 August 1903 by British entrepreneurs and Portuguese textile workers (thus the "FC" being appended – the British way as oppos ...

, netting ten goals in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational institutions. Ara ...

and also being a starter; the following campaign he joined

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

, being sparingly used. For 2008–09, Zé Manel signed a one-year deal with top-flight strugglers Leixões SC. After two seasons of regular use – even though 30 of his league appearances were as a substitute– being relegated in his second, the 35-year-old moved to

C.D. Trofense Clube Desportivo Trofense (), commonly known as Trofense, is a Portuguese football club based in Trofa, Portugal. Founded in 1930, it plays in Segunda Liga, holding home games at '' Estádio do Clube Desportivo Trofense'', with a capacity of 5,0 ...

of division two, in late August 2010. In August 2012, aged 37, Zé Manel returned to Boavista, with the club now in the third tier.

Honours

Paços de Ferreira * Segunda Liga: 1999–2000

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ze Manel 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Braga Portuguese footballers Association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Clube Caçadores das Taipas players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Boavista F.C. players S.C. Braga players Leixões S.C. players C.D. Trofense players