Fábio Rafael Rodrigues Cardoso (born 19 April 1994) is a Portuguese 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 plays as a centre-back for FC Porto. Formed at Benfica, where he played only in the reserves, he made over 150 Primeira Liga appearances for

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 ...

Vitória Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ( ...

, Santa Clara and

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

. Abroad, he had a brief spell in the

Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...

with Rangers.

Club career

Benfica B

Born in

Águeda Águeda () is a city and a municipality in Portugal. According to the Portuguese 2011 census, the municipality of Águeda had 47,729 inhabitants, in an area of . The city proper had a population of 14,504 (2001 data), while the remainder is distri ...

, Aveiro District, Cardoso played as a youth for hometown club R.D. Águeda before joining

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

in 2008. On 11 August 2012, he made his debut with Benfica B in a

2012–13 Segunda Liga The 2012–13 Segunda Liga was the 23rd season of the second-tier of football in Portugal. This season marked a series of changes in the league overall. The league's name was changed back to Segunda Liga from the previous Liga de Honra. A total o ...

match against Braga B where he played 84 minutes as a

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either ...

, partnering with Lionel Carole. On 19 December, he had his only call-up to the first team under manager

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe. He started his career with Sporting CP, going on to play for 1 ...

, as one of five new faces for a Taça da Liga group game at Olhanense; he was an unused substitute in the 2–1 win. He scored the only goal in a victory at

Sporting B Sporting Clube de Portugal B is the reserve team of Portuguese football club Sporting CP, a team based in Lisbon. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, they cann ...

(0–1) on 5 January 2015. Six days later, he scored twice in a 3–2 win against Porto B. On 15 January 2015, Benfica announced Cardoso's loan to fellow Primeira Liga club

until the end of the season. The deal was subsequently repeated for the following campaign. In 42 total matches for the northern club, he scored once, the only goal of a win at

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

on 13 March 2016.

Vitória de Setúbal

On 7 July 2016, Cardoso signed a four-year contract with Primeira Liga side

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

. He made 27 total appearances in his only season, and scored in a 2–1 win over Santa Clara on 26 October to qualify the team to the group stage of the Taça da Liga.

Rangers

In June 2017, Cardoso signed for Rangers on a three-year contract for a reported fee of around £1.3 million. He made his debut for Rangers against Progrès Niederkorn in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

on 29 June 2017. Cardoso was picked less frequently after the departure of compatriot manager

Pedro Caixinha Pedro Miguel Faria Caixinha (; born 15 November 1970) is a Portuguese professional football manager, currently in charge of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A club Red Bull Bragantino. He started coaching in his late twenties, acting an assistant ...

, and was released from his contract with Rangers on 30 July 2018.

Santa Clara

Cardoso joined Santa Clara on a four-year deal the day after leaving Rangers. On his second league appearance on 19 August 2018, he scored the equaliser as the Azorean side came from 3–0 down at half time to draw at home to

Braga Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...

. The following 11 January, when his former team Benfica visited the Estádio de São Miguel, he made an error that allowed

Haris Seferovic Haris Seferovic ( bs, Seferović, ; born 22 February 1992) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a striker for Süper Lig club Galatasaray, on loan from Portuguese club Benfica, and the Switzerland national team. Seferovic made his ...

to score and was then sent off just before half time for a foul on Pizzi.

Porto

On 1 July 2021, Cardoso signed a five-year deal at

. He made his debut on 28 September in a

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

group game at home to

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, due to a warm-up injury to

Pepe Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish name José (Josep). It is also a surname. * People Mononyms * Pepe (footballer, born 1935), real name José Macia, Brazilian footballer *Pepe (footballer, born 1983), real name Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira ...

; his team lost 5–1. His first season at the

Estádio do Dragão The Estádio do Dragão (; English: Dragon Stadium) is an All-seater stadium, all-seater Association football, football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the Lis ...

ended with a

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

and

cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay, ...

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

, though he played under half of the league fixtures and was unused for the cup final win over

Tondela Tondela () is a municipality in the central Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km². History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carvalho (1876–1951) wrote of the mun ...

. Cardoso,

Diogo Costa Diogo Meireles da Costa (; born 19 September 1999) is a professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Primeira Liga club Porto and the Portugal national team. Coming through Porto's youth system, Costa won the UEFA Youth League in ...

Wilson Manafá Wilson Migueis Manafá Jancó (born 23 July 1994), known as Manafá, is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger or a full-back. After making his Primeira Liga debut for Portimonense at the age of 23 he transferred to Porto ...

and Otávio celebrated their league win by singing insulting chants towards Benfica on social media. The four were given one-game suspensions ruling them out of the 2022 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, individual fines of €510 and a club fine of €15,300. On 16 October that year, he scored his first goal for Porto in a 6–0 win at Anadia in the third round of the Taça de Portugal, followed 13 days later by a first league goal in the third minute of a 1–1 draw at Santa Clara.

International career

Cardoso represented Portugal at the

2013 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship The 2013 UEFA European Under-19 Championship was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Under-19 Championship, since its reclassification from an under-18 tournament in 2002, and the 62nd since the tournament was created in 1948. It was hosted in L ...

. Cardoso also represented Portugal at Under-20 level during the

2014 Toulon Tournament The 2014 Toulon Tournament was the 42nd edition of the Toulon Tournament. The competition took place between 21 May and 1 June 2014 mostly in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of South Eastern France. Brazil successfully defended their title, ...

. Uncapped, Cardoso was named in the 55-man preliminary

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. However, he didn't make the final cut.

Career statistics

Honours

Porto * Primeira Liga: 2021–22 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

: 2021–22 * Taça da Liga: 2022–23

References

External links

Profile
at the FC Porto website * *
National team data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cardoso, Fabio 1994 births Living people People from Águeda Sportspeople from Aveiro District Portuguese footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Scottish Professional Football League players S.L. Benfica B players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Vitória F.C. players Rangers F.C. players C.D. Santa Clara players FC Porto players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland