Vitorino Gabriel Pacheco Antunes (; born 1 April 1987) 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, rugb ...

who plays as a

left-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 s ...

for F.C. Paços de Ferreira. He spent most of his career abroad, winning several items of silverware with Dynamo Kyiv in Ukraine, and making 125

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

appearances for

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most po ...

and

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

. Domestically, he had three spells at

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 ...

and won the

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, ...

with

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

. Antunes earned 38

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for Portugal at youth level, and was used sparingly as a senior international for over a decade.

Club career

Early years and Paços

Born in Freamunde, Antunes joined

club F.C. Paços de Ferreira for the 2006–07 season for an undisclosed fee from third division side S.C. Freamunde, where he began his professional career. At Paços, he was instrumental in the team's first ever

qualification Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

to the

UEFA 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 ...

, also scoring in a 1–1 home draw against

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Port ...

Roma

After a season of excellent displays, Antunes was linked with moves to Porto, S.L. Benfica,

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based i ...

AJ Auxerre Association de la Jeunesse Auxerroise (), commonly known as AJ Auxerre or simply Auxerre (), is a French football club based in the commune of Auxerre in Burgundy. The club was founded in 1905 and currently plays in Ligue 1, the first division ...

Aston Villa Aston Villa Football Club is a professional football club based in Aston, Birmingham, England. The club competes in the , the top tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1874, they have played at their home ground, Villa Park, ...

and

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer ...

. On 29 August 2007, just two days before the close of the

transfer window A transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club can transfer players from other playing staff into their playing staff. Such a transfer is completed by registering the player into the new club through FIFA. "Transfer wi ...

, Italian club A.S. Roma obtained the player on a loan deal for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

300,000, with the option to buy him permanently open until 15 April 2008. He signed a 1+3-year-contract for €195,000 in the first season – in gross, bonus excluded – gradually increased to €321,000 in the last year. Antunes made his official Roma debut on 12 December 2007, during the campaign's

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 ...

game against

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

. He was chosen as

Player of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the win ...

in a poll conducted by the former's official website. On 20 January 2008, Antunes played his first

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

match, coming on as a 77th-minute substitute in a 2–0 home win over

Calcio Catania Catania S.S.D., commonly known as Catania, is an Italian football club based in the city of Catania, Sicily, that plays in . Originally founded in 1908 as ''Associazione Sportiva pro Educazione Fisica'', the club boasts 17 appearances in the ...

. He also started against the same opponent in the semi-finals of the

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

in April, which ended with another victory at the

Stadio Olimpico The Stadio Olimpico (English: ''Olympic Stadium'') is the largest sports facility in Rome, Italy, seating over 70,000 spectators. It is located within the Foro Italico sports complex, north of the city. The structure is owned by the Italian N ...

(1–0), but was, however, virtually absent in the league, being barred by

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

internationals

Marco Cassetti Marco Cassetti (; born 29 May 1977) is an Italian former footballer who played as a defender. Born in Brescia, he has previously played in Serie A for Verona, Lecce and Roma and in England with Watford. Cassetti won five caps for Italy at fu ...

and Max Tonetto and totalling only 65 minutes of action. On 2 April 2008, Roma exercised their right to full ownership, paying Paços de Ferreira the sum of €1.2 million whilst the player signed a five-year contract. He was immediately loaned to newly promoted

U.S. Lecce Unione Sportiva Lecce, commonly referred to as Lecce (), is an Italian football club based in Lecce, Apulia. The club play in Serie A in the 2022–23 season, the top level of the Italian football pyramid, having been promoted from Serie B. ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long move, for €200,000. After appearing rarely for Lecce and not at all for Roma from August to December 2009, Antunes returned to Portugal the following month, being loaned to struggling Leixões S.C. until the end of the campaign, which ended in top flight relegation. On 5 February 2010, the

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Dispute Resolution Chamber ruled Freamunde eligible to receive €45,000 for Solidarity Contribution. On 31 January 2011, Antunes was signed by A.S. Livorno Calcio along with teammate Marco D'Alessandro on loan, with Roma paying the player an incentive of €270,000 in order to compensate the wage difference between the two clubs.

Paços return and Málaga

On 28 June 2012, after spending five months loaned to Panionios F.C. in Greece, Antunes was released by Roma and signed a three-year contract with former side Paços de Ferreira, replacing Benfica-bound Luisinho. Late into the following winter transfer window, however, he was loaned to

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. They won the UEFA Intertoto ...

as a replacement for

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostl ...

-bound Nacho Monreal. He made his

debut on 9 February, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 away win against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a Spanish football club in Valencia, in the namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante play in Segunda División, holding home games at Ciu ...

, and participated in 15 official games during the season, including four in the Champions League. Antunes signed a four-year deal with Málaga on 11 June 2013, for a fee of €1.25 million.

Dynamo Kyiv

On 2 February 2015, Antunes made a deadline day move to

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League' ...

club

FC Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offici ...

for a reported fee of around €6 million, signing a four-and-a-half-year contract. He made his debut on the 19th, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–2 away loss to

En Avant de Guingamp En Avant Guingamp (, en, Forward Guingamp), commonly referred to as EA Guingamp, EAG, or simply Guingamp (), is a professional football club based in the commune of Guingamp in France's Brittany region. The club was founded in 1912 and play ...

for the Europa League where his new team played with nine men for 45 minutes, and scored his first goal on 15 March, helping to a 5–0 home victory over

FC Illichivets Mariupol Football Club Mariupol ( uk, Футбольний клуб "Маріуполь" ) was a Ukrainian professional football club based in Mariupol, that competed in the Ukrainian Premier League. The club ceased to exist as a result of the Siege o ...

. His second came four days later, as he struck a powerful shot from 30 yards in a 5–2 win against Everton that qualified for the quarter-finals of the Europa League 6–4 on aggregate.

Getafe

On 21 July 2017, Antunes was loaned to

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and o ...

for one year with a buyout clause. At the end of the season, it was activated and the player signed a two-year contract. On 21 May 2019, Antunes was voted into the ''La Liga Team of the Season''. The previous month, however, he had suffered an

anterior cruciate ligament injury An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

to his right knee which would sideline him for a lengthy period of time.

Return to Portugal

After his Getafe contract expired, the 33-year-old Antunes returned to Portugal and signed for Sporting on 15 August 2020, ending seven years abroad. He made 13 total appearances in his only season, winning his first league title and the

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tiers ...

. Antunes then released himself from his contract at the ''

Estádio José Alvalade Estádio José Alvalade is a football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the older stadium. The stadium is named after José Alvalade (1885–1918), the founder and first club ...

'' and joined Paços de Ferreira on a two-year deal.

International career

Antunes represented

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 th ...

at the

2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 16th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup (formerly called the FIFA World Youth Championship), hosted by Canada from 30 June to 22 July 2007. Argentina defeated the Czech Republic in the title game by the sco ...

in Canada, playing all the games in an eventual round-of-16 exit and scoring in a 1–2 group stage loss against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish language, Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a List of sovereign states, country in the southern portion of North America. It is borders of Mexico, bordered to the north by the United States; to the so ...

. On 5 June 2007, aged 20, he earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. Caps typically have a visor, or no brim at all. They are popular in casual and informal se ...

for the senior team, appearing in a 1–1 draw away against

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Ku ...

after replacing Paulo Ferreira for the last half-hour of the match. Antunes passed five years and four days between his third cap and his next, in September 2013. On 10 October 2017, he played 22 minutes in the decisive 2–0 home win over

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

qualifiers to help the nation top its group, and he scored his first goal on 14 November of that year in a 1–1 friendly draw with the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. He was then included in a preliminary 35-man squad for the finals in Russia, but did not make the final cut.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Antunes goal.''

Honours

Roma *

: 2007–08 Dynamo Kyiv *

: 2014–15, 2015–16 * Ukrainian Cup: 2014–15 *

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football competition season in Ukr ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

Sporting CP *

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Antunes, Vitorino 1987 births Living people People from Paços de Ferreira Sportspeople from Porto District Portuguese footballers Association football defenders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Freamunde players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Leixões S.C. players Sporting CP footballers Serie A players Serie B players A.S. Roma players U.S. Lecce players U.S. Livorno 1915 players Super League Greece players Panionios F.C. players La Liga players Málaga CF players Getafe CF footballers Ukrainian Premier League players FC Dynamo Kyiv players Portugal youth international footballers Portugal under-21 international footballers Portugal international footballers Portuguese expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine