André Gomes Magalhães de Almeida (; born 10 September 1990) 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 lea ...

who spent most of his career playing for Benfica, mainly as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

but on occasion as a

defensive midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He earned 8 caps for the Portugal national team from 2013 to 2015.

Club career

Belenenses

After playing for three other youth clubs in his hometown of

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Almeida finished his formation with

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

. He made his top division debut on 11 January 2009 by playing one minute in a 0–1 loss against Rio Ave, and finished his first full season with 20 games and one goal as the club suffered relegation. Almeida appeared in 18 matches in the 2010–11 campaign and scored twice, but Belenenses could only rank in 13th position in the second level.

Benfica

Almeida signed for

S.L. 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'', Benfica is one of the " ...

in the 2011 summer, being immediately loaned to fellow top flight side

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pe ...

. In December, however, he was recalled by the parent club, going on to make four official appearances for the first team until the end of the season, including 90 minutes in a 2–0 home win over C.D. Santa Clara for the domestic league cup, which Benfica won for the fourth time in a row. Almeida started

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

with Benfica B in division two. However, following the sales of

Javi García Francisco Javier "Javi" García Fernández (; born 8 February 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer. A defensive midfielder by nature, he could also appear as a central defender. He started his career with Real Madrid, but repr ...

and

Axel Witsel Axel Laurent Angel Lambert Witsel (born 12 January 1989) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder or centre-back for club Atlético Madrid and the Belgium national team. He originally also played in more offensiv ...

in the last minutes of the summer

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

, he started being called regularly to the main squad, either as a backup to

Maxi Pereira Victorio Maximiliano "Maxi" Pereira Páez (; born 8 June 1984) is a Uruguayan former professional footballer who played as a right-back. He played with Defensor in Uruguay, joining Benfica in 2007 and going on to remain with the club for eight ...

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

or in centre midfield. Almeida made his

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

debut on 19 September 2012 in a 0–0 draw at

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. He also played the full 90 minutes in the second group stage game between the two teams, a 2–1 home success; on both occasions, he starred in the right side of defense. On 18 January 2017, Almeida scored his first goal for Benfica in a 6–2 home win over

Leixões The Port of Leixões (, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões Sport Club, commonly known simply as ''Leixões'', is Matosinh ...

in the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de 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 Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

quarter-finals. After the departure of Jardel in June 2021, Almeida became the team's captain, with

Nicolás Otamendi Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi (born 12 February 1988) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre back, centre-back for Primeira Liga club S.L. Benfica, Benfica, which he Captain (association football) ...

taking his place in the 2022–23 season.

International career

Almeida gained 30

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

all youth categories comprised, including 17 for the under-21 team. He made his debut with the full side on 11 October 2013, playing the full 90 minutes as a right back in a 1–1 home draw against

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

qualifiers. On 19 May 2014, Almeida was named by manager

Paulo Bento Paulo Jorge Gomes Bento (; born 20 June 1969) is a Portuguese Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player. A Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder with tackling ability and workrate ...

in the final 23-man squad for the tournament in Brazil. He made his debut in the competition on 16 June, replacing injured

Fábio Coentrão Fábio Alexandre da Silva Coentrão (; born 11 March 1988) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Mainly a left-back, he also operated as a winger and occasionally as a defensive midfielder. After starting playing professionally with ...

in the second half of an eventual 0–4 group stage loss to

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

: 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2018–19 *

: 2013–14, 2016–17 *

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

: 2011–12, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

runner-up:

, 2013–14

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Almeida, Andre 1990 births Living people Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football midfielders Men's association football utility players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.L. Benfica footballers U.D. Leiria players S.L. Benfica B players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers 2014 FIFA World Cup players 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen