André Filipe Ribeiro Leão (born 20 May 1985) 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 lea ...

who plays 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. ...

for Freamunde.

Club career

Early years

Leão was born in Freamunde. After a brief spell with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), 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 association footbal ...

's reserves, he made his professional debut at Aveiro's S.C. Beira-Mar, his

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 ...

debut coming on 17 September 2006 in a 2–0 home win against C.F. Estrela da Amadora where he came on as a 76th-minute substitute. Leão was used regularly during that season, but only won one of the matches in which he appeared and his club was relegated.

CFR Cluj and Paços

Leão then moved to

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

with

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

, joining a host of compatriots and winning the

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

championship in his debut campaign, appearing in 15 games. However, he would be rarely used during his two-and-a-half-year spell, and returned to his country in the late hours of the January 2010

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 ...

, joining F.C. Paços de Ferreira. In the 2010 off-season,

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship, known simply as the Championship and for sponsorship purposes as Sky Betting & Gaming, Sky Bet Championship, is a professional association football league in England and Wales. Contested by 24 clubs, i ...

made an offer to sign Leão, but nothing came of it. He started in all his 29 league appearances in 2012–13 (two goals), as Paços finished a best-ever third and qualified for the

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 ...

for the first time ever.

Valladolid

On 12 June 2014, aged 29, Leão signed a three-year contract with Spanish club

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

. He made his competitive debut on 23 August, playing the 90 minutes in a 2–1

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

home defeat of

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

. Leão was an undisputed starter in a three-year stint at the Estadio José Zorrilla, taking part in 107 matches in all competitions.

Paços return

On 13 July 2017, after alleging personal problems, Leão was transferred back to his previous club Paços Ferreira.

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 2007–08, 2009–10 *

Cupa României The Cupa României () is a Association football, football cup competition for List of football clubs in Romania, Romanian teams which has been held annually since 1933–34 Cupa României, 1933–34, except during World War II. It is the Romania ...

: 2007–08, 2008–09 *

Supercupa României The Supercupa României () is a Romanian football (soccer), football championship contested by the winners of the Liga I and the Cupa României. It is usually played at the Arena Națională in Bucharest. The competition started off in 1994 Supe ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Paços Ferreira *

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier ...

: 2018–19

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leao, Andre 1985 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Paços de Ferreira Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players S.C. Freamunde players FC Porto B players S.C. Beira-Mar players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players C.D. Trofense players Varzim S.C. players S.C. Salgueiros players Leça F.C. players Liga I players CFR Cluj players Segunda División players Real Valladolid players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain