Carlos Alberto Correia Fortes (born 20 October 1968), commonly known as Cao, is a
Portuguese
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 ...
retired
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
defensive midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
.
Club career
Cao was born in
Praia
Praia (, Portuguese language, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde. ,
Cape Verde
, national_anthem = ()
, official_languages = Portuguese
, national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole
, capital = Praia
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, demonym ...
. After unsuccessfully emerging through
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 Portu ...
's youth academy he went on to play 12 seasons in the
two major levels of Portuguese football, representing
Rio Ave FC
Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlant ...
(
second division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
),
F.C. Tirsense (
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, ...
),
Leça FC (first and second tiers),
S.C. Salgueiros (both),
S.C. Campomaiorense (both) and
F.C. Felgueiras (second).
He retired from professional football in 2003 with totals of 284 matches and 11 goals, going on to spend the rest of his career in amateur football, which included a third spell with Leça. Subsequently, he worked as a
graphic design
Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...
er.
International career
Cao was part of the
Portuguese under-20 team that won the
1991 FIFA World Youth Championship, with the competition being held on home soil. In 2002 it was revealed that he had in fact been born in 1968, meaning he was crowned Youth World Champion at the age of 22.
References
External links
*
National team data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cao
1968 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Praia
Cape Verdean footballers
Portuguese footballers
Association football midfielders
Primeira Liga players
Liga Portugal 2 players
FC Porto players
Rio Ave F.C. players
F.C. Tirsense players
Leça F.C. players
S.C. Salgueiros players
S.C. Campomaiorense players
F.C. Felgueiras players
Portugal youth international footballers
Portugal under-21 international footballers