Diogo Miguel Alves Luís (born 10 August 1980) is a Portuguese 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 lea ...

who played as a

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 ...

Football career

Born in

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 ...

, Luís was a prospect of

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 " ...

youth system, where he arrived at age 15. On 29 August 1999, he made his debut for the B team in the third tier, in a match against Portimonense. After forty appearances in the reserve side, he was called up to the first team by

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

, due to the lack of available left-backs. He debuted on 2 October 2000 in a home tie against

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

, and a further twenty-two league caps in his first season, as Benfica had their worst league finish ever. In the following season, Marco Caneira earned the left-back position, so Luís playing time was greatly reduced, being loaned to Alverca on 15 January 2002. On 18 July 2002, he moved to

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...

in a deal involving Cristiano going the other direction. After two years in Aveiro, he moved to four more clubs in the next five years, which included a stint in Cyprus, retiring at 28 in 2009. He now works as financial advisor in a bank.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Luis, Diogo 1980 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers F.C. Alverca players S.C. Beira-Mar players Associação Naval 1º de Maio players G.D. Estoril Praia players Varzim S.C. players Leixões S.C. players Apollon Limassol FC players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Footballers from Lisbon 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen