Frederico André Ferrão Venâncio (born 4 February 1993) 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

central defender 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 ...

for

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 ...

club Santa Clara.

Club career

Vitória Setúbal

Born in

Gâmbia – Pontes – Alto da Guerra Gâmbia – Pontes – Alto da Guerra is a Portuguese parish, located in the municipality of Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality i ...

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, Venâncio joined local Vitória FC's youth academy at the age of 9, then returned for his last year as a junior from

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 " ...

. He made his

debut for the former club on 13 January 2013, coming on as a late substitute in a 5–0 home win against

Moreirense FC Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaqui ...

. He scored his first league goal on 7 April of the same year, but in a 2–1 away loss to

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 ...

. On 16 August 2017, Venâncio signed with English

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

side

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

on 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 axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long loan. He made his league debut on 23 December, playing the full 90 minutes in the 1–2 home defeat against

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

. Venâncio scored his only goal for Wednesday on 6 May 2018, helping the hosts to defeat

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

5–1.

Vitória Guimarães

Venâncio signed a four-year contract with

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, popularly known as Vitória de Guimarães or sometimes just Vitória, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Est ...

on 7 July 2018. A reserve player under Luís Castro in his

first year A freshman, fresher, first year, or colloquially frosh, is a person in the first year at an educational institution, usually a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of post-secondary educational in ...

, he became first choice after

Ivo Vieira Ivo Ricardo Abreu Vieira (born 10 January 1976) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a defender, currently a manager. He spent his entire playing career with Nacional, where he also began his managerial career in 2011. He managed s ...

took over. On 4 October 2020, Venâncio was loaned to Spanish

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 ...

club

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Primera Federación, holding home games at ''Estadio Anxo ...

for one year. He scored in 2–2 draws against

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

(away) and

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

(home), barely avoiding relegation after finishing 18th.

Eibar

On 6 July 2021, Venâncio joined

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in ) is a Spanish football league teams, Spanish professional football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country (autonomous community), Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the men’s te ...

of the same country and league on a three-year deal. He reached the La Liga play-offs with his team in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

, being eliminated in the semi-finals on both occasions.

Later career

Venâncio returned to the Portuguese top tier in summer 2024, agreeing to a two-year contract at newly promoted C.D. Santa Clara as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

International career

Venâncio earned the first of his two

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 the Portugal under-21 team on 25 March 2013, featuring the last minutes of the 2–1 friendly defeat of the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

Dundalk Dundalk ( ; ) is the county town of County Louth, Ireland. The town is situated on the Castletown River, which flows into Dundalk Bay on the north-east coast of Ireland, and is halfway between Dublin and Belfast, close to and south of the bor ...

. He was part of the squad at the

2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2015 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 20th edition of the UEFA European Under-21 Championship, a biennial international association football, football competition for men's under-21 national teams organised by UEFA. The final tourn ...

, being an unused squad member for the runners-up.

Personal life

Venâncio's father,

Pedro Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meanin ...

, was also a footballer and a central defender. He too was brought up at Vitória.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Venancio, Frederico 1993 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Setúbal Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Vitória F.C. players Vitória S.C. players C.D. Santa Clara players English Football League players Sheffield Wednesday F.C. players Segunda División players CD Lugo players SD Eibar footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain