Gonçalo Jardim Brandão (born 9 October 1986) is a Portuguese former 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 ...

. Mainly 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 ...

, he also appeared 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 ...

Club career

Belenenses

A product of hometown

C.F. Os 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 ...

' academy,

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 ...

-born Brandão scored in his second match in the

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 ...

aged 17, against

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 ...

in a 1–4 home loss on 18 October 2003 when he still had not finished his youth career. He only managed another seven first-team appearances over the next three seasons, with a loan to

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

in 2005–06 in between (no

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

appearances). Brandão played his first league match after his Belenenses return on 4 February 2007, in a 1–0 away win over

Vitória F.C. Vitória Futebol Clube (), popularly known as Vitória de Setúbal, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Setúbal that used to compete in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system ...

where he started.

Siena

In June 2008, it was announced Brandão had signed a four-year contract with

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

AC Siena Siena Football Club Società Sportiva Dilettantistica, commonly referred to as Siena, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Siena, Tuscany. The club was re-incorporated in 2020 after the bankruptcy of the previous legal entity ...

. After a shaky start – he only made his league debut on 20 December in a 1–2 home defeat to

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

– he finished his first season as a starter. After the end of the 2009–10 campaign, Brandão was loaned to

Juventus FC Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

for the United States tour along with Albin Ekdal (owned by ''Juve'' and loaned to Siena) and three other players.

Parma

On 22 June 2011, after contributing only two games to Siena's top-flight return, Brandão signed for

Parma FC Parma Calcio 1913 () is an Italian professional football club based in Parma, Emilia-Romagna, which competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian league system, following promotion from Serie B in the 2023–24 season. ''Parma Football Cl ...

on loan. In the following summer, the clubs were involved in a player-only transaction which saw Parma sign Brandão, Alessandro Iacobucci, Giuseppe Pacini and Andrea Rossi, while Siena acquired Manuel Coppola, Paolo Hernán Dellafiore, Abdou Doumbia and

Alberto Galuppo Alberto Galuppo (born 19 August 1985) is an Italian footballer who plays for Italian Serie D club Lentigione as a defender. Career Parma Born in Reggio Emilia, Galuppo started his professional career at Emilian club Parma F.C. Since 2005– ...

– both organisations also retained 50% registration rights on their players. Brandão left for

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

club

AC Cesena AC Cesena, commonly referred to as Cesena (), was an Italian football club based in Cesena, Emilia-Romagna. The club spent most of its history in professional leagues such as Serie A and Serie B, but went bankrupt and folded in 2018. Another cl ...

on 7 July 2012, as Marco Parolo moved to Parma in a temporary deal for

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

1 million, with the latter side also being responsible of €1.8 million in wages.Parma F.C. SpA ''bilancio'' (financial report and accounts) on 30 June 2013
PDF purchased from Italian CCIAA
(in Italian) In the ensuing off-season, still owned by both Parma and Siena, he signed for

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 ...

n club

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 ...

along with Denilson Gabionetta.

Belenenses return

On 6 January 2014, Brandão returned to Portugal and Belenenses in a temporary deal. On 20 June he was sold back to Siena, with Galuppo returning to Parma. However, the Italians declared their liquidation on 15 July as the club did not meet the financial requirements for the upcoming season, and the player re-joined Belenenses 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 ...

. Subsequently, Brandão represented

G.D. Estoril Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese professional sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its Association football, football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home g ...

(Portuguese top division) and

FC Lausanne-Sport Football Club Lausanne-Sport is a Swiss Association football, football club based in Lausanne in the canton of Vaud. Founded in 1896, Lausanne Sport compete in the top-tier Swiss Super League after being promoted in the 2022–23 Swiss Challeng ...

(

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

). He scored his only goal for the latter on 21 September 2018, in a 1–1 home draw with

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

. Brandão retired at the end of the 2020–21 campaign aged 34, as a member of Porto B. Afterwards, he worked as assistant coach at

Sporting CP B Sporting Clube de Portugal B is the reserve team of Portuguese football club Sporting CP, a team based in Lisbon. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, they cann ...

and Casa Pia AC.

International career

After having represented

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 ...

at almost every youth level, including the under-21s, Brandão made his debut for the full side on 31 March 2009, appearing as a left-back in a 2–0 friendly victory against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Lausanne Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brandao, Goncalo 1986 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players C.F. Os Belenenses players G.D. Estoril Praia players FC Porto B players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Serie A players Serie B players Siena FC SSD players Parma Calcio 1913 players AC Cesena players Liga I players CFR Cluj players Swiss Challenge League players FC Lausanne-Sport players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland