Hugo Cardoso Porfírio (born 28 September 1973) 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 ...

who played mostly as a winger. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 86 games and ten goals over the course of nine seasons, representing five clubs. He also competed in England, Spain and Saudi Arabia. Porfírio appeared for

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 ...

Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in England from 8 to 30 ...

Club 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 ...

, Porfírio graduated from

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

's prolific youth academy, joining the professionals for the 1992–93 season alongside

Emílio Peixe Emílio Manuel Delgado Peixe (born 16 January 1973) is a Portuguese former Association football, footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder, currently Manager (association football), manager of the Kuwait national under-23 football te ...

. After some appearances as a substitute, he had loan spells with fellow

clubs Tirsense and União de Leiria. Porfírio returned to the

Estádio José Alvalade The Estádio José Alvalade (; ') is a Football (soccer), football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the Estádio José Alvalade (1956), older stadium. The stadium is named afte ...

for 1996–97, but soon moved on loan to England's

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is a professional Association football, football club based in Stratford, London, Stratford, East London, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English f ...

. There, he scored four goals in all competitions, against

Nottingham Forest Nottingham Forest Football Club is a professional association football club based in West Bridgford, Nottinghamshire, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league system, English football. Founde ...

in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

of the League Cup,

Wrexham Wrexham ( ; ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in the North East Wales, north-east of Wales. It lies between the Cambrian Mountains, Welsh mountains and the lower River Dee, Wales, Dee Valley, near the England–Wales border, borde ...

in the same stage of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

and

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

and Chelsea in the

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 ...

. Released by Sporting in June 1997, Porfírio spent the following campaign with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

Racing de Santander Real Racing Club de Santander, S.A.D. (), also known as Racing de Santander () or simply Racing, is a football club based in Santander, Spain, Santander, Cantabria, Spain, that currently competes in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spani ...

. He only netted once during his spell in

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

, in a 2–2 draw at

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

, and was also sent off twice as his team went on to finish in 14th position. Porfírio signed with Sporting neighbours Benfica for 1998–99, being loaned in the January

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 ...

to Nottingham Forest, where he appeared sparingly and scored once, against

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 ...

. He returned to Benfica in July, terminating his contract for unpaid salaries, joining Marítimo in August on a free transfer but returning to the former at the end of the season after reaching amicable terms; after a brief spell in the first team, he was soon demoted to the reserves where he would spend almost two years, severing his ties in February 2004. Subsequently, Porfírio had short spells, playing with modest Portuguese sides ( 1º Dezembro and

Oriental The Orient is a term referring to the East in relation to Europe, traditionally comprising anything belonging to the Eastern world. It is the antonym of the term ''Occident'', which refers to the Western world. In English, it is largely a meto ...

) and retiring in 2008 after a season in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

with

Al Nassr Al-Nassr Football Club () is a professional football club based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The club competes in the Saudi Pro League, the top tier of the Saudi football league system. Al-Nassr is one of only three clubs to have participated ...

. In February 2012, he was named by manager

Ricardo Sá Pinto Ricardo Manuel Andrade e Silva Sá Pinto (born 10 October 1972) is a Portuguese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football), forward, currently a Manager (association football), manager. H ...

as part of his backroom team at Sporting. He left his post in the club's

scouting Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

department in April 2013.

International career

After impressive displays with Leiria, Porfírio earned a callup to the Portugal national team. After making his debut on 29 May 1996 in a 1–0 defeat of

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

, he made the nation's squad of 22 for

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

, playing 15 minutes in the 1–0 group stage win against

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. Some months later, Porfírio was also in the roster at the

1996 Olympic Games The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

, where Portugal finished fourth, their best result ever in the competition. He received his last

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the full side on 9 November, in a 1–0 home victory over

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

for the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

qualifiers.

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Porfirio, Hugo 1973 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players Sporting CP footballers F.C. Tirsense players U.D. Leiria players S.L. Benfica footballers C.S. Marítimo players S.L. Benfica B players S.U. 1º Dezembro players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players Premier League players West Ham United F.C. players Nottingham Forest F.C. players La Liga players Racing de Santander players Al-Nassr FC players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players Olympic footballers for Portugal Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in England Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Sporting CP non-playing staff