Hélio José Lopes Roque (born 20 July 1985) 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 as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Born in

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English language, English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous List of cities and towns in Angola, city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a pop ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

to Portuguese settlers, Roque returned to his parents' country and started his football career at Atlético Clube Arrentela and Amora FC, moving at age 17 to

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 appeared with the main squad in the

2005 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The 2005 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira was the twenty seventh edition of the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, the annual Portuguese football season-opening match contested by the winners of the previous season's top league and cup competitions ...

, a 1–0 win against

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

on 13 August in which he came on as a 68th-minute substitute for

Geovanni Geovanni Deiberson Maurício Gómez (born 11 January 1980), known simply as Geovanni, is a Brazilian former professional footballer. He was mostly used as an attacking midfielder but was also able to play on both wings and up front. Club ca ...

; also from the bench, he took the field in three

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 ...

matches. Roque went on loan twice in the following months: in January 2006 he signed for top-flight Vitória Setúbal, and spent the entire 2006–07 season with

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 ...

neighbours C.D. Olivais e Moscavide of the Segunda Liga, being released on 30 June 2007. Subsequently, Roque joined Cypriot club

AEL Limassol Athlitiki Enosi Lemesou () is a Cyprus, Cypriot sports club based in the city of Limassol, most famous for its football team. AEL Limassol also maintains a AEL Limassol B.C., men's and AEL Limassol B.C. (women), women's basketball teams, a wom ...

. After a rather poor debut campaign, his form improved and he began appearing regularly in the starting XI; in spite of being naturally right-footed, he featured mainly on the

left wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social hierarchies. Left-wing politic ...

. In 2009–10, an injury meant Roque only resumed training in late January 2010. In the 2011 off-season, due to the fact AEL had too many foreign players, he was loaned to fellow

First Division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

side

Nea Salamis Famagusta FC Nea Salamis Famagusta FC (alternatively Nea Salamina, ) is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional Association football, football Sports club, club based in Ammochostos (also known by its Romanization of Greek, romanized name, Famagusta). It has been a r ...

, and the move was made permanent for the 2012–13 season. From 2015, Roque played in the

Girabola Girabola, or ''Campeonato Nacional de Futebol de Séniores Masculinos'', is the top division of Angolan association football, football. It is organized by the Angolan Football Federation. The term "Girabola" () is a creation of the nationalist, ...

of his birth country, with S.L. Benfica (Luanda) and C.R.D. Libolo. Afterwards, he had a brief second stint at Nea Salamina. In August 2018, Roque returned to Portugal after 11 years away, signing for third-tier team Clube Olímpico do Montijo. He then joined

Clube Oriental de Lisboa Clube Oriental de Lisboa is a Portuguese football club based in Lisbon. Founded in 1946, it currently competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo Engenheiro Carlos Salema'', with an 8,500 capacity. History In January 19 ...

in the same league.

Honours

Benfica *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Roque, Helio 1985 births Living people Sportspeople from Huambo Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers Vitória F.C. players C.D. Olivais e Moscavide players Clube Olímpico do Montijo players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players Cypriot First Division players AEL Limassol players Nea Salamis Famagusta FC players Girabola players S.L. Benfica (Luanda) players C.R.D. Libolo players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus