José Pinto de Carvalho Santos Águas (; 9 November 1930 – 10 December 2000) was a Portuguese

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 striker. He enjoyed a lengthy professional spell with Benfica, never scoring less than 18 goals in 12 of his 13 first division seasons. A prolific goalscorer, Águas was nicknamed "Cabeça de Ouro" ("Golden Head") because of his header skills.

Club career

Born in

Luanda Luanda ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Angola, largest city of Angola. It is Angola's primary port, and its major industrial, cultural and urban centre. Located on Angola's northern Atlantic coast, Luanda is Ang ...

Portuguese Angola In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical Evolution of the Portuguese Empire, colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1 ...

Portuguese Empire The Portuguese Empire was a colonial empire that existed between 1415 and 1999. In conjunction with the Spanish Empire, it ushered in the European Age of Discovery. It achieved a global scale, controlling vast portions of the Americas, Africa ...

from a Portuguese colonial family, Águas started his footballing career with local team Lusitano do Lobito, before moving to S.L. Benfica in 1950 where he gained legendary status. With Benfica he won 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 ...

five times (1955, 1957, 1960, 1961 and 1963) and the domestic cup seven, also being crowned national league's top scorer on five occasions. In the years previous to

Eusébio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira (; 25 January 1942 – 5 January 2014), nicknamed the "Black Panther", the "Black Pearl" or "O Rei" ("The King"), was a Portuguese Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Stri ...

's rise, he was also instrumental in the club's back-to-back

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

conquests, in

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

( 3–2), and the next season against

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

( 5–3), scoring his team's first goal on both occasions and being

club captain The captain of a football/soccer team, sometimes known as the skipper, is a team member chosen to be the on-pitch leader of the team; they are often one of the older or more experienced members of the squad, or a player that can heavily influ ...

; he failed to complete a hat-trick of wins in the competition after the 1–2 defeat to A.C. Milan in the 1963 final (he did not play). After leaving Benfica, Águas, aged 33, played one more season for

FK Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (), known in English as Austria Vienna, and Austria Wien in German language in Europe, German-speaking countries, is an Football in Austria, Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vi ...

, retiring the next summer. He died 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 ...

, at the age of 70 after a prolonged illness.

International career

Águas made his debut 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 ...

on 23 November 1952, in a 1–1 draw with

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

, and went on to gain a total of 25

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 ...

while scoring 11 times. His last appearance was on 17 May 1962, a 2–1 defeat against

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Personal life

Águas' son, Rui, was also a footballer and a striker. He too represented Benfica and the national team, as well as

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 ...

. His daughter, Helena Maria, known as Lena d'Água, has a career in

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

as a singer.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Águas goal.''

Honours

Player

Benfica *

: 1954–55, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962–63 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

: 1950–51, 1951–52, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1961–62 *

: 1960–61, 1961–62

Manager

Marítimo * AF Madeira Championship: 1966–67 * Madeira Cup: 1966–67 Atlético *

Segunda Divisão : : The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa ( English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the second level of the Portuguese pyrami ...

: 1967–68

Individual

top scorer: 1951–52, 1955–56, 1956–57, 1958–59, 1960–61 *

top scorer: 1960–61 *

top scorer: 1950–51, 1952–53, 1954–55, 1957–58

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aguas, Jose 1930 births 2000 deaths Colonial people in Angola Footballers from Luanda Portuguese men's footballers 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players FK Austria Wien players Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Austria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Austria Portuguese football managers Leixões S.C. managers UEFA Champions League–winning players UEFA Champions League top scorers