João Paulo Andrade (born 6 June 1981), known as João Paulo, is a Portuguese former

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 mainly 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 ...

. 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 193 matches and 18 goals over nine seasons, almost all while at the service of

União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Está ...

(five years). He also played professionally in Romania, France and Cyprus.

Club career

A product of U.D. Leiria's youth academy,

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

-born João Paulo was loaned to modest U.F.C.I. Tomar for 2000–01, re-joining Leiria the following season, being coached by a young

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

and quickly becoming an important first-team member, while also being called by the Portugal under-21 side. In January 2003, having already gained the captain's armband, he was loaned to

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,

, but appeared sparingly for them. After having performed solidly during the last two seasons, João Paulo was tipped to be transferred to one of the

greats and, in June 2006,

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 ...

agreed his transfer. However, in preseason, he suffered a major

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury that kept him out of action for several months, and went on to only serve as third or fourth option at the northerners; on two rare starts, he netted in a 3–0 win at his former club Leiria and was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in the 2008 final of the

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 ...

, lost against Sporting. In July 2008 João Paulo, alongside teammate Cláudio Pitbull, was loaned to

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 ...

FC Rapid București Fotbal Club Rapid 1923, commonly known as Rapid București () or simply as Rapid, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest, that competes in the Liga I. It was founded in 1923 by employees of the Grivi� ...

, joining compatriot José Peseiro whom signed as manager. In August of the following year he moved countries again, signing a three-year deal with

Le Mans UC 72 Le Mans Football Club (; commonly referred to as Le Mans FC) is a French professional football club based in Le Mans. The club set to compete in Ligue 2 from 2025–26, the second tier of French football after promotion from Championnat Nation ...

in France for about

€ 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 ...

1,5 million. He began the campaign as a starter, but eventually lost his importance after the sacking of compatriot Paulo Duarte, going on to suffer

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

relegation. João Paulo returned to Portugal for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, joining

Vitória SC 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 3 April 2011 he scored his first goal for the

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

-based team, netting a last-minute equaliser against his former side Sporting in a 1–1 home draw. On 2 March 2017, after four seasons in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

in representation of three clubs, the 35-year-old João Paulo returned to his homeland and joined amateurs A.C. Marinhense, where he played mainly as a forward.

International career

Of Cape Verdean descent, João Paulo 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 the

2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship The 2004 UEFA European Under-21 Championship was the 14th staging of UEFA's European Under-21 Championship. The final tournament was hosted by Germany between 27 May and 8 June 2004. Italy won the competition for the fifth time. Italy's Alberto ...

and the

Summer Olympic Games The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The 1896 Summer Olympics, inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, ...

the same year. He also played for the nation's B team.

Career statistics

Honours

Porto *

: 2006–07, 2007–08 *

runner-up: 2007–08 Omonia *

Cypriot Super Cup The Cypriot Super Cup is a Cypriot football trophy, contested in an annual match between the previous season's Cypriot First Division champions, and the Cypriot Cup winners. The match is contested at the beginning of the football season, and is ...

: 2012

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paulo, Joao 1981 births Living people Sportspeople from Leiria Portuguese sportspeople of Cape Verdean descent Black Portuguese sportspeople 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Leiria District Men's association football central defenders Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players U.D. Leiria players U.F.C.I. Tomar players Sporting CP footballers FC Porto players Vitória S.C. players Liga I players FC Rapid București players Ligue 1 players Le Mans FC players Cypriot First Division players AC Omonia players Apollon Limassol FC players AEL Limassol players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's B international footballers Olympic footballers for Portugal Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in France Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus