João Paulo Candeias Brito (born 5 June 1974) is a Portuguese retired 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

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Career

Born in

Olhão Olhão (), officially known as Olhão da Restauração, is a city and concelho, municipality in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population of the municipality in 2011 was 45,396, in an area of . Located near the regional capital Faro, ...

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

, Brito began his professional career with hometown's

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

. He moved in 1996 to neighbours

Louletano DC Louletano Desportos Clube is a Portuguese club from Loulé, founded on 6 June 1923. The association football team currently play in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (Portuguese fourth level), D series. The club plays at the Estádio Algarve, ...

, as both clubs competed in the third division. Brito experienced his best period in his country while at

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 ...

: although not an undisputed starter he was an important attacking unit, appearing in more than 100 matches in the league alone (the

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 ...

team spent the 1998–99 season in the second level). After four years he moved to another side in the capital, C.F. Estrela da Amadora, going scoreless in 20 matches as they finished fourth and narrowly missed out on promotion from division two. In the following years, Brito all but played abroad, beginning in Bulgaria with

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First Professional Football League, First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ' ...

for which he appeared regularly, also acquiring

Bulgarian citizenship Bulgarian nationality law is governed by the Constitution of Bulgaria (article 25 and 26) of 1991 and the citizenship law of 1999 (with changes made in various years through to 2009). It is mainly based on jus sanguinis; however, it is possibl ...

. He also represented lowly Kastoria F.C. in Greece – after a few months at

Vitória 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 ...

without one single league appearance – and

SSV Jahn Regensburg Sport- und Schwimmverein Jahn Regensburg e. V., commonly known as SSV Jahn Regensburg, Jahn Regensburg, SSV Jahn or simply Jahn, is a German football club based in Regensburg, Bavaria. The club plays their home games at Jahnstadion Regen ...

in Germany, before retiring as a professional in 2007 at the age of 33.

Honours

Vitória Setúbal *

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 ...

: 2004–05

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brito, Joao Paulo 1974 births Living people People from Olhão Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football wingers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players GD Beira-Mar players S.C. Olhanense players Louletano D.C. players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players Vitória F.C. players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players Football League (Greece) players Kastoria 1980 F.C. players SSV Jahn Regensburg players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Germany Footballers from Faro District