Júlio Regufe Alves (born 29 June 1991) 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

Póvoa de Varzim Póvoa de Varzim () is a Portugal, Portuguese city in Norte Region, Portugal, Northern Portugal and sub-region of Greater Porto, from its city centre. It sits in a sandy coastal plain, a cuspate foreland, halfway between the Minho River, Minho ...

, Alves played youth football with three clubs, finishing his development with Rio Ave FC. In the 2010–11 season, he made his senior debut with

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

G.D. Ribeirão in the third division. In late January 2011, Alves was recalled by his parent club, making his

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 ...

debut on 6 February by playing the last five minutes – and nearly scoring from a free kick – of a 1–0 away loss against

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 ...

, which he had previously represented as a youth. He contributed 239 minutes (three starts), as the

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km2. The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of ...

team retained their status. Alves was bought by Spanish club

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

in July 2011. However, the following month, in the last day of the summer

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 ...

, he moved teams – and countries – again, joining a host of compatriots at

Beşiktaş JK Beşiktaş () is a district and municipality of Istanbul Province, Turkey. Its area is 18 km2 and its population is 175,190 (2022). It is located on the European shore of the Bosphorus strait. It is bordered on the north by Sarıyer and ...

, including manager Carlos Carvalhal. On 24 August 2012, Alves signed for

Sporting CP B Sporting Clube de Portugal B is the reserve team of Portuguese football club Sporting CP, a team based in Lisbon. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, they cann ...

on loan, spending the 2012–13 campaign in the Segunda Liga. On 16 April of the following year, his contract was terminated for

€ 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 ...

200,000. Alves then returned to Rio Ave, but a registration error meant that neither he nor Ângelo Meneses could take part in

Nuno Espírito Santo Nuno Herlander Simões Espírito Santo (born 25 January 1974), known as Nuno Espírito Santo or simply Nuno, is a Portuguese-São Toméan Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as a Goalkee ...

's team. In February 2016, in an interview to site ''Mais Futebol'', he acknowledged that if his career was not better it was mainly due to personal problems and own mistakes. Alves returned to football after five years of inactivity, agreeing to a deal at C.D. Cerveira of the Portuguese third tier.

International career

Alves 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 2011 FIFA U-20 World Cup, only missing one match in seven as the nation finished in second place in Colombia. His only appearance with the under-21s occurred on 5 September of that year, when he came on as a late substitute in the 1–0 friendly defeat of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in Rio Maior.

Personal life

Alves' older brothers,

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters * Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologn ...

and Geraldo, were also footballers. He had paternal Brazilian ancestry, his father Washington Geraldo Dias Alves having played ten years of his career in Portugal – mainly with Varzim – where his children were born.Bruno Alves: «Sinto grande orgulho no Geraldo e no Júlio» (Bruno Alves: "I am very proud of Geraldo and Júlio")
; Mais Futebol, 26 August 2011 (in Portuguese)
; FIFA, 2 April 2014 (in Spanish) Their uncle, Geraldo Assoviador, also played the sport.

Honours

Portugal U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Orders *

Knight of the

Order of Prince Henry The Order of Prince Henry () is a Portuguese order of knighthood created on 2 June 1960, to commemorate the quincentenary of the death of the Portuguese ''infante'' Prince Henry the Navigator, one of the main initiators of the Age of Discovery. M ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alves, Julio 1991 births Living people Portuguese people of Brazilian descent Sportspeople of Brazilian descent Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Póvoa de Varzim Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Rio Ave F.C. players G.D. Ribeirão players Sporting CP B players Atlético Madrid footballers Süper Lig players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen