Luís Carlos Rocha Rodrigues (born 13 August 1986), known as Rocha, is a Portuguese 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 plays 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 ...

for

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 ...

club Santa Clara. Having played in the lower levels until the age of 26, he spent most of his professional career in the second tier, making over 250 appearances in service of seven clubs and winning promotion at Famalicão, Farense, Chaves,

Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim d ...

and Santa Clara. He also recorded 72

games for

Feirense Clube Desportivo Feirense, commonly known as CD Feirense or just Feirense, is a Portuguese football club based in Santa Maria da Feira. Founded on 18 March 1918, Feirense play in the LigaPro, the second tier of Portuguese football. Their chairma ...

and Santa Clara, and had a brief spell in the

Belarusian Premier League The Belarusian Premier League (, ''Vyšejšaja Liha'' or ''Vysheyshaya Liga''; ; "Top League"), also called the BETERA Premier League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Belarus and the highest level of the B ...

at Dinamo Minsk.

Club career

Early career

Born in

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 ...

, Rocha competed in lower league and amateur football until the age of 26, starting out at . In 2013 he signed with Segunda Liga club

S.C. Covilhã Sporting Clube da Covilhã, commonly known as just Sporting da Covilhã or Sp. Covilhã, is a Portuguese association football, football club from the city of Covilhã that plays in the third-tier Liga 3 (Portugal), Liga 3. The club was founded on ...

, making his debut in the competition on 11 August of that year in a 1–0 away loss against C.S. Marítimo B. He scored his first goal on 5 October, as the visitors defeated

FC Porto B Futebol Clube do Porto B, commonly known as Porto B, is a Portuguese professional football team, which serves as the reserve side of FC Porto. They compete in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese football, and play their home ...

2–1.

Feirense

On 9 June 2016, after a further two seasons in the second tier with S.C. Freamunde, Rocha joined

C.D. Feirense Clube Desportivo Feirense, commonly known as CD Feirense or just Feirense, is a Portuguese association football, football club based in Santa Maria da Feira. Founded on 18 March 1918, Feirense play in the LigaPro, the second tier of football in ...

on a one-year contract. His first match in the

took place on 15 August, when he played the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 away win over

G.D. Estoril Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese professional sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its Association football, football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home g ...

. He added a further 17 appearances until the end of the campaign, helping to an eighth-place finish. Rocha scored his first goal in the Portuguese top flight on 24 September 2017, but in a 1–4 home loss to

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 ...

. With his second, the hosts won 1–0 but he was also

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 36th minute of the fixture against

Rio Ave FC Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Portuguese professional football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which flows through the town and into the Atlant ...

. On 15 June 2018, 31-year-old Rocha moved abroad for the only time in his career, to

FC Dinamo Minsk FC Dinamo Minsk or FK Dynama Minsk (; ) is a Belarusian professional Association football, football club based in the capital city of Minsk. It was founded in 1927 as part of the Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dinamo Sports Society, and was the o ...

of the

. He made nine appearances for the team from the

capital city A capital city, or just capital, is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state (polity), state, province, department (administrative division), department, or other administrative division, subnational division, usually as its ...

– including his only four European appearances in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

qualifiers – and scored once to open a 1–1 home draw with

FC Dynamo Brest FC Dynamo Brest (, ''FK Dynama Brest''; ) is a Belarusian professional football club based in Brest. The club plays in the Belarusian Premier League, the top division in Belarusian football. In 2019, Dynamo won its first Belarusian Premier L ...

on 28 October.

Second-tier regular

At the end of January 2019, Rocha reached a mutual agreement to end his time in Minsk, and he returned to his country's second tier on a 2-year deal at

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club from Vila Nova de Famalicão. Founded on 21 August 1931, its senior team currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top tie ...

. Having contributed ten games and two goals to their promotion as runners-up, he remained at that level by being loaned to

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

in August. On 5 June 2020, after a second consecutive promotion, Rocha moved to G.D. Chaves. He scored five goals in his first season with the

Trás-os-Montes Trás-os-Montes () is a geographical, historical and cultural region of Portugal. Portuguese language, Portuguese for "behind the mountains", Trás-os-Montes is located northeast of the country in an highland, upland area, landlocked by the Douro ...

club, starting with the opener on 15 October as his team began the campaign with a 4–0 victory at Feirense; on 24 January 2021 he netted both goals of a 2–1 home win over

F.C. Arouca Futebol Clube de Arouca () is a professional Association football, football club based in the Porto metropolitan area. Founded in 1951, the club plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Estádio Municipal de Arouca, with a 5,600-seat capac ...

. Having won another promotion, Rocha again opted to remain in the second tier in June 2022, signing for newly relegated Moreirense F.C. on a one-year deal. He won the league in the ensuing season, scoring one goal to open a 3–1 home defeat of F.C. Penafiel on 10 March 2023. Rocha also achieved promotion as champion in the 2023–24 campaign, with C.D. Santa Clara.

Career statistics

Honours

Moreirense *

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Santa Clara *Liga Portugal 2: 2023–24 Individual *Liga Portugal 2 Team of the Season: 2022–23

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rocha, Luis 1986 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Guimarães Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Vitória S.C. players AD Oliveirense players SC Mirandela players Merelinense F.C. players A.D. Lousada players F.C. Vizela players S.C. Covilhã players S.C. Freamunde players C.D. Feirense players F.C. Famalicão players S.C. Farense players G.D. Chaves players Moreirense F.C. players C.D. Santa Clara players Belarusian Premier League players FC Dinamo Minsk players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Belarus