Mário João Sousa Alves (born 6 June 1935), known as Mário João, 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 as a right or left-back. He appeared in 166

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 ...

matches in ten seasons, scoring 11 goals.

Club career

Born in Barreiro,

Setúbal District The District of Setúbal ( ) is a district located in the south-west of Portugal. It is named for its capital, the city of Setúbal. Geography It is delimited by Lisbon District and Santarém District on the north, Évora District on the eas ...

, Mário João started and finished his 14-year senior career with G.D. CUF, beginning as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. In between, he spent seven years with

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

in the

, appearing in 89 competitive matches and winning six major titles, including both of the

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 ...

finals in the early 60s, 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 ...

and

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 ...

. Mário João retired in 1968, aged 33. He was never a full-time professional footballer, earning the vast majority of his wages from the

Companhia União Fabril The Companhia União Fabril (CUF) was one of the largest and oldest Portuguese people, Portuguese conglomerates from the 1930s to 1974 and later a chemical industry, chemical corporation which was by then a part of Grupo José de Mello founded in 1 ...

International career

Mário João won three

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 ...

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 ...

in four years. His first arrived on 22 May 1960, in a 5–1 away defeat to

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

for the

1960 European Nations' Cup The 1960 European Nations' Cup was the inaugural tournament of the UEFA European Championship, held every four years and organised by UEFA. The first tournament was held in France. It was won by the Soviet Union, who beat Yugoslavia 2–1 in Par ...

qualifiers.

Honours

Benfica *

: 1959–60, 1960–61 *

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 ...

: 1958–59, 1961–62 *

: 1960–61, 1961–62

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mario Joao 1935 births Living people 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Barreiro, Portugal Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players G.D. Fabril players S.L. Benfica footballers UEFA Champions League–winning players Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese football managers