Mário Jorge Amora Loja (born 27 December 1977) 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

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

or 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 ...

Club career

Born in

Setúbal Setúbal ( , , ; ), officially the City of Setúbal (), is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the entire municipality in 2014 was 118,166, occupying an area of . The city itself had 89,303 inhabitants in 2001. It lies withi ...

, Loja joined local club Vitória FC's youth system in 1989, aged 11. From 1996 to 2005, save for one season, he competed in the

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 ...

, also representing Boavista F.C. and S.C. Beira-Mar and appearing in a total of 152 matches. Loja moved abroad in the summer of 2005, signing with US Créteil-Lusitanos and spending his first two years in the French

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

. Subsequently, he returned to his homeland, where he played lower league or amateur football until his retirement.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Loja, Mario 1977 births Living people Footballers from Setúbal Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Vitória F.C. players Boavista F.C. players S.C. Beira-Mar players F.C. Arouca players G.D. Fabril players Ligue 2 players Championnat National players US Créteil-Lusitanos players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in France Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France