Nélson Alexandre Gomes Pereira, known simply as Nélson (, born 20 October 1975), 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Club career

Nélson was born in

Torres Vedras Torres Vedras () is a concelho, municipality in the Portugal, Portuguese district of Lisbon (district), Lisbon, approximately north of the capital Lisbon. It is a strong agricultural region thanks to its vineyards, and has an intense commercial ...

Lisbon District Lisbon District () is a district located along the western coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Lisbon, which is also the national capital. From its creation until 1926, it included the area of the current Setúbal District. ...

. He started his football career with his hometown team S.C.U. Torreense, and was primarily used as a backup at

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

, first to Peter Schmeichel then to Ricardo, for nearly a decade. His best output for the ''Lions'' came in the 2002–03 season, between Schmeichel's departure from the

Estádio José Alvalade The Estádio José Alvalade (; ') is a Football (soccer), football stadium in Lisbon, Portugal, home of Sporting Clube de Portugal. It was built adjacent to the site of the Estádio José Alvalade (1956), older stadium. The stadium is named afte ...

and Ricardo's arrival, playing 19

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 an eventual third-place finish, 27 points behind champions

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 ...

. After 2005–06, Nélson moved to Vitória FC, but due to unpaid wages – a recurring problem prior to his arrival – he left the '' sadinos'', being out of work for almost six months before joining another

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 ...

side, C.F. Estrela da Amadora, in July 2007. Estrela would be relegated at the end of the 2008–09 campaign after continuing financial problems, even though they finished in mid-table, and Nélson subsequently moved to neighbours

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 ...

. He suffered an injury in training in December 2009, and never played again as the

Estádio do Restelo The Estádio do Restelo is a multi-purpose stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. The stadium has a capacity of 19,856 people and was built in 1956, in an old stone quarry. It is situated behind the Jerónimos Monastery in the Lisbon parish of Belém (Lis ...

side finished second-bottom and dropped down a tier; aged 34, he chose to retire, but returned to his main club Sporting the following year as goalkeeping coach. Nélson left his position in July 2021.

International career

Nélson was capped three times 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 ...

, all in 2002, making his debut on 27 March in a 4–1 friendly loss to

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

; he came on as a half-time substitute and conceded the last goal. After Quim was sent home for failing a drugs test, he was picked as third-choice for that year's

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

Honours

Sporting CP *

: 1999–2000, 2001–02 *

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 ...

: 2001–02

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nelson Pereira 1975 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Torres Vedras Men's association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.C.U. Torreense players Sporting CP footballers Sporting CP B players Vitória F.C. players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players C.F. Os Belenenses players Portugal men's B international footballers Portugal men's international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players Association football goalkeeping coaches Sporting CP non-playing staff