Rui Pedro Couto Ramalho (born 2 July 1988), known as Rui Pedro, 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 forward.

Club career

Born in

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; ), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a populati ...

Porto District The Districts of Portugal, District of Porto ( ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro (district), Aveiro and Viseu (distric ...

, Rui Pedro joined

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 ...

's youth system in 1998, at the age of 10. He was promoted to the main squad for 2007–08, but his input consisted of 45 minutes in a 0–0 away draw against C.D. Fátima in the

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

. He finished the season on loan, appearing rarely for fellow

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 ...

side C.F. Estrela da Amadora. Rui Pedro spent the following three years out on loan, appearing for three Segunda Liga clubs and playing and scoring regularly for the last two, Gil Vicente F.C. and Leixões SC. In summer 2011, he left Porto by mutual agreement and signed for three years with

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

, joining a host of compatriots at the

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

team, including manager Jorge Costa. On 20 November 2012, he achieved the only

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three Wick ...

of his professional career, scoring all three goals in a 3–1 home win over S.C. Braga in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. Rui Pedro returned to Portugal on 8 July 2014, joining Académica de Coimbra on a two-year deal. He netted six times in his first year to help his team narrowly avoid relegation, but they did go down the following campaign. On 26 June 2017, Rui Pedro was signed by

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, ), also known as NB I or Fizz Liga after its title sponsor, OTP Bank's webshop subsidiary, is a professional association football league in Hungary and the highest level of the Hungarian football league system. Twelve ...

club

Ferencvárosi TC Ferencvárosi Torna Club, commonly known as Ferencváros (), Fradi, FTC is a Hungary, Hungarian professional Association football, football club based in Ferencváros, Budapest, that competes in the Nemzeti Bajnokság I, the top flight of Hunga ...

for three years, from Bulgaria's

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First Professional Football League, First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ' ...

International career

Rui Pedro earned 66

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 ...

across all youth levels, scoring 20 goals. On 25 March 2009 he, alongside teammate Bruno Pereirinha, was suspended by under-21 coach

Carlos Queiroz Carlos Manuel Brito Leal de Queiroz (; born 1 March 1953) is a Portuguese football manager. He has served as the manager of his native Portugal's national team, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Iran, Colombia, Egypt and Qatar, leading ...

after both attempted an unsuccessful backpass

penalty Penalty, The Penalty, Penalization, Penalisation, Penalize or Penalise may refer to: Sports * Foul (sports) ** Penalty (golf) ** Penalty (gridiron football) ** Penalty (ice hockey) ** Penalty (rugby) ** Penalty (rugby union) ** Penalty kick (assoc ...

during a match against

Cape Verde Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...

in the

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

International Tournament (the score was then at 2–0 for the hosts).

Career statistics

Honours

CFR Cluj *

: 2011–12

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rui Pedro 1988 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Vila Nova de Gaia Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Liga 3 (Portugal) players Padroense F.C. players FC Porto players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players Portimonense S.C. players Gil Vicente F.C. players Leixões S.C. players Académica de Coimbra (football) players A.D. Sanjoanense players Liga I players CFR Cluj players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Ferencvárosi TC footballers Szombathelyi Haladás footballers Diósgyőri VTK players Mezőkövesdi SE footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Hungary Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Hungary