Sérgio Manuel Ferreira Nunes (born 21 July 1974) is a Portuguese retired

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

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 ...

. He amassed Segunda Liga totals of 335 games and 18 goals over 14 seasons, appearing mainly for

Aves Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweight ...

(eight years). He added 131/5 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 ...

Club career

Born in

Matosinhos Matosinhos () is a City#Portugal, city and a Concelho, municipality in the district of Porto District, Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities o ...

, Nunes spent eight years in local Leixões SC's youth system. He made his debut as a senior for the club in the Segunda Liga, going on to represent in the competition C.D. Aves and U.D. Leiria and helping the latter team promote to the

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

. Nunes played his first game in the top division on 23 August 1998, featuring the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win against

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

. He was subsequently signed by

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 " ...

on 17 June 1999, but only made 27 appearances all competitions comprised in his two years in

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 ...

, serving mainly as back-up to

Paulo Madeira Paulo Sérgio Braga Madeira (born 6 September 1970) is a Portuguese former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Defender (association football)#Centre-back, central defender. Club career Madeira was born in Luanda, Po ...

and Ronaldo. On 4 August 2001, Nunes moved to C.D. Santa Clara, being relegated from the top flight in his second season. After leaving the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

he spent a further five campaigns in the second tier, with Aves – with the addition of 2006–07 in the former competition – and S.C. Freamunde, retiring at the age of 37.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunes, Sergio 1974 births Living people Footballers from Matosinhos Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Leixões S.C. players C.D. Aves players U.D. Leiria players S.L. Benfica footballers C.D. Santa Clara players S.C. Freamunde players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers