Sérgio Ricardo da Silva Pinto (born 16 October 1980) 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

right winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. Having spent more than one decade playing in Germany, mainly with

Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, w ...

and

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), is a German professional association football, football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years between 19 ...

, he possessed dual nationality. He amassed

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

totals of 212 matches and 21 goals over ten seasons.

Club career

Early years and Schalke

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 ...

, Pinto played four years with

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 ...

's youth teams, moving to Germany at the age of 12 with his family and settling in the

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

town of

Haltern am See Haltern am See (''Haltern at the lake'', before December 2001 only Haltern) is a medium-sized town in the northern part of the Recklinghausen (district), district of Recklinghausen in the Münster (region), ''Regierungsbezirk'' Münster in North Rh ...

. He then continued his football development at TuS Haltern. In 1999, Pinto made his

debut with

after four years at the club as a youth, appearing twice for the first team in the 1999–2000 season, the first game being a 3–2 away loss against

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

on 11 September. Most of his spell, however, was spent with the reserves, as he only took part in 21 matches more in four seasons.

Alemannia Aachen

Pinto signed for

Alemannia Aachen Aachener Turn- und Sportverein Alemannia 1900 e. V., short Alemannia Aachen (), is a German football club from the western city of Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia. A long-term fixture of the country's second division, Alemannia enjoyed a three- ...

of the 2. Bundesliga for 2004–05, for a transfer fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

125,000. He totalled 58 league appearances in his first two years while scoring eight goals, achieving promotion in his second; on 25 November 2005, after helping to a 2–1 home win over

SC Paderborn Sport-Club Paderborn 07 e.V., commonly known as simply SC Paderborn 07 () or SC Paderborn, is a German association football club based in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has enjoyed its greatest success since the turn of the millenni ...

, he received the '' Tor des Monats'' (Goal of the Month) award from the ARD. In the subsequent top-flight campaign, Pinto appeared regularly for the North Rhine-Westphalia side, netting in a 2–0 victory at

Energie Cottbus FC Energie Cottbus (Lower Sorbian: ''Energija Chóśebuz'') is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Cottbus, Brandenburg. It was founded in 1963 as SC Cottbus in what was East Germany. After the German reunification, reunificatio ...

on 10 March 2007, but the team eventually finished second-bottom and suffered relegation. In the ensuing summer, he reunited with former Aachen coach

Dieter Hecking Dieter-Klaus Hecking (; born 12 September 1964) is a German football manager and former professional player who is the manager of Bundesliga club VfL Bochum. He played for Hannover 96 and Eintracht Braunschweig as a midfielder. He returned to man ...

, joining on a three-year contract that was previously agreed in February.

Hannover 96

Pinto played his first official game for his new club on 11 August 2007, starting and being replaced in the second half of a 1–0 home loss against

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. He contributed 31 games and five goals – notably in a 3–1 win over

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

also at the

Niedersachsenstadion Niedersachsenstadion (, ) is a football stadium in Hanover, Lower Saxony, Germany, which is home to football club Hannover 96. The original 86,000-capacity stadium was completed in 1954 and has since been rebuilt several times for various major ...

– in the 2010–11 season as Hannover finished fourth and

qualified Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

, where he netted twice from 14 appearances in a quarter-final exit. In late October 2011, following another league home defeat of Bayern (2–1), Pinto was accused by his opponents of "poor sportsmanship". He left the

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

side in June 2013, aged 32 and with 193 competitive appearances to his credit; he added to that 24 goals and 20 assists.

Later career

On 6 July 2013, Pinto moved to Levante from Spain, agreeing to a two-year deal. He played his first

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

match on 18 August, featuring the first 45 minutes in a 7–0 away loss to

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

. Pinto returned to Germany on 9 June 2014, signing a one-year contract with

Fortuna Düsseldorf Düsseldorfer Turn- und Sportverein Fortuna 1895 e.V., commonly known as Fortuna Düsseldorf (), is a Football in Germany, German football club based in Düsseldorf, North Rhine-Westphalia, that competes in the 2. Bundesliga. Founded in 1895, Fo ...

. He was released on 30 May 2016.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pinto, Sergio 1980 births Living people German people of Portuguese descent Naturalized citizens of Germany 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen 21st-century German sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers German men's footballers Footballers from Vila Nova de Gaia Men's association football wingers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players TuS Haltern players FC Schalke 04 players FC Schalke 04 II players Alemannia Aachen players Hannover 96 players Fortuna Düsseldorf players La Liga players Levante UD footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Germany Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain German expatriate sportspeople in Spain