Tomás Franco Tavares (; born 7 March 2001) is a Portuguese 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 ...

who plays as a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 200 ...

club

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

Club career

Benfica

Tavares started his football career in Benfica's youth system. He signed his first professional contract with the club on 2 July 2018. He made his professional debut with

Benfica B Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B", commonly known as Benfica B, is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. They play in ...

in a 2–1

LigaPro The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pri ...

win over

Oliveirense União Desportiva Oliveirense (UDO), commonly known as Oliveirense, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Oliveira de Azeméis, in Aveiro District. The club was founded on 25 October 1922. The main football team currently plays at the Est ...

on 23 August 2019. On 10 September 2019, Tavares debuted for the first team as a starter in a 2–1 home loss to

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig, and colloquially referred to as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company Red B ...

in the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. He made his

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal ...

debut as a 12th-minute substitute in a 1–0 home win over

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

on 28 September.

Loan to Alavés

On 3 October 2020, Tavares was loaned to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

side

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually abbreviated to Alavés, is a Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Founded on 1 July 1920 as Sport Friends Club, it ...

for the 2020–21 season. He made his first league appearance in a home match against

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern 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 ...

after coming as a substitute for Édgar Méndez in the second half. On 15 January 2021, Deportivo Alavés terminated the loan of Tavares, and he returned to Benfica.

Loan to Farense

On 18 January 2021, Tavares moved to

club Farense on a loan until the end of the season.

Basel

On 31 August 2021

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (BS) ...

announced that they had signed Tavares on a one-year loan with an option to for a definite move. Tavares joined Basel's first team for their 2021–22 season under head coach

Patrick Rahmen Patrick Rahmen (born 3 April 1969) is a Swiss football coach and former player who last worked as head coach for Basel. He played as midfielder or forward. Club career Patrick Rahmen learned his football skill playing with Nordstern Basel an ...

. Tavares played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in the

Cornaredo Cornaredo ( Milanese: ) is a '' comune'' (municipality) in the Metropolitan City of Milan in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan. Cornaredo borders the following municipalities: Rho, Pregnana Milanese, Settimo Milane ...

on 12 September 2021 as Basel played a 1–1 with

Lugano Lugano (, , ; lmo, label=Ticinese dialect, Ticinese, Lugan ) is a city and municipality in Switzerland, part of the Lugano District in the canton of Ticino. It is the largest city of both Ticino and the Italian-speaking southern Switzerland. Luga ...

. He scored his first goal for the club in the home game in the St. Jakob-Park on 26 September 2021. It was the second goal of the game as Basel won 3–1 against

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () i ...

. Basel pulled the option to buy the player definitively. On 8 May 2022 during the match against Lausanne-Sport in the

Stade de la Tuilière Stade de la Tuilière is a football stadium in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is the current home of the football club FC Lausanne-Sport. The stadium has a capacity of 12,544. FC Lausanne-Sport planned the construction of the stadium in 2017. Their ...

Tavares injured himself.

Spartak Moscow

In January 2023, Tavares signed for

club

on a three-and-a-half year deal. He made his official debut on 23 February 2023 in a 0-1 cup win against

Lokomotiv Moscow FC Lokomotiv Moscow (''FC Lokomotiv Moskva'', russian: link=no, Футбольный клуб "Локомотив" Москва, ) is a Russian professional football club based in Moscow. Lokomotiv have won the Russian Premier League on three o ...

. In June 2023, while at the

Portugal national under-21 football team The Portugal national under-21 football team is the national under-21 football team of Portugal and is controlled by the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF). They are nicknamed ''"Esperanças."'' ''Esperança'' means hope, thus they are Portuga ...

camp, Tavares suffered an ACL tear, which became his second similar injury in 13 months. The recovery will take several months and he was not registered with the

as a Spartak player for the first half of the 2023–24 season.

International career

Tavares is a youth international for Portugal, having represented the nation's under-19 team.

Personal life

Born in

Peniche, Portugal Peniche () is a seaside municipality and a city located in the Leiria District of Central Portugal. It has 26,431 inhabitants, in an area of 77.55 km2. The city itself has a population of about 15,600 inhabitants. The present mayor is Henriq ...

, Tavares is of Cape Verdean descent.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tavares, Tomas 2001 births Living people People from Peniche, Portugal Black Portuguese sportspeople Portuguese people of Cape Verdean descent Men's association football defenders Portuguese men's footballers Liga Portugal 2 players Primeira Liga players Swiss Super League players Russian Premier League players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers Deportivo Alavés players S.C. Farense players FC Basel players FC Spartak Moscow players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Footballers from Leiria District