Vasco Manuel Vilhena Faísca Teixeira (born 27 August 1980), known as Faísca, 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 central defender, currently a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

. He spent the vast majority of his professional career in Italy after starting out 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,

, representing in the country

Vicenza Vicenza ( , ; or , archaically ) is a city in northeastern Italy. It is in the Veneto region, at the northern base of the Monte Berico, where it straddles the Bacchiglione, River Bacchiglione. Vicenza is approximately west of Venice and e ...

Padova Padua ( ) is a city and ''comune'' (municipality) in Veneto, northern Italy, and the capital of the province of Padua. The city lies on the banks of the river Bacchiglione, west of Venice and southeast of Vicenza, and has a population of ...

and Ascoli and appearing in one

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

match with the first club.

Playing career

Club

Born 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 ...

, Faísca was a product of

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,

's youth system. In the summer of 2000 he was signed by

Inter Milan Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale () or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football ...

alongside teammates Marco Caneira and Paulo Costa, in co-ownership with other clubs. Faísca stayed in Italy and played with Vicenza Calcio for four seasons, having been sold for 1,200 million lire (€619,748)– one game in

in 2000–01, the rest of his spell in

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

– before his rights were acquired fully in June 2004. Shortly after, however, he returned to Portugal and joined Académica de Coimbra, making his

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 ...

debut and being first choice (only two matches missed) as the ''Students'' narrowly avoided relegation. In the 2005 off-season, Faísca signed for C.F. Os Belenenses, being fairly used in his first year but being deemed surplus to requirements soon afterwards. He returned to Italy in January 2007, joining

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

team

Calcio Padova Calcio Padova, commonly referred to as Padova, is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Padua, Veneto. Founded in 1910, Padova currently play in , having last been in Serie A in 1996. The team's official colours are white and red. ...

and winning promotion in his second full campaign. On 31 August 2010, Faísca moved to second-tier Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC as part of the deal that involved Jonas Portin. He suffered relegation at the end of 2012–13, terminating his contract which still had another year running. Until his retirement at the age of 37, and save for one year in the

Super League Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...

with Platanias FC, Faísca competed in the Italian lower leagues, where he represented S.S. Matera Calcio, SS Maceratese 1922 and Virtus Francavilla Calcio.

International

Faísca appeared for the Portugal under-21 team at the 2002 UEFA European Championship in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, playing all group games as starter as the nation exited in that stage.

Coaching career

After a spell with

SC Vianense Sport Clube Vianense, commonly known as Vianense, is a Portuguese football club based in Viana do Castelo in the district of Viana do Castelo. SC Vianense currently plays in the Liga 3. The club was founded in 1898 and is one of the oldest cl ...

's youths, Faísca started his senior managerial career as an assistant at U.D. Vilafranquense. On 5 February 2019, was named head coach of

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

in the third tier, and lost 1–0 on his debut away to Real S.C. five days later. On 27 December 2019, Faísca was confirmed at S.C. Braga B, second-placed in the same league, on a deal until the summer of 2022; he replaced

Ruben Amorim Ruben Filipe Marques Amorim (; born 27 January 1985) is a Portuguese Professional association football, professional football Manager (association football), manager, a former player and the current manager of Premier League club Manchester Unit ...

, who was promoted to the

first team First team may refer to: Sports * First team (association football), the colloquial name given to the most senior team fielded by a football club * The First Team, the first players known to have played the sport of basketball * First Team All-A ...

. He left a year early for F.C. Alverca, where he won two and lost three of six games before exiting by mutual consent on 4 October 2021. Faísca returned to the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

on 22 December 2021, signing with

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

who were second from bottom. His

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super 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 Pr ...

debut came the following 17 January in a 1–0 home loss to

Leixões SC The Port of Leixões (, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões Sport Club, commonly known simply as ''Leixões'', is Matosinho ...

; in April, with the side safe from relegation, he signed for another season with a

buyout clause A buyout clause or release clause refers to a clause in an employment contract. It allows the employee to terminate the contract unilaterally upon payment of a specified (usually substantial) fee to the employer. The fee may be paid by the employ ...

of €1.5 million. On 3 February 2023, Faísca was dismissed by Farense after failing to reach an agreement to leave, despite his team being in second place. His exit was announced one hour before the match against C.F. Estrela da Amadora, who were one point behind. On 6 November 2023, Faísca was appointed at Belenenses, 17th in the second division shortly after promoting, in a return to 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 ...

16 years later. He was relieved of his duties on 28 February 2024, after a ten-game winless run left them one place lower. Faísca was named manager of

Venezuelan Primera División The Primera División (; ), or Liga Venezolana (; ) is the top-flight professional football league of Venezuela. It was created in 1921 and turned professional in 1957. It is organized by the Federación Venezolana de Fútbol. Format Starting i ...

club

Academia Puerto Cabello Academia Puerto Cabello is a Venezuelan professional football club based in the city of Puerto Cabello, Carabobo state and playing in the Venezuelan Primera División. It plays its home matches at the Complejo Deportivo Socialista, also known a ...

on 3 February 2025.

Managerial statistics

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Faisca, Vasco 1980 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Académica de Coimbra (football) players C.F. Os Belenenses players Serie A players Serie B players Serie C players LR Vicenza players Calcio Padova players Ascoli Calcio 1898 FC players SS Maceratese 1922 players Virtus Francavilla Calcio players Super League Greece players Platanias F.C. players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese football managers Liga Portugal 2 managers S.C. Olhanense managers S.C. Braga B managers F.C. Alverca managers S.C. Farense managers C.F. Os Belenenses managers Venezuelan Primera División managers Academia Puerto Cabello managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Venezuela