Vítor Hugo Gomes da Silva (born 25 December 1987), known as Gomes, 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 lea ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder 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. ...

for

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 Rio Ave. He achieved

totals of 269 games and 15 goals over 14 seasons, for Rio Ave, Moreirense,

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

and

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 ...

. He also played professionally in Hungary, Turkey and Cyprus.

Club career

Born in

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km2. The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of ...

and a product of hometown club Rio Ave FC's youth system, Gomes first appeared with the first team on 19 March 2006, starting in a 0–1 home loss against

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 " ...

. In late January 2008, he began an unsuccessful loan spell at

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 ...

Cagliari Calcio Cagliari Calcio, commonly referred to as Cagliari (), is an Football in Italy, Italian football club based in Cagliari, Sardinia, that plays in Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. The club currently plays home matches at the 16,416-sea ...

, making no appearances and returning to Rio Ave in July. During that season, he also played 13 matches (12 starts) as they returned to the

after an absence of two years. In the following top-division campaigns, Gomes was regularly used by Rio Ave. He scored his first goals in 2009–10, against C.D. Nacional (2–0, home) and

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 ...

(1–5 defeat, also at the Estádio dos Arcos). In January 2013, Gomes joined a host of compatriots at

Videoton FC Videoton may refer to: *Videoton (company) Videoton, officially VIDEOTON HOLDING Ltd., is a privately owned company group based out of Székesfehérvár, Hungary, and specializing in contract manufacturing, mainly electronics manufacturing servic ...

, with the Hungarians making the deal permanent in early June. Two years later, he was loaned to

Balıkesirspor Balıkesirspor is a Turkish sports club, club based in Balıkesir. Established in 1966, the Association football, football team played in the Süper Lig after achieving promotion having finished as runners-up of the TFF First League in 2013–14 T ...

in the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

Moreirense FC Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaqui ...

. Gomes continued to compete in the Portuguese top tier in the following years, with

C.F. Os Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

and C.D. Aves. On 18 April 2018, he scored twice in a 2–1 away victory over Caldas S.C. in the semi-finals of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

to take the latter club to its first ever final in the competition. He also played the full 90 minutes in the decisive match against

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,

, providing an assist to Alexandre Guedes in the 2–1 win 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 ...

. On 1 October 2018, Gomes scored a

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 ...

, his only goals of the season, in a 3–0 home defeat of Portimonense SC. He moved abroad again the following 2 July, on a free transfer to

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

of the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

for two years. During his time in

Nicosia Nicosia, also known as Lefkosia and Lefkoşa, is the capital and largest city of Cyprus. It is the southeasternmost of all EU member states' capital cities. Nicosia has been continuously inhabited for over 5,500 years and has been the capi ...

, he won a league title in 2020–21. Gomes returned to Rio Ave on 1 July 2021, signing a two-year deal with the option of a third. The team won promotion as champions in his first season back, and he scored the only goal of a home winner over title rivals Casa Pia A.C. with two games remaining.

International career

Gomes was a member of the Portugal under-20 squad at the 2007 FIFA World Cup. Later that year, in August, he received his first callup to the under-21s; he won his only

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

for the latter on the 21st, playing the second half of the 3–0 friendly win against

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

held in his hometown.

Personal life

Gomes' older brother,

José José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced very differently in each of the two languages: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

, was also a footballer. A defender, he represented several clubs, and the pair shared teams in Rio Ave (2005–06, 2009–12).

Career statistics

Honours

Aves *

: 2017–18 Omonia *

: 2020–21 Rio Ave *

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 ...

: 2021–22

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gomes, Vitor 1987 births Living people 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Vila do Conde Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Rio Ave F.C. players Moreirense F.C. players C.F. Os Belenenses players C.D. Aves players Cagliari Calcio players Nemzeti Bajnokság I players Fehérvár FC players Süper Lig players Balıkesirspor footballers Cypriot First Division players AC Omonia 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 Hungary Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus