Vítor Manuel Lima Santos (born 10 August 1981) is a Portuguese retired 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

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Club career

Early years

Aged 19,

Guimarães Guimarães () is a city and municipality located in northern Portugal, in the district of Braga. Its historic town centre has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, in recognition for being an "exceptionally well-preserved ...

-born Lima left his country and joined

UD Salamanca Unión Deportiva Salamanca, S.A.D. () was a historical Spanish football team based in Salamanca, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 9 February 1923 and nicknamed ''Los Charros'', the club played in white shirts and black ...

in Spain. He would never appear officially for the first team, also being loaned to modest

Zamora CF Zamora Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Zamora, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded in 1968 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio Ruta de la Plata'', with a capacity of 7,813 seaters. History ...

, and left the

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

club in 2001. In the following four seasons, Lima played in the Portuguese third division with

Clube Caçadores das Taipas Clube Caçadores das Taipas is a Portuguese sports club from Caldas das Taipas, Guimarães. The men's football team plays in the Braga Football Association Serie 2. They played for many years in the old Terceira Divisão, but had stints on th ...

– three years – and Académico de Viseu FC.

Falkirk

On 15 June 2005,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Lima signed for

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

alongside compatriot

Tiago Jonas Tiago Jonas Ferraz Rodrigues (born 1 December 1983), known as Jonas, is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a central defender. Club career Jonas was born in Porto. In his country, he never competed in higher than the third division. O ...

, being discovered by the team's

player-coach A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

Russell Latapy Russell Nigel Latapy CM (born 2 August 1968) is a Trinidadian former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, and is currently the assistant coach of Macarthur. In a senior career which spanned more than twenty years at ...

who had spent several seasons in Portugal as a player. He made his

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

debut on 6 August, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–0 away win against Livingston. On 28 April 2006, Lima extended his contract with the Bairns for a further

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

. He left the club in summer 2007 after making 42 competitive appearances (30 starts), hoping to "return to Portugal".

Greece, return to Scotland

Lima joined Greek second tier club

Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. () or simply Ethnikos is a Greece, Greek association football, football club based in Piraeus and its parent sports club is Ethnikos Piraeus, Ethnikos OFPF. The club was officially formed on 21 November 1923 as ''Keravnos'' ...

in June 2007. He often started during his tenure. On 30 July 2009, Lima returned to Falkirk on a one-year deal. He missed several games during the campaign due to a knee injury, with the side eventually being relegated from the top flight after ranking 12th and last, following which he was released.

Later career

Lima return to Greece and its division two for

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, helping Doxa Drama F.C. to promote to the

Super League Super League (also known as the Betfred Super League for sponsorship reasons, and legally Super League Europe Ltd.) is a professional rugby league competition, and the highest level of the British rugby league system, which consists of twelve t ...

. In the 2012 off-season he moved to neighbouring

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, signing with

Ethnikos Achna FC Ethnikos Achna Football Club (), commonly known as Ethnikos Achna, or simply Ethnikos, is a Cypriot professional football club based in the village of Dasaki Achnas. Founded in 1968, the club currently plays in the Cypriot First Division. Ethn ...

. On 12 July 2013, Lima moved to Iraklis Thessaloniki F.C. of the Greek second division. On 7 June of the following year he was supposed to sign for another team in the country, Agrotikos Asteras FC, but the deal eventually fell through. Lima retired in July 2018 at the age of 37 after four seasons with

F.C. Famalicão Futebol Clube de Famalicão, commonly known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club from Vila Nova de Famalicão. Founded on 21 August 1931, its senior team currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top tie ...

(where he often acted as

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

), the last three spent in the Portuguese second tier. He immediately joined their coaching staff.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lima, Vitor 1981 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Guimarães Men's association football midfielders Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Vitória S.C. players Clube Caçadores das Taipas players Académico de Viseu F.C. players F.C. Famalicão players Segunda División B players UD Salamanca players Zamora CF footballers Scottish Premier League players Falkirk F.C. players Super League Greece players Football League (Greece) players Ethnikos Piraeus F.C. players Doxa Drama F.C. players Iraklis F.C. (Thessaloniki) players Cypriot First Division players Ethnikos Achna FC players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen