Vítor Manuel da Costa Araújo (born 16 February 1966), known as Vítor Paneira, 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 midfielder, 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 excelled in the late 80s and early 90s with Benfica, to where he arrived from the lower leagues, going on to amass

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 ...

totals of 335 games and 43 goals over 11 seasons (289/44 in official matches with his main club). He also played for Vitória de Guimarães in the competition. A Portugal international for eight years, Paneira represented the country at Euro 1996. In a managerial career of over 20 years, he had two spells each at Tondela and Varzim, briefly leading the former in the top flight.

Club career

Born in Calendário,

Vila Nova de Famalicão Vila Nova de Famalicão (), also known as Famalicão, is a Portuguese town in the Braga District and the sub-region of Ave (intermunicipal community), Vale do Ave. The population of ''Vila Nova'' was created in 1205 with the charter given by the K ...

Braga District The district of Braga ( ) is a district in the northwest of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Braga, and it is bordered by the district of Viana do Castelo in the north, Vila Real in the east, Galicia (a Spanish autonomous commu ...

, Paneira started playing professionally with his hometown side F.C. Famalicão, joining F.C. Vizela of the Segunda Liga in the 1987–88 season and also receiving his first under-21 call-ups during the

Toulon Tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a Association football, football tournament, which traditionally features invit ...

. Shortly after, Paneira signed for S.L. Benfica, and remained there until the end of the 1994–95 campaign, being an undisputed starter for the vast majority of his spell as he helped the

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 ...

club to the

championship three times, adding the 1993

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 ...

. He also appeared in the 1990 Champions Cup final, with his side losing 1–0 to

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

. In the 1992–93 UEFA Cup he scored twice in a 2–1 home win against

Juventus FC Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, coached by

Giovanni Trapattoni Giovanni Trapattoni (; born 17 March 1939), popularly nicknamed "Trap" or "Il Trap", is an Italian former Association football, football manager and former player, considered the most successful club coach of Football in Italy, Italian football ...

(albeit in a 4–2 aggregate defeat). Paneira moved to Vitória S.C. for 1995–96, due to problems with Benfica manager Artur Jorge which was also part of a locker room clean-up – he was

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

when this occurred – and spent four seasons there. In summer 1999 he joined Académica de Coimbra, and retired at 35 after two years in the second division.

International career

Paneira made his debut for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

the same year he signed for Benfica, in a 0–0 friendly draw with

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

on 12 October 1988. In total, he won 44 caps (42 for Benfica and two for Guimarães) and scored four goals in a seven-year period, playing his last international in another friendly, a 1–0 victory over the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland, with a population of about 5.4 million. ...

on 29 May 1996. Paneira was chosen by António Oliveira for the ''Lusitanos'' squad that reached the quarter-finals at

UEFA Euro 1996 The 1996 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 96, was the 10th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament contested by European nations and organised by UEFA. It took place in ...

, but was one of the few players that never left the bench.

Coaching career

Paneira started his coaching career in 2002, with GD Serzedelo of division four. He also managed his very first club Famalicão, but in the regional leagues. On 16 December 2009, Paneira was named coach of Boavista FC, with the 2001 league champions now in the third tier. He was appointed at another side from that league, C.D. Tondela, on 24 May 2011, leading them to promotion in the playoffs in his first season. On 10 June 2012, Paneira signed a one-year contract extension. He was relieved of his duties on 8 November of the following year, leaving the team in ninth position. In March 2014, Paneira took charge of Varzim S.C. in the third division. He was fired in early May 2015, after a series of bad results. Paneira returned to Tondela on 30 May 2015, being appointed manager for the club's first-ever season in the Portuguese top flight. He was dismissed on 6 October, after winning and drawing one each of the first seven games. On 10 April 2023, Paneira returned to work for the first time in over seven years, signing with Varzim until 2025. He was their third manager of the Liga 3

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 ...

, with four games remaining. The team avoided the drop on the final day with a 1–0 win over

AD Fafe Associação Desportiva de Fafe (abbreviated as AD Fafe) is a Portuguese professional football club based in Fafe, in the district of Braga. Background AD Fafe currently plays in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores – Série A which is ...

Other ventures

Immediately after retiring and still as an active coach, Paneira worked as a

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

with cable channel Sport TV.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Portugal's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Paneira goal.''

Honours

Player

Benfica * Primeira Divisão: 1988–89, 1990–91, 1993–94 *

: 1992–93 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

: 1989 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

runner-up: 1989–90

Manager

Ribeirão *

Terceira Divisão : The Terceira Divisão Portuguesa (in English: ''Portuguese Third Division'') was a football league in Portugal, situated at the fourth level of the Portuguese football league system. The Third Division was initially the third level of the Por ...

: 2003–04 Tondela *

Segunda Divisão : : The Segunda Divisão Portuguesa ( English: ''Portuguese Second Division'') was a football league situated at the third level of the Portuguese football league system. The division had previously been the second level of the Portuguese pyrami ...

: 2011–12

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paneira, Vitor 1966 births Living people 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Vila Nova de Famalicão Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players F.C. Famalicão players F.C. Vizela players S.L. Benfica footballers Vitória S.C. players Académica de Coimbra (football) players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1996 players Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers GD Serzedelo managers Moreirense F.C. managers F.C. Famalicão managers Boavista F.C. managers Gondomar S.C. managers C.D. Tondela managers Varzim S.C. managers Portuguese association football commentators