Vítor Manuel Pereira Pontes (born 16 August 1958) is a Portuguese retired

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

, and is 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 ...

Playing career

Born in

Leiria Leiria () is a city and municipality in the Central Region, Portugal, Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, after Coimbra, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat o ...

, Pontes started his professional career with local União Desportiva. However, during his 18 years as a senior, he played almost exclusively as a backup, only appearing in seven

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 ...

matches during his career – five for O Elvas C.A.D. in the 1987–88 season, and two for C.D. Nacional in two years combined.

Coaching career

After retiring in 1994 at age 36 with lowly A.D. Guarda ( third division), Pontes began immediately working as a goalkeeper coach with his first club, also going to serve there as an assistant manager. He then coached Leiria's first team for two full seasons after a brief interim spell in 2002, subsequently signing with

Vitória S.C. Vitória Sport Clube, popularly known as Vitória de Guimarães or sometimes just Vitória, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Guimarães that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Est ...

for the 2005–06 campaign and being one of two managers in a season which ended in top level relegation – the other was

Jaime Pacheco Jaime Moreira Pacheco (born 22 July 1958) is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a central midfielder, currently a manager. During his career he played, among others, for Porto and Sporting CP, amassing Primeira Liga totals of 296 matc ...

. In 2007, Pontes signed with division two side Portimonense SC, and remained there two seasons. On 8 September 2011, after two years out of the managerial scene, he returned to active and União de Leiria, replacing fired Pedro Caixinha. His first game in charge was a 1–0 away win against S.C. Beira-Mar, but he left his post after only one more match, however. In September 2012, Pontes took over at

FC Chibuto Clube do Chibuto, or simply Chibuto, is a Mozambique multi sports club from Chibuto especially known for its football. Clube do Chibuto was founded on 29 September 1949. The team plays in Moçambola Moçambola (or Campeonato Moçambicano de F ...

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. He moved to the

China League Two The Chinese Football League 2 (), or China League Two, is the third-tier association football league of the People's Republic of China. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association and operated by the Chinese Professional ...

in May 2016, signing with Sichuan Longfor FC.

Other ventures

After leaving Portimonense, Pontes worked as a football

pundit A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

for

Sport TV Sport TV is a Portuguese sports-oriented premium cable and satellite television network with seven premium channels in Portugal, one sports news channel and one channel in Portuguese-speaking Africa. The first channel, then only known as Sport ...

, in the channel's domestic and

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

coverage.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pontes, Vitor 1958 births Living people Sportspeople from Leiria Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players U.D. Leiria players Vitória S.C. players O Elvas C.A.D. players Louletano D.C. players C.D. Nacional players F.C. Tirsense players Portuguese football managers Primeira Liga managers Liga Portugal 2 managers U.D. Leiria managers Vitória S.C. managers Portimonense S.C. managers Portuguese expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Mozambique Expatriate football managers in China Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Mozambique Sichuan Longfor F.C. managers Footballers from Leiria District 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen