Yago Fernández Prieto (born 5 January 1988), known simply as Yago, 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 In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Club career

Early career

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 ...

to a Spanish father, Yago played for four clubs during his youth career, starting with

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 " ...

at the age of 9 then successively representing

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,

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

. As a senior, his first spell was with the latter's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the

Tercera División Tercera División () was the fourth tier of the Spanish football league system. Until 1977, it was the third tier of the Spanish football league system. Founded in 1929, it was below the ''Primera División'' (also known as La Liga), the ''Segund ...

, in a promotion-ending campaign. Subsequently, Yago continued in Spain, spending two years with

RCD Espanyol B Reial Club Deportiu Espanyol de Barcelona "B" is the reserve team of the RCD Espanyol, club based in Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. The team was founded in 1991 and plays in the , holding home matches at the 3,000-seat capa ...

, helping the side to promote to

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

and being relegated in his second season. In January 2010, he returned to his country for an unassuming loan spell with Gil Vicente F.C. in the Segunda Liga (no appearances whatsoever).

Malmö FF

In July 2010, after not having his contract renewed by Espanyol, Yago was taken on trial by Swedish club

Malmö FF Malmö Fotbollförening (), commonly known simply as Malmö FF or MFF, is a Swedish professional football club based in Malmö, Scania. They compete in the Allsvenskan, the top division of Swedish football, and play home matches at the Eleda S ...

, which had just lost Jasmin Sudić with a ruptured

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

. He played against

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

in a 0–0 friendly draw, and his performance earned him a contract for the rest of the year, with the deal being confirmed by manager Roland Nilsson. On 8 December 2010, shortly after

winning Winning may refer to: * Victory Film * Winning (film), ''Winning'' (film), a 1969 movie starring Paul Newman * ''Winning: The Racing Life of Paul Newman'', a 2015 documentary by Adam Carolla and Nate Adams Music * ''Winning'', an album by Ten Fo ...

the

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

title, Yago signed a new one-year extension. However, they chose not to offer him a new contract after the 2011 season.

AEK Athens

In August 2012, following a five-month spell with

Girona FC Girona Futbol Club, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. ( ) is a Spanish professional Football team, football club based in Girona, Catalonia, Spain. Founded on 23 July 1930, the team plays in La Liga, to which they gained promotion in the 2022 ...

in the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

, during which he scored in a 5–3 home win over

Xerez CD Xerez Club Deportivo S. A. D. is a Spanish association football, football club based in the city of Jerez de la Frontera. It was founded in 1947 and plays in . History Due to the link between Jerez de la Frontera and the United Kingdom created b ...

, Yago agreed to a three-year contract at

AEK Athens FC A.E.K. Football Club (), known simply as A.E.K. (; ) in Greece and AEK Athens internationally, is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filadelfeia, Attica, Greece. Established in Athens by Greek refugees from Constantinople in the ...

. He scored his only goal 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 ...

on 16 September, opening an eventual 1–1 home draw with Aris Thessaloniki FC.

Häcken

On 19 August 2013, Yago joined

BK Häcken Bollklubben Häcken, more commonly known as BK Häcken or simply Häcken (), is a Swedish professional association football, football club based in Gothenburg (Hisingen). It currently plays in Allsvenskan, the top tier of Swedish football. Forme ...

, thus returning to Sweden. In November, after failing to make an appearance, he left the club.

Oriental

Yago moved to

Clube Oriental de Lisboa Clube Oriental de Lisboa is a Portuguese football club based in Lisbon. Founded in 1946, it currently competes in the Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at ''Campo Engenheiro Carlos Salema'', with an 8,500 capacity. History In January 19 ...

in early August 2014, following a short stint in Kazakhstan with

FC Shakhter Karagandy Football Club Shakhter (), commonly referred to as FC Shakhter Karagandy ( ), is a professional football club based in Karagandy, Kazakhstan. They have been members of the Kazakhstan Premier League since its foundation in 1992, but fell of to t ...

. He played his first game as a professional in his country on 5 October, featuring the full 90 minutes in the 0–0 home draw against G.D. Chaves.

Later career

Yago retired in 2018 aged 30, following unassuming spells with Spanish amateurs

La Roda CF La Roda Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football club based in La Roda, in the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. Founded in 1996 it plays in , holding home games at ''Estadio Municipal de Deportes'', which has a capacity of 3,000 spectato ...

and CF Torre Levante and Portuguese third-tier side U.D. Leiria.

International career

Yago represented Portugal at youth level.

Career statistics

Honours

Malmö FF *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Yago Fernandez 1988 births Living people Portuguese people of Spanish descent Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football central defenders Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Gil Vicente F.C. players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players U.D. Leiria players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Divisiones Regionales de Fútbol players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers RCD Espanyol B footballers Girona FC players La Roda CF players CF Torre Levante players Allsvenskan players Malmö FF players BK Häcken players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Kazakhstan Premier League players FC Shakhter Karagandy players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Kazakhstan Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Kazakhstan 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen