Jorge da Costa Pires (born 1 April 1981) 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 striker. He spent most of his career in

LigaPro 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 ...

, totalling 324 matches and a record 113 goals for six teams and being top scorer three times. Additionally, he played 42

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 ...

games and scored 11 goals in two spells with Portimonense.

Club career

Born in

Amares Amares (), officially Town of Amares (), is a List of municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Braga District, Portugal. The population in 2011 was 18,889, in an area of 81.95 km2. Amares limits to the north and northeast with the municipa ...

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 ...

, Pires spent his youth career with

and

Braga Braga (; ) is a cities of Portugal, city and a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality, capital of the northwestern Portugal, Portuguese Braga (district), district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality ...

. He made his senior debut with the former in the fourth division before moving into 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 ...

the third is a light novel series, that has also been made into manga and anime series by Ryo Hoshino and illustrated by Ariko Ito. The anime series goes under the name . According to the New York Comic Convention, ''The Third'' has been licensed by ...

. He then had brief lower league spells at Portosantense, Amares again, Pontassolense and Ribeirão. In 2008, Pires joined

Vizela Vizela () is a municipality in the Braga District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 23,736, in an area of 24.70 km². The present mayor is Vitor Hugo Salgado, elected as an independent. The municipal holiday is March 19. History In Au ...

of the second level and a year later Portimonense, whom he helped to promotion as runners-up in his first season and then played in

for the first time, his maiden appearance in the competition occurring on 13 August 2010 in a 1–3 away loss against Braga where he came on as a second-half substitute. After their immediate relegation, he spent the next two years in the second tier with

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 ...

and Feirense respectively. Pires signed for

Moreirense 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 Joaquim d ...

in June 2013, and was the league's top scorer with 22 goals (one more than Porto B's Tózé) as his team won promotion to the top flight as champions. In June 2014, he moved abroad to join Benfica Luanda. 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

Taça de Angola :''This is about the Angolan football (soccer) competition. For the similarly named sports competitions, see Taça de Angola (basketball), Taça de Angola (handball) Taça de Angola (roller hockey)'' The Angolan football Cup is the main "knockou ...

, he returned to Portimonense on an 18-month deal in December. In 2016–17, Pires was again the second division's top scorer with 23 goals as the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

an team won the league title, with four more than

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

Paulinho Paulinho is a Portuguese nickname for people named ''Paulo'' (Paulo - inho, little Paulo). People known as Paulinho include: Music *Paulinho da Costa (born 1948), Brazilian percussionist *Paulinho da Viola (born 1942), Brazilian sambista *Paulinho ...

. He added seven the following campaign in a tenth-place finish, including 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 ...

in a 4–3 win over former club Moreirense on 31 March 2018 in which the opponents had led 3–0; two of those goals were added-time penalties to win the points. Pires, who had two years remaining on his contract in

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro (district), Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2022 was 63,079 in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão. In ...

, chose from seven offers to go on loan to

Penafiel Penafiel ( or ) is a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the Norte Region, Portugal, northern Portugal, Portuguese Porto District, district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion ...

of the second tier in August 2018. He was again top scorer with 16 goals, joint with Fabrício of Famalicão, and his permanent transfer was subsequently confirmed. Pires retired on 20 August 2020 at the age of 39, as the highest scorer of all time in his country's second division. He immediately returned to Portimonense, as part of the coaching setup for the under-23 team.

Honours

Moreirense * Segunda Liga: 2013–14 Portimonense *

: 2016–17 Benfica Luanda *

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *LigaPro top scorer: 2013–14, 2016–17, 2018–19 (joint)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pires, Jorge 1981 births Living people People from Amares 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Braga District Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Braga B players G.D. Ribeirão players F.C. Vizela players Portimonense S.C. players C.D. Aves players C.D. Feirense players Moreirense F.C. players F.C. Penafiel players Girabola players S.L. Benfica (Luanda) players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Angola Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Angola