Ângelo Gaspar Martins (19 April 1930 – 11 October 2020), simply known as Ângelo, was a Portuguese

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 defender for Benfica and the Portugal national team.Benfica de luto pelo bicampeão europeu Ângelo Martins
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Club career

Born in

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

on 19 April 1930, Ângelo turned down an opportunity to play

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

because he was a supporter of rivals Benfica, from

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 ...

, and hometown club Salgueiros. In 1945, aged 15, Ângelo started his career playing as a left defender for Académico do Porto, where he spent three years until he was scammed by an FC Porto staff member, who gave him a false document and made him sign for the club while he still was an Académico do Porto player. As a result, the

Portuguese Football Federation The Portuguese Football Federation ( , FPF) is the governing body of Association football, football in Portugal. The federation was formed in 1914 as Portuguese Football Union (, UPF) by the three existing regional associations of Lisbon Footbal ...

(FPF) banned Ângelo from football, although the punishment would only last for a few months. Three years later, when Ângelo was a worker at his father's shoe store and was serving in the military in Santarém at age 20, a Benfica

scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

watched him play and brought him to Lisbon in 1951 to represent Benfica's reserves, with the FPF backing down on his ban. During his 13 seasons with ''The Eagles main team, from 1952 to 1965, he made 285 appearances and scored 4 goals, winning 7

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 ...

titles, 5

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 ...

, 1

Taça de Honra Taça de Honra (Honour Cup) is a Portuguese friendly football tournament played between teams of the Lisbon Football Association (AFL). It is the third oldest competition in Portugal after the championships of Lisbon and Porto. The format has va ...

, and 2 consecutive

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 ...

s (in

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

). He retired as a player at age 35.

International career

Ângelo played 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 ...

on 20 occasions. He made his debut in 1953 against

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

at the Prater Stadium and played his final match for the country in 1962 against

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

at the

Estádio do Restelo The Estádio do Restelo is a multi-purpose stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. The stadium has a capacity of 19,856 people and was built in 1956, in an old stone quarry. It is situated behind the Jerónimos Monastery in the Lisbon parish of Belém (Lis ...

Death

Ângelo died of natural causes at 90 years old, on 11 October 2020, in the company of his family.

Honours

Player

Benfica *

: 1954–55, 1956–57, 1959–60, 1960–61, 1962–63, 1963–64, 1964–65 *

: 1952–53, 1954–55, 1956–57, 1961–62, 1963–64 *

: 1962–63 *

: 1960–61, 1961–62 * Intercontinental Cup runner-up:

Manager

Benfica *

Campeonato Nacional de Juniores The Campeonato Nacional de Juniores is the top level of the Portuguese football league system for youth players (19-year-old and under). It is administrated by the Portuguese Football Federation. The league started in 1938 and has been historical ...

(7) * Campeonato Nacional de Juvenis (6) * Campeonato Nacional de Iniciados (2)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Angelo Martins 1930 births 2020 deaths Footballers from Porto Men's association football defenders Portuguese men's footballers 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portugal men's international footballers S.L. Benfica footballers UEFA Champions League–winning players