Fabrice Alcebiades Maieco (born 30 May 1977 in

Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History Por ...

), commonly known as Akwá, is an Angolan former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for the Angolan national team. From his international debut in 1995, Akwá represented Angola 78 times, scoring a record 39 goals. He played for them in three

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

and captained the side at the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

. Akwá has a brother, Rasca, who was a professional football player for

Atlético Sport Aviação Atlético Sport Aviação, best known as ASA, is a football club from Luanda, Angola. The club was founded in 1953 by a group of workers from TAAG's predecessor DTA. Mr. Jacinto Medina was the first chairman. Before Angola's independence, the c ...

in Angola.

Club career

Akwá played for three football clubs in Portugal at the start of his career: Benfica,

F.C. Alverca Futebol Clube de Alverca is a Portuguese Association football, football club based in Alverca do Ribatejo, Vila Franca de Xira. It currently plays in the Portuguese 3rd Division. History F.C. Alverca was founded on 1 September 1939. After many ...

, and Académica de Coimbra. He.spent four years in Portugal before moving to Qatar where he had the most successful period of his career. He spent seven years there, playing for three different teams in the

Qatar Stars League The Qatar Stars League ( ar, دوري نجوم قطر), or the QSL, also called QNB Stars League for sponsorship reasons, is the top level football league in Qatar football league system. Contested by 12 teams, it operates on a system of promotio ...

. He played for Al-Wakrah, Al-Gharrafa and Qatar SC. In his time in Qatar he won the Arab Champions League, Qatar Crown Prince Cup and was the league's top scorer in 1999 with 11 goals. After leaving Al-Wakrah for the second time in 2006, he remained unattached until 2007, when he moved to Angolan club Petro Atlético. Akwá remained there for one season before retiring from professional football.

Club Career Stats

International career

Akwá won his first cap for Angola in 1995 against Mozambique. He accumulated 78 caps in total, scoring 39 goals. One was the winning goal that sent Angola to their first ever World Cup. He played in all 3 of Angola's games at the 2006 World Cup, but did not score, and they were eliminated from their group. Akwá retired from international football after the tournament.

National team statistics

International goals

:''Scores and results list Angola's goal tally first.''

Politics

Akwa is currently a member of the

Angolan legislative assembly Angolan may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Angola *Angolan people; see Demographics of Angola * Angolan culture * Angolar Creole *Something of, from, or related to the historical Bantu Kingdom of Ndongo The Kingdom of Ndongo, f ...

. He is interested in major developments in sports in Angola.

Honours

Individual

: Top scorer 1998–99 *Best stranger player in Qatar: 1999, 2004, 2005 *Angolan Player Of The Year: 2006

Clubs

* Qatar Crown Prince Cup: 1999, 2000, 2002, 2004 *Cheikh Qassim Cup: 1999

National

COSAFA Cup The COSAFA Cup or COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup is an annual tournament for teams from Southern Africa organized by Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA), inaugurated after the ban against the Republic of South Africa had been ...

: 1999, 2001, 2004

References

External links

Girabola.com - Akwá

AllAfrica.com, 5 June 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Akwa 1977 births Living people People from Benguela Angolan footballers Association football forwards S.L. Benfica footballers F.C. Alverca players Associação Académica de Coimbra – O.A.F. players Qatar SC players Al-Wakrah SC players Al-Gharafa SC players Atlético Petróleos de Luanda players Girabola players Primeira Liga players Qatar Stars League players Angola international footballers 1996 African Cup of Nations players 1998 African Cup of Nations players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Angolan expatriate footballers Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Qatar Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Qatar