Alfredo Valadas Mendes (16 February 1912 – 1994) was a Portuguese footballer who played as outside forward. Over the course of 10 seasons, he amassed

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 ...

totals of 136 games and eighty six goals, all at Benfica, winning nine major titles.

Club career

Born in Minas de S. Domingos, Beja; Valadas started his career at Luso Sport Clube, a delegation of

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,

at only age 15. With 19 years-old, he moved to

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 play for Sporting, with the promise that they help him find a job, which they never did. After two seasons, he moved back to Beja, spent a year without competing and then joined Sport Lisboa e Beja in the regional league. In 1934, he returned to Lisbon and joined Benfica, again with the promise to help him find a job, which they did, when he became a civil servant in 1937. He made his debut on 14 October 1934, in a home win against his former team, Sporting, and helped the club conquer the Campeonato de Portugal, again defeating previous team on 30 June 1935. He was also the club's first goalscorer in the

, after opening the score in a 3-1 win over Vitória de Setúbal on 20 January 1935 and finished the season with 23 goals in all competitions, a club best. In the following three seasons, he played alongside Vítor Silva, Espírito Santo and Domingos Lopes, as Benfica conquered a three-peat, winning the league in 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, with Valadas being club topscorer in the first of those. On 31 January 1937, he scored the club 100th goal in the Primeira Liga. In the nineteen-forties, he scored 21 league goals in two seasons combined, to help the club win two more leagues, in 1941–42, 1942–43. He retired with a match in his honor on 1 December 1944, after 264 official matches, scoring 158 times; immediately assuming an assistant position under János Biri. In 1947, he made his debut as head coach, guiding Vitória Guimarães to a seventh place in the 1947–48 season, and improving one position in the next season. He also guided Salgueiros to the first division in 1951–52.

International career

Valadas made his national team debut against

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

on 3 May 1932 in Lisbon and scored 1 goal in a 3–2 win. He gained 6 caps and scored 2 goals, with his last cap arriving in a one-nil win over

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

on 30 January 1938.

Honours

Benfica * Primeira Divisão: 1935–36, 1936–37, 1937–38, 1941–42, 1942–43 *

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 ...

: 1939–40, 1943–44 * Campeonato de Portugal: 1934–35 * Campeonato de Lisboa: 1939–40

References

General * Specific

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Valadas, Alfredo 1912 births Sportspeople from Beja, Portugal 1994 deaths Sporting CP footballers S.L. Benfica footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese men's footballers Primeira Liga players Vitória S.C. managers S.C. Salgueiros managers Men's association football outside forwards Portuguese football managers Footballers from Beja District S.L. Benfica non-playing staff 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen