António dos Santos Ferreira André (born 24 December 1957) is a Portuguese retired

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 ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He gained notoriety for his tough tackling which on occasion bordered on the violent, and was best known for his lengthy spell with

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropo ...

, with which he won several domestic and continental accolades.

Club career

At the age of 13, André entered hometown Rio Ave FC's youth system, as he complemented the sporting activities with fishing in the high sea, in which his family was involved – it was also one of the main activities at

Vila do Conde Vila do Conde (, ; "the Count's Town") is a municipality in the Norte Region of Portugal. The population in 2011 was 79,533, in an area of 149.03 km². The urbanized area of Vila do Conde, which includes the parishes of Vila do Conde, Azurar ...

, where he was born. André signed his first professional contract in 1978, also up north with

Varzim SC Varzim Sport Club () is a Portugal, Portuguese Association football, football team based in Póvoa de Varzim, near Porto in the north of the country. The club was founded on 25 December 1915, and has played at the Estádio do Varzim Sport Club si ...

, although he continued to work with his family. Still, he produced four solid seasons at the club, scoring a career-high ten goals in 1983–84. Under the advice of legendary club manager

José Maria Pedroto José Maria Carvalho Pedroto, OIH (21 October 1928 – 7 January 1985), was a Portuguese football midfielder and manager. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 227 matches and 57 goals over 11 seasons, at the service of Lusitano, Belenenses and Po ...

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, 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 football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Por ...

signed André in that summer. After initial difficulties due to injuries, he was firmly installed in the side's central midfield, remaining there for nine consecutive years and helping the team win 19 titles overall. In his last two years, André was challenged for position by the player who regarded him as his role model,

Paulinho Santos João Paulo Maio dos Santos (born 21 November 1970), commonly known as Paulinho Santos, is a Portuguese former footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder. He spent 11 years of his professional career with Porto, playing in several ...

, and appeared less. He retired at the age of 37, winning the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal ...

in his last season as Porto was managed by

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswi ...

, in what would be the first of five consecutive national titles for the club. André retired in June 1995 with 379 games in the main division, scoring 41 goals and adding to that 48 matches with four goals in European competition. He then continued to work with Porto, as an assistant for several coaches; he was chosen by Portuguese sports newspaper ''

Record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

'' as one of the best 100 Portuguese football players ever.

International career

André earned 20

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Portugale national team, making his debut on 30 January 1985 in a

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

with

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, a ...

as the latter won it 3–2 in Lisbon. He represented the nation at the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-team format. Colombia ha ...

, playing in the entire 1–0 win against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

and also appearing against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, but Portugal exited in the group stage.

Personal life

André's son,

André André — sometimes transliterated as Andre — is the French and Portuguese form of the name Andrew, and is now also used in the English-speaking world. It used in France, Quebec, Canada and other French-speaking countries. It is a variation ...

, is also a footballer and a midfielder. He too played for Porto and Varzim and the Portuguese national side.

Honours

: 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88, 1989–90, 1991–92, 1992–93, 1994–95 *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of 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 Placard since the 2015–16 seas ...

: 1987–88, 1990–91, 1993–94 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese football match played since 1979 between the winners of the Portuguese League (Primeira Liga) and Portuguese ...

: 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994 *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

: 1986–87 *

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions; the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's official name was original ...

: 1987 * Intercontinental Cup: 1987

Bibliography

*Dias, Rui – ''Record – 100 Melhores do Futebol Português – Volume I'' (Record – The 100 best of Portuguese Football); EDISPORT, 2002

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Andre, Antonio 1957 births Living people People from Vila do Conde Portuguese footballers Association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Rio Ave F.C. players G.D. Ribeirão players Varzim S.C. players FC Porto players Portugal international footballers 1986 FIFA World Cup players Sportspeople from Porto District