António Manuel Frasco Vieira (born 16 January 1955), known as Frasco, is a Portuguese former

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 an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. Best known for his 11-year spell with

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 ...

, he appeared in 306 competitive matches for the club and won a total of 12 titles. He was chosen by Portuguese sports newspaper '' Record'' as one of the best 100 Portuguese players ever. Frasco earned 23

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 Java ...

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 ...

, representing the nation at Euro 1984.

Club career

Frasco was born in

Leça da Palmeira Leça da Palmeira () is an area in the Portuguese city of Matosinhos north of the Leça river. It was a civil parish until 2013, when it was merged with the parish of Matosinhos, forming Matosinhos e Leça da Palmeira. The parish covered and had ...

. In spite of a short height, his first sport was

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, but Óscar Marques, a

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 ...

from

Leixões SC The Port of Leixões (, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões Sport Club, commonly known simply as ''Leixões'', is Matosinho ...

, discovered him and took him to the club. He made his debut in the first-team – and the

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 ...

, a competition in which he would spend 15 of his 17 years as a professional – at the age of 18, contributing ten games as the

Matosinhos Matosinhos () is a City#Portugal, city and a Concelho, municipality in the district of Porto District, Porto in Portugal. The municipality covers an area of approximately and had 172,557 inhabitants in 2021. It is bordered by the municipalities o ...

side barely avoided relegation. Frasco eventually imposed himself in the main squad, as a starter, as Leixões suffered relegation in 1977. In summer 1978, however, he signed 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 ...

after a failed transfer to

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

two years earlier. In his first season he played all 30 matches as the team coached by

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 Por ...

won the national championship, scoring a career-best six goals the following campaign, with the league being narrowly lost to

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,

as the

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 ...

to Benfica. After 1986, Frasco began suffering from successive minor injuries which diminished his importance in the squad. He still appeared in seven games in Porto's victorious campaign in the

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 ...

, including 25 minutes of the final against

FC Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional association foo ...

(2–1), eventually leaving in June 1989 at the age of 34. Frasco then worked as a

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

, coaching several teams in no higher than the Segunda Liga. He returned to his main club Porto in 2006 and worked with several of its youth sides, always as assistant.

International career

On 17 October 1979, Frasco made his debut for

, in a 2–0 loss to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

for the

UEFA Euro 1980 The 1980 UEFA European Football Championship finals tournament was held in Italy. This was the sixth UEFA European Championship, which is held every four years and endorsed by UEFA. It was the first European Championship to feature eight teams ...

qualifiers. He was one of the most influential players in the Euro 1984 campaign, taking part in all the matches as they reached the semi-finals and assisting Nené for the only goal against

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

in the group stage. Over eight years, Frasco played 23 times and scored once.

Honours

Porto *

Primeira Divisão 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 P ...

: 1978–79, 1984–85, 1985–86, 1987–88 *

: 1983–84, 1987–88 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

: 1986–87 *

European 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 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Notes

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

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Frasco, Antonio 1955 births Living people 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Matosinhos Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Leixões S.C. players FC Porto players UEFA Champions League–winning players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's B international footballers Portugal men's international footballers UEFA Euro 1984 players Portuguese football managers Liga Portugal 2 managers Leça F.C. managers C.D. Feirense managers C.D. Aves managers FC Porto non-playing staff