Bernardo Lino Castro Paes Vasconcelos (born 10 June 1979) is a Portuguese former professional

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 striker. In a professional career which spanned nearly 15 years, he played mostly in Cyprus, representing five teams.

Club career

Portugal / Holland

Born in

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 ...

, Vasconcelos played for three teams early in his career, including the reserves of local club

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 " ...

. In the 2002–03 season he helped F.C. Alverca return to 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 ...

after one year of absence, scoring once and appearing in less than half of the league's matches. In January 2004, after solid performances with S.C.U. Torreense in the third division, Vasconcelos moved to the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

and signed with

RKC Waalwijk RKC Waalwijk () is a Dutch professional association football, football club based in Waalwijk. They currently play in the Eerste Divisie, the second tier of Dutch football league system, Dutch football, following relegation from the Eredivisie i ...

in the

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

, netting four goals to help the

North Brabant North Brabant ( ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, Dutch Brabant or Hollandic Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to ...

side retain their top-level status. Subsequently, he returned to his country with U.D. Leiria, for what would be his only Portuguese top flight experience – after only two matches (36 minutes), he returned to his previous team in the following

transfer window In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...

Cyprus

Vasconcelos left RKC in the summer of 2005, then played one year in Portugal with

G.D. Estoril Praia Grupo Desportivo Estoril Praia (), commonly known as Estoril, is a Portuguese professional sports club from Estoril, Cascais, Lisbon. Founded on 17 May 1939, its Association football, football team currently plays in Primeira Liga and hold home g ...

. He then moved to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

and signed for

APOP Kinyras FC APOP Kinyras FC (, ''Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Pegeias Kinyras'', "Athletic Football Club Peyia Kinyras") was a Cypriot football club from the village of Peyia of Paphos District. The club formed in 2003 following the merger of lower divisi ...

, scoring at an impressive rate in the division two and adding 12 in 26 games in his first season in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

, which he split between APOP and

AC Omonia Athletic Club Omonia Nicosia (; ''Athlitikós Sýllogos Omónoia Lefkosías''), commonly known as Omonia Nicosia, or simply Omonia (also Romanization of Greek, transliterated as Omonoia), is a Cyprus, Cypriot professional multi-sport club, esta ...

. Vasconcelos returned to APOP for the 2008–09 campaign, helping the team win the domestic cup as he netted in the semi-finals against

APOEL FC APOEL FC (; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") is a Cypriot professio ...

. Afterwards, he left the club but remained in the

Paphos District The Paphos District, or simply Paphos (also Pafos), is one of the six districts of Cyprus and it is situated in the western part of Cyprus. Its main town and capital is Paphos. The entire district is controlled by the internationally recognis ...

, signing for

AEP Paphos FC AEP Paphos (, ''Athlitiki Enosi Pafos''; "Athletic Union Paphos") was a Cypriot football club based in Paphos. The club was formed in 2000 after the merger of the two clubs of Paphos, APOP and Evagoras. AEP Paphos was dissolved on 9 June 2014, ...

. In the 2010 off-season, Vasconcelos joined

Hapoel Be'er Sheva F.C. Hapoel Be'er Sheva Football Club (, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be'er Sheva'') is an Israeli professional football club from the city of Be'er Sheva, that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The club was established in 1949, and since 2007 it ...

in Israel, but he returned to former side AEP Paphos in January of the following year. He scored seven goals in only 14 appearances, but they suffered relegation from the top tier. In June 2011, Vasconcelos signed for

Alki Larnaca FC Alki Larnaca (, ''ALKI Larnakas'') was a Cypriot football club based in the town of Larnaca. The club was founded in 1948 and it was dissolved on the 6th of May 2014 due to financial issues. The club's colours were blue and red. They reached th ...

. He was crowned the league's top scorer in his second year at 18 goals, but the team could only rank ninth. After a stint in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

with

Zawisza Bydgoszcz Zawisza Bydgoszcz () is a sports club from Bydgoszcz, Poland, founded in 1946. Its name commemorates a legendary Polish 15th-century knight, Zawisza Czarny (Zawisza the Black). The club holds many sections: football, track and field athletics, b ...

, Vasconcelos returned to Cyprus in late 2014 by signing a one-and-a-half-year contract with

Doxa Katokopias FC Doxa Katokopias FC () is a Cypriot professional 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) ...

Club statistics

Honours

APOP Kinyras *

Cypriot Cup The Cypriot Cup, formally known as the Cypriot Coca-Cola Cup of First and Second Division () for sponsorship purposes, is a Cypriot knockout football club competition, hosted annually by the Cyprus Football Association. First held in 1934, it i ...

: 2008–09 Zawisza Bydgoszcz *

Polish Cup The Polish Cup in Association football, football ( ) is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout football competition for Polish football club (association football), football clubs, held continuously since 1950, and is the second most i ...

: 2013–14 *

Polish Super Cup The Polish Super Cup (, ) is an annually held match between the champions of the Ekstraklasa and the Polish Cup winners or, if the Ekstraklasa champions also win the Polish Cup, the Cup's runners-up. As of 2024, the Polish Super Cup has been ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Individual *

top scorer: 2012–13

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vasconcelos, Bernardo 1979 births Living people Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.L. Benfica B players S.C.U. Torreense players F.C. Alverca players U.D. Leiria players G.D. Estoril Praia players Clube Oriental de Lisboa players Eredivisie players RKC Waalwijk players Cypriot First Division players Cypriot Second Division players APOP Kinyras FC players AC Omonia players AEP Paphos FC players Alki Larnaca FC players Doxa Katokopias FC players Israeli Premier League players Hapoel Be'er Sheva F.C. players Ekstraklasa players Zawisza Bydgoszcz players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Expatriate men's footballers in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Israel Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland