Carlos Jorge Marques Caldas Xavier (born 26 January 1962) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a midfielder.

Club career

Born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, Xavier began his professional career with

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

-based Sporting CP, already being a regular first-team fixture at age 19. He played 23

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, ...

games as the ''Lions'' won the title in the 1981–82 season, which would be the last until 2000. In 1991, after more than 250 competitive appearances, Xavier moved, alongside compatriot and teammate

Oceano Oceano (Spanish: ''Océano'', meaning "Ocean") is a census-designated place (CDP) in San Luis Obispo County, California, United States. The population was 7,286 at the 2010 census, up from 7,260 at the 2000 census. Geography Oceano is located a ...

, to Spain's

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

, where the pair was equally influential, having been reunited with former Sporting boss John Toshack at the La Liga side. Both Xavier and Oceano returned to Sporting in the summer of 1994, and the former played two more years before retiring at the age of 34. In the 2004–05 campaign he had a brief spell at coaching, assisting at another club from the capital and the top division,

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

International career

Xavier won ten caps for Portugal, then switched successfully to its beach soccer team.

Personal life

Xavier's twin brother, Pedro, was also a footballer. 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 ...

, he represented several teams in the country (coinciding with Carlos at Académica) in an 18-year professional career. Xavier lived in

Quinta da Beloura Quinta da Beloura is an affluent gated community and golf resort located in Linhó, Sintra, on the Portuguese Riviera. The community is known for hosting numerous golf tournaments, tennis opens, and equestrian & dressage events, as well as for be ...

, a gated community in Sintra on the Portuguese Riviera. On October 10th of 2023, Carlos Xavier referred to Mehdi Taremi as "a Muslim who, when he came to Portugal, didn't know how to swim and now he knows how to dive". At the cost of these racist insults directed towards Mehdi Taremi, Sporting CP was charged €15,300.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Xavier, Carlos 1962 births Living people Portuguese twins Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Maputo Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Académica de Coimbra (football) players La Liga players Real Sociedad footballers Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain