Joaquim Claude Gonçalves Araújo (born 9 April 1994), known as Gonçalves, is a 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 plays as a

defensive 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. ...

for

Ekstraklasa (; meaning "Extra Class" in Polish), officially known as PKO Bank Polski Ekstraklasa due to its Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by PKO Bank Polski, is a professional association football league in Poland and the highest level of the Polish foo ...

club

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

. Born in France, he represented Portugal at youth international level.

Club career

Ajaccio

Born in

Propriano Propriano (; , ) is a commune in the Corse-du-Sud department of France on the island of Corsica. It is situated on the Valinco Gulf. Population Transport * Railway stations in Corsica - stillborn branch See also * Communes of ...

Corsica Corsica ( , , ; ; ) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the Regions of France, 18 regions of France. It is the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the Metro ...

of Portuguese descent, Gonçalves came through local

AC Ajaccio Athletic Club Ajaccien (), commonly referred to as AC Ajaccio, ACA or simply Ajaccio, is a French professional football club based in the city of Ajaccio on the island of Corsica. The club was founded in 1910 and plays in the Ligue 2, the sec ...

's youth system. He made his

Ligue 1 Ligue 1 (; ), officially known as Ligue 1 McDonald's France, McDonald's for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in France and the highest level of the French football league system. Administered by the Ligue de ...

debut on 21 September 2013, coming on as a 46th-minute substitute for

Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi Jean-Baptiste Pierazzi (born 17 June 1985) is a retired French footballer who played as a defensive midfielder and currently serves as an assistant coach with Canadian Premier League club Valour FC. Club career Jean-Baptiste began his professio ...

in a 2–0 away loss against

Stade Rennais FC Stade Rennais Football Club (SRFC, ), commonly referred to as Stade Rennais () or simply Rennes,''Rennais'' and ''Stade Rennes'', used by some English-speaking media outlets and journalists, are not grammatically correct names for the club. is ...

. Gonçalves contributed 23 games – 14 starts – in his first season, but the club returned to

Ligue 2 Ligue 2 (, League 2), also known as Ligue 2 BKT due to sponsorship reasons, is a French professional football league. The league serves as the second division of French football and is one of two divisions making up the Ligue de Football Prof ...

after finishing in 20th and last position.

Tondela

On 20 June 2016, Gonçalves signed a two-year contract with C.D. Tondela of the Portuguese

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 ...

. He first appeared in the competition on 13 August, playing 34 minutes in a 0–2 home defeat 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 " ...

. Gonçalves appeared in 58 competitive matches during his spell at the

Estádio João Cardoso Estádio João Cardoso is a football stadium in Tondela, Portugal, with a capacity for 5,000 spectators. It is the home stadium of C.D. Tondela, currently playing in the Portuguese Liga Portugal 2. The stadium, built in 2008, initially held a ca ...

Troyes

On 30 August 2018, Gonçalves joined French second-tier side

Troyes AC Espérance Sportive Troyes Aube Champagne (ESTAC), commonly known as Troyes, is a football in France, French professional association football club based in Troyes that competes in Ligue 2. It plays its home matches at the Stade de l'Aube. Foun ...

on a two-year deal. His maiden league appearance took place on 26 October, when he replaced Yoann Salmier midway through the second half of the 2–0 away victory over

Grenoble Foot 38 Grenoble Foot 38, commonly referred to as simply Grenoble or GF38, is a Football in France, French association football club based in Grenoble. The club plays its home matches at the Stade des Alpes, a sports complex based in the heart of the c ...

Gil Vicente

Gonçalves returned to the Portuguese top flight in summer 2019, agreeing to a contract at

Gil Vicente FC Gil Vicente Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Gil Vicente, founded in 1924, is a Portuguese professional football club that plays in Barcelos. It plays their home matches at the Estádio Cidade de Barcelos. It competes in the Primeira Liga, the ...

. He scored his first goal for the club on 19 October, closing the 2–0 defeat of F.C. Penafiel in the

third round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

of 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 ...

. His first in the league came two months later, at home with

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

(2–2).

Ludogorets

In May 2021, Gonçalves joined

PFC Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

of the

First Professional Football League The First Professional Football League (), commonly known as Parva Liga or Bulgarian First League (currently known as the efbet League for sponsorship reasons), is a professional association football league in Bulgaria and the highest level of t ...

, with the deal being made effective on 1 July. He won the

Bulgarian Supercup The Bulgarian Supercup () is the trophy won in a football match held between the football club that has won the Bulgarian first football division in the season that ended in the year of the match and the holder of the Bulgarian Cup at that time. ...

on 17 July after beating

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First Professional Football League, First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ' ...

4–0, and at the end of his debut campaign was also crowned national champion. Gonçalves won a further two domestic leagues until the end of his tenure, totalling 121 appearances and nine assists.

Legia Warsaw

On 15 June 2024, Gonçalves signed a three-year contract with Polish

club

International career

Gonçalves won the second of his five

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 the Portugal under-20 team during the

2014 Toulon Tournament The 2014 Toulon Tournament was the 42nd edition of the Toulon Tournament. The competition took place between 21 May and 1 June 2014 mostly in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of South Eastern France. Brazil national under-20 football team, B ...

, featuring the full 90 minutes in the 2–0 group stage win over

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

Career statistics

Honours

Ludogorets Razgrad *

: 2021–22,

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2023–24 *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup () is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament's format is ''single-elimination'', with all matche ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Legia Warsaw *

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 ...

: 2024–25

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goncalves, Claude 1994 births Living people People from Corse-du-Sud French sportspeople of Portuguese descent 21st-century French sportsmen 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen French men's footballers Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Championnat National 3 players AC Ajaccio players ES Troyes AC players Primeira Liga players C.D. Tondela players Gil Vicente F.C. players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC Ludogorets Razgrad players Ekstraklasa players Legia Warsaw players Portugal men's youth international footballers French expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Poland French expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria French expatriate sportspeople in Poland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Poland