Fernando João Lobo Aguiar (born 18 March 1972) is a Canadian former professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who played 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. ...

. He amassed

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 ...

totals of 138 matches and 13 goals over six seasons, appearing in the competition for Marítimo,

Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its Association football, football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal (league), Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth natio ...

, Benfica,

União de Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Está ...

and

Penafiel Penafiel ( or ) is a Municipalities of Portugal, municipality and former bishopric (now a Latin Catholic titular see) in the Norte Region, Portugal, northern Portugal, Portuguese Porto District, district of Porto. Capital of the Tâmega Subregion ...

. He added 195 games and 25 goals in the Segunda Liga. Aguiar represented

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

internationally.

Club career

Born in Chaves, Aguiar moved to

at an early age, beginning his career in the

Canadian Soccer League The Canadian Soccer League (CSL; ) is a semi-professional league for Canadian soccer clubs primarily located in the province of Ontario, and claims the history of the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL). It is a non-FIFA league previously ...

where he represented hometown's

Toronto Blizzard Toronto Blizzard may refer to: *Toronto Blizzard (1971–1984), the original soccer club, a franchise of the North American Soccer League *Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993), the later club and franchise of the Canadian Soccer League *Toronto Azzurri B ...

. Although the league disbanded in 1992, he remained with the team for their only season in the

American Professional Soccer League The American Professional Soccer League (APSL) was a professional men's soccer league with teams from the United States and later Canada. It was formed in 1990 by the merger of the third American Soccer League with the Western Soccer League. ...

. Dubbed ''

RoboCop ''RoboCop'' is a 1987 American Science fiction film, science fiction action film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Edward Neumeier and Michael Miner. The film stars Peter Weller, Nancy Allen (actress), Nancy Allen, Dan O'Herlihy, Dani ...

'' due to his powerful frame, Aguiar started competing in Europe in 1994, with Portuguese

club

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M (), commonly known as Marítimo or Marítimo da Madeira, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in the city of Funchal, on the island of Madeira. Established in 1910, Marítimo is best known for its football team ...

. He had trouble making the lineups and subsequently dropped down to the Segunda Liga where he spent four of the next five years, playing for C.D. Nacional, F.C. Maia and

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Ave ...

, helping the latter to achieve promotion in 2000 and subsequently stay in the top flight. Aguiar's good form was noticed by

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 " ...

, for whom he signed a six-month contract in December 2001, going on to play a somewhat important defensive role. On 25 January 2004 he scored the only goal in a 1–0 away win against

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 ...

(in the 90th minute), assisted by Miklós Fehér who would die in the hospital just hours later; he also helped the

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 ...

-based side capture the 2004

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 ...

. After his cup-winning exploits, Aguiar transferred to Swedish club

Landskrona BoIS Landskrona Boll och Idrottsällskap (, locally referred to as BoIS) is a Swedish professional football club located in Landskrona, Scania, which currently plays in Superettan, the second league tier of football in Sweden. The club was formed ...

. However, an injury and his high wages ruined the move, and he left after only a few months for F.C. Penafiel. In August 2005 he joined second-tier

Gondomar SC Gondomar Sport Club is a Portuguese football club based in Gondomar, Porto District. Founded on 1 May 1921, it currently plays in the fourth-tier Campeonato de Portugal, holding home games at '' Estádio de São Miguel'', with a capacity of 2. ...

, representing it for four years and suffering relegation in

the last The Last may refer to: * The Last (band), Los Angeles power pop band active since 1976 * ''The Last'' (audio drama), a ''Doctor Who'' audio drama released in 2004 * ''The Last'' (album), 2009 album by Aventura *"The Last", a song by The Replaceme ...

, after which he was released at age 37, retiring shortly after. On 13 November 2013, more than four years after his last match, Aguiar came out of retirement, moving to Pedrouços A.C. in the Porto regional divisions.

International career

Aguiar possessed both Portuguese and Canadian citizenship but, having grown up in Canada, he eventually featured for its national team. Ironically, he made his debut in a January 1995 SkyDome Cup match against

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 ...

, and went on to earn a total of 13

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 ...

scoring no goals. Aguiar represented Canada in four

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

matches. His final international appearance was in July 1999, with

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

Honours

Benfica *

: 2003–04

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Aguiar, Fernando 1972 births Living people Canadian people of Portuguese descent Portuguese emigrants to Canada Naturalized citizens of Canada Sportspeople from Chaves, Portugal Sportspeople of Portuguese descent 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen 20th-century Canadian sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Canadian men's soccer players Footballers from Vila Real District Soccer people from Ontario Men's association football midfielders Canadian Soccer League (1987–1992) players American Professional Soccer League players Toronto Blizzard (1986–1993) players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players C.S. Marítimo players C.D. Nacional players F.C. Maia players S.C. Beira-Mar players S.L. Benfica footballers U.D. Leiria players F.C. Penafiel players Gondomar S.C. players Allsvenskan players Landskrona BoIS players Canada men's under-23 international soccer players Canada men's international soccer players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Canadian expatriate men's soccer players Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Canadian expatriate sportspeople in Sweden