Jorge Manuel Guerreiro Soares (born 22 October 1971) is a Portuguese retired

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

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. 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 273 games and 11 goals over the course of 13 seasons, representing mainly in the competition Farense and Marítimo.

Club career

Born in the village of Messejana in

Aljustrel Aljustrel (), officially Town of Aljustrel (), is a town and a municipality in the Portuguese district of Beja. The population in 2011 was 9,257, in an area of 458.47 km2. The present mayor is Nelson Domingos Brito, elected by the Socialis ...

, Beja, Soares joined

S.C. Farense Sporting Clube Farense, simply known as Farense, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Faro, Portugal, Faro in the Faro District, district of the same name and the region of Algarve. Founded in 1910, the club ha ...

at the age of 15, being first-choice with the first team in his last four years, all spent in the

. In the 1994–95 season he scored a career-best three goals in 26 games to help the club

qualify Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

to the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

for the first time in its history; late into the following campaign he notably found the net in a 1–0 away win against

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 " ...

, who subsequently signed him. During his two-year spell with them, Soares partnered Jorge Bermúdez,

Hélder Cristóvão Hélder is a given name in Portuguese. The unrelated German-Jewish surname "Helder" is also given the accent in Portuguese, such as the Portuguese poet Herberto Hélder (1930-). The name is sometimes confused with Heitor. People named Hélder incl ...

Tahar El Khalej Tahar El Khalej (; born 16 June 1968) is a Moroccan former footballer who played as a defender. Club career Born in Marrakech, El Khalej started at Kawkab Marrakech in 1990, spending four seasons there, helping them win one league title and tw ...

in the heart of the defense, becoming first-choice after the second moved to

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

in the winter transfer season of 1996. In a match against

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 ...

on 11 January 1997, however, he was unsuccessful at blocking a cross directed towards

Mário Jardel Mário Jardel de Almeida Ribeiro (; born 18 September 1973) is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. He was most noted for his positioning on the field and his heading ability. In spite of only representing Gr� ...

, who stopped it with his chest and scored his team's first in an eventual 2–1 success 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 ...

. After being released he represented

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 ...

in the top flight,

C.F. União Clube de Futebol União, commonly known as União da Madeira, was a Portuguese association football, football club based in Funchal, Madeira, notable for its six season in the Portuguese top-flight Primeira Liga, between the 1989–90 Primeira D ...

in the

second division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

and

Louletano D.C. Louletano Desportos Clube is a Portugal, Portuguese club from Loulé, founded on 6 June 1923. The association football team currently play in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores (Portuguese fourth level), D series. The club plays at the Estádio ...

in the lower leagues, retiring in 2008 at 36.

International career

Soares amassed 7 caps for the under–21, playing in the

1992 Toulon Tournament The 1992 Toulon Tournament was the 20th edition of the Toulon Tournament and began on 24 May and ended on 2 June 1992. England national under-20 football team, England were the defending champions. Participant teams * * * * Serbia and Montenegro ...

, helping his nation win the competition.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Soares, Jorge Manuel Guerreiro 1971 births Living people People from Aljustrel Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players S.C. Farense players S.L. Benfica footballers C.S. Marítimo players C.F. União players Louletano D.C. players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Footballers from Beja District