José Manuel Bica Reis (born 16 June 2003) is a Portuguese

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

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) ** Smal ...

for

Leixões The Port of Leixões (, ) is one of Portugal's major seaports, located 4 km north of the mouth of the Douro River, in Matosinhos municipality, near the city of Porto. Leixões Sport Club, commonly known simply as ''Leixões'', is Matosinh ...

, on loan from

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 ...

Club career

Early career and Lille

Born in

Mirandela Mirandela (), officially the City of Mirandela (), is a city and a municipality in northeastern Portugal. The city itself is contained by the Mirandela parish, which had a population of 11,397. The population of the municipality in 2021 was 21,38 ...

in the

Bragança District Bragança District ( ; ) is a traditional political division of Portugal, in the northeast corner bordering on Spain (Castile and Leon and Galicia), covering 7.4% of the nation's continental landmass. the total resident population was 136,252, ...

, Bica began playing at local

SC Mirandela Sport Clube de Mirandela ''(Mirandela)'' is a Portuguese football club based in the city of Mirandela, in northeast Portugal (Trás-os-Montes region). Background Mirandela currently plays in the Segunda Divisão Zona Norte, which is the third ...

. In 2014, he helped the team to the district title by scoring 205 of their 258 goals; this drew the attention of the Big Three, of whom he chose to sign for

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 ...

. After playing for Porto and their

farm team In sports, a farm team (also referred to as farm system, developmental system, feeder team, or nursery club) is generally a Team sport, team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any s ...

Padroense FC, Bica joined G.D. Chaves in 2019 and scored 19 goals in 20 games. In August 2020, he signed his first professional contract, for five years at

Lille OSC Lille Olympique Sporting Club (), commonly referred to as LOSC, LOSC Lille or simply Lille, is a French professional association football, football club based in Lille, Northern France competing in Ligue 1, the top division of Football in Franc ...

in France's

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 ...

. He played for the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the fifth-tier

Championnat National 3 The Championnat National 3, commonly referred to as simply National 3 and formerly known as Championnat de France Amateur 2, is a football league competition. The league serves as the fifth division of the French football league system behind ...

, but was called up for first-team matches.

Marítimo

On 31 January 2023, Bica returned to his country, signing for

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 was assigned to their B-team in the fourth-level Campeonato de Portugal. Bica played 15 first-team games in the

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

in 2023–24, scoring on 28 January in a 3–2 loss at

AVS Futebol SAD AVS Futebol SAD is a Portuguese professional football club currently playing in the Liga Portugal Betclic (the first tier of the Portuguese football league system). They are based in the town of Vila das Aves, and play in Estádio do CD Aves. F ...

. The following month he was suspended from the team allegedly due to a conflict with teammate Francis Cann, and his representatives pushed for a free transfer to

as they believed that his contractual clause for automatic two-year renewal was invalid.

Vitória Guimarães

Bica completed his move to Vitória on 7 July 2024, signing a four-year deal. On 27 October, having already debuted for the club in the

UEFA Conference League The UEFA Conference League (UECL), usually known simply as the Conference League, is an annual football competition organised since 2021 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It is the thir ...

and represented their reserves in the fourth division, he played his first

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 ...

game in a 2–2 draw at C.F. Estrela da Amadora; he came on as a late substitute. On 3 February 2025, Bica was loaned to

Leixões S.C. Leixões Sport Club (), commonly known as Leixões, is a Portuguese sports club from Matosinhos. It is organised into several departments for many sports, such as athletics, boxing, football, futsal, handball, karate, swimming, volleyball, wat ...

of the second tier, without the option to buy. By late April, national sporting newspaper '' Record'' was reporting that his good form was leading Vitória to consider him as a starting player for the following season.

International career

Bica earned his first international caps in February 2020, with three appearances for Portugal under-17 at the Algarve tournament. In June 2021, he played two under-18 friendlies against Norway, scoring to conclude a 2–1 win in the latter game at the Estádio Pina Manique 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 ...

. Later in the year, he played three European qualifiers for the under-19s, ending on 12 October when he was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in a 1–0 loss away to

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

for a confrontation with

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

Filip Baláž minutes after coming on as a substitute.

References

External links

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National team data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bica, Jose 2003 births Living people People from Mirandela Sportspeople from Bragança District Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football forwards SC Mirandela players FC Porto players Padroense F.C. players G.D. Chaves players Lille OSC players C.S. Marítimo players Vitória S.C. players Vitória S.C. B players Leixões S.C. players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Championnat National 3 players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate men's footballers in France Portugal men's youth international footballers