José António Calado da Silva (born 1 March 1974), known as Calado, is a Portuguese former

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 midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. After coming to prominence in his home country with Benfica, he spent the rest of his 19-year professional career with two teams in Spain and two in Cyprus. 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 184 games and seven goals over eight seasons.

Club career

Calado was born 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 ...

. He started his career with local Casa Pia AC, representing C.F. Estrela da Amadora and S.L. Benfica afterwards and reaching international status with the latter club. In the summer of 2001, Calado signed for

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, Spain. It plays in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. It plays home ...

alongside his teammate

João Tomás João Henrique Pataco Tomás (born 27 May 1975) is a Portuguese retired professional footballer who played as a striker. He represented mostly Braga (three seasons) and Rio Ave (four) in a 19-year senior career, also having a one-and-a-half-se ...

, but both failed to settle, with the midfielder only totalling 22 competitive matches in two seasons. He spent 2003–04 on loan to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

team

Polideportivo Ejido Poli Ejido 2012 Sociedad Deportiva was a Spanish football team based in El Ejido, Province of Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1969 and dissolved in 2012, it held home matches at '' Estadio Municipal Santo Domingo'' ...

, and the move was subsequently made permanent. After 102 overall appearances with 15 goals (he missed the entire 2006–07 campaign due to injury), Calado moved to

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, first with

APOP Kinyras FC APOP Kinyras FC (, ''Athlitikos Podosfairikos Omilos Pegeias Kinyras'', "Athletic Football Club Peyia Kinyras") was a Cypriot football club from the village of Peyia of Paphos District. The club formed in 2003 following the merger of lower divisi ...

, joining AEP Paphos FC for 2008–09. He featured regularly for both clubs during his

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division (), also known as the Cyprus League by Stoiximan for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Cyprus and the highest level of the Cypriot football league system. Operated by the Cyprus Fo ...

spell, leaving the latter in early 2010 and retiring at age 36.

International career

Calado won four

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 national team over three years. He also represented the nation at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Honours

Benfica *

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 ...

: 1995–96

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Calado, Jose 1974 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Lisbon Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Casa Pia A.C. players C.F. Estrela da Amadora players S.L. Benfica footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Real Betis players Polideportivo Ejido footballers Cypriot First Division players APOP Kinyras FC players AEP Paphos FC players Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portugal men's international footballers Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Portugal Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Portuguese association football commentators