José António Silvestre Rafael (born 22 November 1958) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a striker.

Club career

After starting his professional career with local S.C. Farense in the second division, Rafael spent the following ten seasons in the top level, first appearing rarely with

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

neighbours Portimonense S.C. over the course of two campaigns. He then signed for Amora F.C. in the 1981 summer, scoring six goals in 25 games in his second year, which ended in relegation. Rafael returned to Farense for 1983–84, netting a career-best 11 goals as the club eventually avoided relegation. Afterwards, he played three seasons with Boavista FC, appearing in two

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 ...

editions: on 19 September 1985 he scored twice in a 4–3 home win against Club Brugge KV, albeit in a 5–6 aggregate loss. Rafael retired from football in June 1989 at nearly 31, after two years with Vitória de Setúbal, amassing top flight totals of 160 matches and 47 goals.

International career

Rafael gained two caps for

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 ...

, both coming during the

1986 FIFA World Cup The 1986 FIFA World Cup was the 13th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Mexico from 31 May to 29 June 1986. The tournament was the second to feature a 24-tea ...

qualifiers. He scored on his debut, a 3–2 home win over

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

on 12 October 1985.

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rafael, Jose 1958 births Living people Footballers from Faro, Portugal Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.C. Farense players Portimonense S.C. players Amora F.C. players Boavista F.C. players Vitória F.C. players C.F. Os Belenenses players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's international footballers 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen