Jovane Eduardo Borges Cabral (born 14 June 1998) is a Cape Verdean professional
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 ...
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 ...
Sotavento Islands
Cape Verde (formally, the Republic of Cabo Verde) is a group of arid Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic islands which are home to distinct communities of plants, birds, and reptiles.
Location and description
The Cape Verde Islands are located in the mid ...
, Cabral joined
Sporting CP
Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,
's youth academy at the age of 16 from Grémio Nhagar. On 20 August 2016 he made his senior debut with the reserve side, coming on as a 61st-minute substitute in a 2–4 home loss against
Fafe
Fafe (), officially the City of Fafe (), is a city and municipality in the northern Portuguese district of Braga. The population in 2021 was 48,502, in an area of approximately . The city itself had a population of 15,703 in 2011. The present ma ...
in the
LigaPro
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 ...
. His first goal in the competition came on 19 March 2017, netting through a
free kick
A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play.
Association football
In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...
in a 2–1 away victory over
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 ...
. Still that year, he helped the juniors win the national championship.
Cabral was called by first-team manager Jorge Jesus for the 2017 pre-season, but eventually returned to the B team. He made his competitive debut for the former on 12 October, replacing Mattheus Oliveira for the final 12 minutes of the 4–2 victory at Oleiros in the
third round
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system
Places
* 3rd Street (di ...
of the
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 ...
.
Cabral scored his first official goal for Sporting on 1 September 2018, his 88th-minute strike earning the hosts a 1–0
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 ...
home win against Feirense. On 3 December, in what was new manager
Marcel Keizer
Marcel Keizer (born 15 January 1969), a Dutch football coach and former player, was most recently the manager of Saudi Pro League side Al Shabab.
His playing career as a midfielder began at Ajax and was mainly spent at Cambuur, and he had b ...
's first match in charge, he netted through a 20-meter
curl
cURL (pronounced like "curl", ) is a free and open source computer program for transferring data to and from Internet servers. It can download a URL from a web server over HTTP, and supports a variety of other network protocols, URI scheme ...
to close the score in a 3–1 defeat of Rio Ave at the Estádio dos Arcos; the goal was later named as the best of the season at the annual awards ceremony.
In June 2020, after the season resumed following the COVID-19 shutdown, Cabral scored four goals over three consecutive games. This concluded with two in a 3–1 win at
B-SAD
B-SAD was a Portuguese football club currently based in Almada, founded on 30 June 2018 as an independent entity. An offshoot of Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, they played four seasons in the Primeira Liga, being relegated to the Liga Portugal ...
on 26 June, when he was replaced injured at
half-time
In several team sports, matches are played in two halves. Half-time (also written halftime or half time) is the name given to the interval between the two halves of the match. Typically, after half-time, teams swap ends of the field of play in or ...
; he was named the league's Player of the Month.
On 19 January 2021, after having replaced fellow youth graduate Tiago Tomás late into the second half, Cabral scored twice to help his team come from behind and beat
Porto
Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...
2–1 in the
semi-finals
A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...
of the
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...
. One year later, he was loaned to Italian
Serie A
The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...
club
Lazio
Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...
with an option to buy. He made his debut for the latter on 17 February, playing ten minutes in the 2–1 away loss against Porto in the knockout play-offs of the
UEFA Europa League
The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...
. He totalled four games for the Romans, scoring in a 3–3 home draw with
Verona
Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...
on 21 May in the last fixture of the campaign.
Cabral was supposed to join
Real Valladolid
Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the .
The club ...
on loan in the January 2023
transfer window
In association football, a transfer window is the period during the year in which a football club, club can add players to their squad who were previously under contract with another club. Such a Transfer (association football), transfer is comp ...
, but the deal fell through due to bureaucratic reasons. On 24 August, also on loan, he signed for one season with Italian top-flight
Salernitana
Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...
, with a buying option reported to be around
€
The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...
3.5 million.
On 1 February 2024, Cabral's loan was cancelled. Hours later, Sporting loaned him to
Super League Greece
The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repla ...
club
Olympiacos
Olympiacós Sýndesmos Filáthlon Peiraiós (, Olympic Association of Fans of Piraeus) is a major multi-sport club based in Piraeus, Greece. Olympiacos is parent to a number of different competitive departments which participate in football, ...
until the end of the campaign, with a reported €3 million buying option.
Estrela Amadora
Cabral signed a two-year contract with Estrela da Amadora on 2 September 2024, for €800,000 and 90% of his sporting rights.
International career
Cabral won his first
cap
A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...
for
Cape Verde
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
Luxembourg
Luxembourg, officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, is a landlocked country in Western Europe. It is bordered by Belgium to the west and north, Germany to the east, and France on the south. Its capital and most populous city, Luxembour ...
. However, in October 2018 he announced he was applying for Portuguese nationality and that he intended to represent its national team.
On 23 March 2022, five years after his debut, Cabral scored his first goal, in the 2–0 friendly defeat of
Guadeloupe
Guadeloupe is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France in the Caribbean. It consists of six inhabited islands—Basse-Terre Island, Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre, Guadeloupe, Grande-Terre, Marie-Galant ...
in
Orléans
Orléans (,"Orleans" (US) and Bubista for the
2023 Africa Cup of Nations
The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, known in short as the 2023 AFCON or CAN 2023 and for sponsor (commercial), sponsorship purposes as the TotalEnergies 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, was the 34th edition of the biennial Africa Cup of Nations tournam ...
.
Career statistics
Club
International
:''Scores and results list Cape Verde's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cabral goal.''
Honours
Sporting CP
*
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 ...
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 ...
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...
:
2021
Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...
Individual
*Primeira Liga Goal of the Season: 2018–19