Luís Miguel Bilro Pereira (born 1 April 1971), known as Bilro, is a Portuguese retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and

beach soccer Beach soccer, also known as beach football, sand football or sand soccer, is a variant of association football played on a beach or some form of sand between two teams of five players each. Association football has long been played informally on ...

player. While playing association football, in a career that lasted over a decade, he operated as

right-back 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 ...

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 ...

, having represented União de Leiria for 11 professional seasons. 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 245 games and nine goals.

Association football career

Bilro was born in Borba,

Évora District Évora District ( ) is located in Alentejo, in southern Portugal. The district capital is the city of Évora. It borders Spain. Municipalities The district is composed by 14 municipalities: * Alandroal * Arraiolos * Borba * Estremoz * Év ...

. After finishing his footballing formation at

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,

he made his professional debut with Seixal FC, where he had begun as an infant. He went to represent

Atlético Clube de Portugal Atlético Clube de Portugal is a Portuguese sports club based in the parish of Alcântara, in the west side of Lisbon. The club was established on 18 September 1942 through the merger of two local clubs from Alcântara: Carcavelinhos Football ...

and

S.C. Olhanense Sporting Clube Olhanense (), commonly known as Olhanense, is a Portuguese sports club from Olhão, Algarve. Its Association football, football team was founded on 27 April 1912 and currently plays in the Algarve Football Association Portuguese Di ...

, returning to Sporting for 1992–93 and spending an entire season without any official appearances, being released afterwards. After leaving Sporting, Bilro moved to U.D. Leiria, where he would appear in nearly 400 competitive matches, helping the club achieve

promotion in his first year and being coached in the 2001–02 campaign by young manager

José Mourinho José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Félix (; born 26 January 1963) is a Portuguese professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is currently the head coach of Süper Lig club Fenerba ...

, as the side from the Lis River finished seventh.

Beach soccer career

After spending the latter part of 2004–05 with modest S.C. Lusitânia, Bilro moved to

, helping the Portugal national team win the

BSWW Mundialito The BSWW Mundialito, often simply known as Mundialito, is an annual international beach soccer tournament that takes place between few select countries, which are invited to play at the tournament organized by Beach Soccer Worldwide (BSWW). First p ...

in 2008 and 2009. Shortly after, he moved back to Sporting but in his new sport. In 2011, Bilro retired at the age of 40 and started coaching his last team.

Honours

Beach soccer

* Euro League: 2007, 2008 *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

third place: 2008 * Euro League: 2007 (in Portugal); runner-up: 2007 (Italy); third place: 2007 (Spain) * Mundialito: 2008, 2009; runner-up: 2007

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bilro, Luis 1971 births Living people 20th-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Évora District Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Seixal F.C. players Atlético Clube de Portugal players S.C. Olhanense players Sporting CP footballers U.D. Leiria players S.C. Lusitânia players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese beach soccer players