Rui Orlando Ribeiro Santos Neto (born 24 October 1979), known as Orlando, 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 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 ...

. He appeared in at least 100 matches in each of the three major levels of Portuguese football in a 19-year professional career, including 124 in the

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 ...

(where he represented

Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaquim d ...

and Académica and scored five goals).

Club career

Born in

Santo Tirso Santo Tirso () is a city and municipality located in the north of Porto Metropolitan Area, 25 km from central Porto, Portugal. In the region, the Ave Valley, there is a large center of textile industry. The population in 2021 was 67,709, in ...

Porto District The Districts of Portugal, District of Porto ( ) is located on the north-west coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Porto, the second largest city in the country. It is bordered by the Aveiro (district), Aveiro and Viseu (distric ...

, Orlando started his career with

AD Fafe Associação Desportiva de Fafe (abbreviated as AD Fafe) is a Portuguese professional football club based in Fafe, in the district of Braga. Background AD Fafe currently plays in the Campeonato Nacional de Seniores – Série A which is ...

in the third division in 1998, moving on to

Moreirense FC Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joaqui ...

after three years. Under the guidance of Manuel Machado, he was an important defensive member of a side that was promoted to the

– the season prior to the player's arrival, the club was also in the third tier. In 2006, Orlando returned to division three with S.C. Freamunde. After a good

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

, he was signed by

Académica de Coimbra The Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC) is the students' union of the University of Coimbra (UC). Founded in Coimbra on November 3, 1887, it is the oldest students' union in Portugal. It is also the biggest Portuguese students' union belongin ...

, being an undisputed starter from his debut onwards. In 2008–09 he scored in both matches against F.C. Paços de Ferreira (2–1 win at home, 1–1 away), and continued to be first-choice in the following top-flight campaigns, also being named

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. Orlando spent the better part of

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

and 2011–12 on the sidelines, nursing an injury. In the first game upon his return, on 15 January 2012, he had to be stretchered off in the early minutes of the home fixture against

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 ...

, in an eventual 0–2 loss; after surgery, he remained inactive for nearly one year. In the summer of 2012, after five seasons with the ''Briosa'', Orlando parted ways with the club. In January of the following year he agreed on a return to Freamunde, who now competed now in the Segunda Liga. Following Freamunde's relegation, Orlando signed for

FC Felgueiras Futebol Clube de Felgueiras was a Portuguese football club from Felgueiras. The club was founded on 16 August 1936 and ended in 2005 due to financial problems. The club played at the Estádio Dr. Machado de Matos which was their home since the ...

on a one-year deal.Orlando é reforço do FC Felgueiras (Orlando is a FC Felgueiras addition)
Notícias FC Felgueiras, 6 July 2013 (in Portuguese)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Orlando Neto 1979 births Living people Footballers from Santo Tirso Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players AD Fafe players Moreirense F.C. players S.C. Freamunde players Académica de Coimbra (football) players F.C. Felgueiras (2006) players Leixões S.C. players A.R. São Martinho players