Ricardo Jorge Tavares Machado (born 13 September 1988) is a Portuguese 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 ...

who plays for Florgrade as a

centre-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 ...

Club career

Portugal

Born in

Vila Nova de Gaia Vila Nova de Gaia (; ), or simply Gaia, is a city and a municipality in Porto District in Norte Region, Portugal, Norte Region, Portugal. It is located south of the city of Porto on the other side of the Douro River. The city proper had a populati ...

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 ...

, Machado spent the vast majority of his youth career with local S.C. Dragões Sandinenses. He made his debut as a senior in 2007 with A.D. Machico in the third division, signing with C.S. Marítimo B in the same league after one season. In the summer of 2010, Machado was loaned by C.S. Marítimo to C.D. Feirense of the Segunda Liga. He appeared in his first game as a professional on 12 September, starting in a 2–2 away draw against F.C. Arouca.

Romania

Machado competed in Romania and its

Liga I Liga I (; ''First League''), also spelled as Liga 1 and officially known as SuperLiga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Romania and the highest level of the Romanian football league system. Contested by 1 ...

the following years, starting out at FC Brașov. On 13 February 2015, he signed a two-and-a-half-year contract with fellow top-division team

FC Dinamo București FC Dinamo București, commonly known as Dinamo București () or simply Dinamo, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in Bucharest that competes in the Liga I. Founded in 1948 as the team of the Ministry of Inter ...

. Machado's first top-flight match occurred on 31 October 2011 while at the service of the former club, when he played the entire 1–2 home loss to

CFR Cluj Fotbal Club CFR 1907 Cluj, commonly known as CFR Cluj ( or ) or simply CFR, is a Romanian professional association football, football club based in the city of Cluj-Napoca, Cluj County, that competes in the Liga I. Founded as ''Kolozsvári Vasut ...

. His first goal was scored the following 4 May, helping the hosts to defeat CSU Voința Sibiu 3–0. In the 2012–13 campaign, Machado scored a career-best five goals for Brașov, helping the side to the seventh position.

Al Taawoun

Machado joined

Saudi Pro League The Saudi Pro League (SPL), also known as the Roshn Saudi League (RSL) for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Saudi Arabia and the highest level of the Saudi football league system. The SPL is regarded as th ...

's Al Taawoun FC in 2015. On 5 December 2017, he agreed to a two-year extension. In July 2020, Machado announced his decision to leave, citing a "need for a new challenge".

Later years

On 25 January 2021, aged 32, Machado returned to Portugal and its second tier by joining F.C. Penafiel on a short-term deal. After several months of inactivity, he signed with

Académico de Viseu F.C. Académico de Viseu Futebol Clube, commonly known as Académico de Viseu, is a Portuguese professional association football, football club based in Viseu. Founded in 1914 as ''Clube Académico de Futebol'', the club went through several changes ...

in the same level, reuniting with manager Pedro Ribeiro. Machado moved back to Saudi Arabia in July 2022, with Al-Sahel SC of the First Division League. One year later, he joined Portuguese amateurs

Florgrade FC Florgrade Football Club is a Portuguese football club established in 2014 and headquartered in Ovar. It was founded and is owned by the Portuguese cork industry company with the same name (Florgrade). In the 2023–24 season, the football team was ...

Career statistics

]

Honours

Al Taawoun * King's Cup (Saudi Arabia), King's Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Machado, Ricardo 1988 births Living people Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Vila Nova de Gaia Men's association football central defenders Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players S.C. Dragões Sandinenses players C.S. Marítimo players C.D. Feirense players F.C. Penafiel players Académico de Viseu F.C. players Liga I players FC Brașov (1936) players FC Dinamo București players Saudi Pro League players Saudi First Division League players Al Taawoun FC players Al-Sahel SC (Saudi Arabia) players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Romania Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Romania Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen