Rufino Walter Gama (born 20 June 1998) is a

Timor Timor (, , ) is an island at the southern end of Maritime Southeast Asia, in the north of the Timor Sea. The island is Indonesia–Timor-Leste border, divided between the sovereign states of Timor-Leste in the eastern part and Indonesia in the ...

ese 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 ...

and former top scorer of

Timor-Leste national football team The Timor-Leste national football team () represents Timor-Leste in the senior men's international football. It is organised by the East Timor Football Federation, Federação de Futebol de Timor-Leste (FFTL) which is affiliated with the Asian ...

with 7 goals. He played for

Karketu Dili FC Karketu Dili Futebol Clube is a Timorese professional football club based in Dili, that competes in the Liga Futebol Amadora, the top tier domestic league since its inception in 2016. The club wins the Premeira Divisão in 2017, finishing with ...

since 2018. He came to

Lalenok United Lalenok United Football Club, commonly known as Lalenok United, is an East Timorese professional association football, football club based in Dili. The team plays in the Liga Futebol Amadora Primeira Divisão, after finishing runners up and being ...

in January 2020, to strengthen the Club in the

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

2020 Playoff match against

PSM Makassar Persatuan Sepakbola Makassar ( 'Football Association of Makassar') commonly referred to as PSM Makassar, is an Indonesian professional football club based in Makassar, South Sulawesi that competes in Liga 1. PSM was founded in 1915 as , ma ...

. In 2024 while playing for São José, Rufino scored the game winning goal in the final of the Copa FFTL.

International career

Gama made his international debut in 2016 as an 81st-minute substitute against

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

. He scored his first international goal for

Timor Leste Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the coastal exclave of Oecusse in the island's northwest, and ...

in the game against

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

which ended with a 1–2 defeat. In September 2018, he was selected for the two-legged 2018 AFF Suzuki Cup qualifying matches against

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

. He started both games as Timor-Leste win to advance to the competition proper, win 3–2 on aggregate. The following year, Gama was selected for the 23 squad man for two-legged 2022 World Cup qualification in June. He started in both games and scored one goal in the second leg at home for a 1–5 loss over

Career statistics

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list East Timor's goal tally first.''

Honours

Karketu Dili * Liga Amadora runner-up: 2018 Lalenok United * Copa FFTL winner: 2020 *

Taça 12 de Novembro Taça 12 de Novembro is an annual knockout association football competition in men's domestic Football in East Timor, Timor football. This competition was organised by Liga Futebol Timor-Leste and East Timor Football Federation, FFTL. Competiti ...

winner: 2020 São José * Copa FFTL winner: 2024

References

1998 births Living people East Timorese men's footballers Timor-Leste men's international footballers East Timorese expatriate men's footballers Karketu Dili F.C. players Lalenok United F.C. players Men's association football forwards Footballers at the 2018 Asian Games Competitors at the 2017 SEA Games Asian Games competitors for Timor-Leste Competitors at the 2019 SEA Games SEA Games competitors for Timor-Leste People from Baucau Municipality {{EastTimor-footy-bio-stub