Rui Manuel Muati Modesto (born 7 October 1999) is a

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 as a winger for Italian club

Udinese Udinese Calcio (; "Udinese Football") is a professional football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy. The team currently competes in the Serie A, the first tier of Italian football. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sport ...

. Born in Portugal, he represents the Angola national team. Initially a defender in his native Portugal, Modesto moved to a more attacking role after moving to Finland.

Early career

Modesto was born in

Vendas Novas Vendas Novas (), officially the City of Vendas Novas (), is a municipality in the District of Évora in Portugal. The population in 2021 was 11,245, in an area of 222.39 km2. The city has 10,625 inhabitants. The present Mayor is Valentino Sal ...

and developed his football skills through various youth clubs in Afeiteira, Estrela Vendas Novas, Juventude Évora and Lusitano Évora. Modesto made his senior debut with Estrela Vendas Novas first team in the 2017–18 season, playing in Portuguese third-tier Campeonato de Portugal. Between 2018 and 2020, he played with Vitória Setubal U23 in Liga Revelação youth league.

Club career

Honka

On 17 September 2020, Modesto transferred to Honka in Finnish top-tier

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

. Modesto represented Honka in the

2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League The 2021–22 UEFA Europa Conference League was the inaugural season of the UEFA Europa Conference League, Europe's tertiary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The final was played at the Arena Kombëtare in Tirana, Albania, with Rom ...

qualifiers in four games. In the 2022 season, he scored 7 goals and provided 12 assists in the league, and was awarded for the most assists of the season.

AIK

After a two-and-a-half season stint in Finland, Modesto was acquired by

Allsvenskan Allsvenskan (; ), also known as Fotbollsallsvenskan (, ) is a professional association football league in Sweden and the highest level of the Swedish football league system. Founded in 1924, it operates on a system of promotion and relegatio ...

club AIK in preparation for the 2023 season. He signed a three-year contract with the club, for a transfer fee of €500,000. After his first season with AIK, Modesto was named The Player of the Season by the fans of the club. He finished the season scoring 7 goals in 34 matches, in all competitions combined.

Udinese

On 30 August 2024, AIK reached an agreement with 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

for the immediate transfer of Modesto for €1.5 million fee. Modesto signed a four-year contract with Udinese.

International career

In June 2023, Modesto received his first call-up to Angola national team for the

2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast, the 34th edition of the international men's fo ...

matches against

Central African Republic The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Chad to Central African Republic–Chad border, the north, Sudan to Central African Republic–Sudan border, the northeast, South Sudan to Central ...

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

. However, he remained an unused substitute during these matches. Modesto made his debut for the Angola national team on 12 September 2023, in a 4–0 friendly loss against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

FC Honka *

Finnish League Cup The Finnish League Cup (in Finnish: ''Liigacup''), is a knock-out football competition contested annually during the pre-season in winter by teams from Veikkausliiga. The competition is notably the only football competition in Europe which is most ...

: 2022 Individual *

Player of the Month: July 2022 *Veikkausliiga Team of the Year:

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

*Veikkausliiga Most Assists of the Season: 2022

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Modesto, Rui 1999 births Living people Footballers from Évora District Angolan men's footballers Angola men's international footballers Portuguese men's footballers Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Men's association football defenders FC Honka players AIK Fotboll players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Kakkonen players Veikkausliiga players Allsvenskan players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Finland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Angolan expatriate men's footballers Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Finland Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Sweden Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Italy Angolan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Udinese Calcio players Serie A players 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen