Tiago Barreiros de Melo Tomás (born 16 June 2002) 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 as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

for

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

club

VfL Wolfsburg Verein für Leibesübungen Wolfsburg e. V., commonly known as VfL Wolfsburg (), is a German professional sports club based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony. The club grew out of a multi-sports club for Volkswagen workers in the city of Wolfsburg. I ...

Club career

Sporting CP

Born in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

Lisbon District Lisbon District () is a district located along the western coast of Portugal. The district capital is the city of Lisbon, which is also the national capital. From its creation until 1926, it included the area of the current Setúbal District. ...

of Angolan descent, Tomás came through the youth system of

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,

after a year at nearby

Estoril Estoril () is a town in the civil parish of Cascais e Estoril of the Portuguese Municipality of Cascais, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a popular tourist destination, with hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numero ...

. On 25 June 2020, he signed a five-year contract at the former club, with a

buyout clause A buyout clause or release clause refers to a clause in an employment contract. It allows the employee to terminate the contract unilaterally upon payment of a specified (usually substantial) fee to the employer. The fee may be paid by the employ ...

of €60 million. Tomás made his professional debut on 1 July 2020 one month after his 18th birthday, as an 81st-minute substitute for

Matheus Nunes Matheus Luiz Nunes (born 27 August 1998) is a professional Association football, footballer who plays as a midfielder or Defender (association football)#Full-back, right-back for club Manchester City F.C., Manchester City and the Portugal nat ...

in a 2–1

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 ...

win against

Gil Vicente Gil Vicente (; c. 1465c. 1536), called the Trobadour, was a Portuguese playwright and poet who acted in and directed his own plays. Considered the chief dramatist of Portugal he is sometimes called the "Portuguese Plautus," often refe ...

at home. He scored his first goal on 24 September, the only one of a home victory over

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (dis ...

of the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. He contributed three goals from 30 appearances during the season, helping his team to conquer the league after 19 years.

VfB Stuttgart loan

On 30 January 2022, Tomás was loaned to

VfB Stuttgart Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V. (), commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German professional sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's Association football, football team is currently part of Germany's f ...

until June 2023 with a buying option. He played his first match in the

six days later, replacing

Chris Führich Chris Jan Führich (born 9 January 1998) is a German professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder or left winger for Bundesliga club VfB Stuttgart and the Germany national team. Club career Führich started his career at 1. FC K� ...

for the final ten minutes of the 3–2 home loss to

Eintracht Frankfurt Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German footb ...

. He scored twice in his next appearance, but was unable to keep his team from a 4–2 defeat at

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen, officially known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH () and commonly known as Bayer Leverkusen or simply Leverkusen, is a German professional football club based in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It competes in the B ...

. In the 2022–23 campaign, Tomás helped the Mercedes-Benz Arena club to avoid relegation via the playoffs, with the player coming from the bench in both legs of the 6–1 aggregate win over

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), or HSV (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its Association football, football department. Though the current HSV was founde ...

. On 16 June 2023, Stuttgart did not exercise its option and he left, thanking the organisation for "believing in me when no one else did".

VfL Wolfsburg

On 5 July 2023, Tomás signed a four-year contract with

also of the German top division, for a fee of €8.8 million which could rise to €10.3 million with add-ons; Sporting were also entitled to 15% of any future transfer. He scored two of his three goals of his first season on 13 August, in the 6–0 away rout of amateurs Makkabi Berlin in the opening round of the

DFB-Pokal The DFB-Pokal (), also known as the German Cup in English language, English, is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competiti ...

International career

Aged 18, Tomás was selected by Portugal under-21 manager

Rui Jorge Rui Jorge de Sousa Dias Macedo de Oliveira (born 27 March 1973), known as Rui Jorge, is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a left-back, currently manager of the Portugal national under-21 team. He spent 14 seasons in t ...

for his 2021 UEFA European Championship squad. He earned his first

cap A cap is a flat headgear, usually with a visor. Caps have crowns that fit very close to the head. They made their first appearance as early as 3200 BC. The origin of the word "cap" comes from the Old French word "chapeau" which means "head co ...

in the first group stage match, starting a 1–0 win against

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

Koper Koper (; ) is the List of cities and towns in Slovenia, fifth-largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Slovenian Istria, Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, Koper is the main urban center of the Slovene coast. Port of Koper i ...

. Tomás scored his first goal on 7 October 2021, his team's tenth in the 11–0 demolition of Liechstenstein in

Vizela Vizela () is a municipality in the Braga District in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 23,736, in an area of 24.70 km². The present mayor is Vitor Hugo Salgado, elected as an independent. The municipal holiday is March 19. History In Au ...

for the 2023 European Championship qualifiers.

Career statistics

Honours

Sporting CP *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

, 2021–22 *

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira The Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira (; English: Cândido de Oliveira Super Cup, or simply Portuguese Super Cup) is an annual Portuguese association football, football match played since 1979 between the winners of the top-tier league (Primeira L ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomas, Tiago 2002 births Living people Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Cascais Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Sporting CP footballers Bundesliga players VfB Stuttgart players VfL Wolfsburg players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Germany