Wilson Migueis Manafá Jancó (born 23 July 1994), known as Manafá, 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 full-back or a winger for

Chinese Super League The Chinese Football Super League (), commonly known as the Chinese Super League or the CSL (), also known as the China Resources Beverage Chinese Football Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Ch ...

club

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

. After making his

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 ...

debut for Portimonense at the age of 23 he transferred to

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

for €7 million in 2019, going on to play 130 games and win two league and

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

doubles.

Club career

Early years

Born in

Oliveira do Bairro Oliveira do Bairro () is a town and a municipality in the district of Aveiro in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 47,729, in an area of 335.27 km2. It had 16,994 eligible voters in 2006. The town itself had a population of 3,077 in 2001. ...

Aveiro District Aveiro District (, ) is located in the central coastal region of Portugal. The capital of the district is the city of Aveiro, which also serves as the seat of Aveiro Municipality. Aveiro District is bordered by the Porto District to the north, ...

of Angolan and Bissau-Guinean descent, Manafá finished his development at

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,

. He made his professional debut with their reserves in the Segunda Liga, his first appearance in the competition being on 11 August 2013 when he came on as a 43rd-minute substitute in a 1–0 away loss against

Atlético Clube de Portugal Atlético Clube de Portugal is a Portuguese sports club based in the parish of Alcântara, in the west side of Lisbon. The club was established on 18 September 1942 through the merger of two local clubs from Alcântara: Carcavelinhos Football ...

. In the following years, Manafá alternated between the second and third divisions, representing

S.C. Beira-Mar Sport Clube Beira-Mar (), commonly known as Beira-Mar, is a Portuguese sports club based in Aveiro, Portugal. Its football team currently plays in the Campeonato de Portugal, the fourth national level, having gained promotion by winning the Ave ...

, Anadia F.C. and

Varzim SC Varzim Sport Club () is a Portuguese football club based in Póvoa de Varzim. The club was founded on 25 December 1915, and has played at the Estádio do Varzim Sport Club since its foundation. The club plays in Liga 3, following relegation in ...

. He scored his first goal in the former competition on 4 April 2015 while at the service of the first club, in a 3–0 away victory over C.D. Trofense.

Portimonense

In late May 2016, Manafá joined

Portimonense S.C. Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional football team, which currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, the second division of Portuguese footbal ...

on a three-year contract. In his first season, he netted three times in 38 matches to help the

Algarve The Algarve (, , ) is the southernmost NUTS statistical regions of Portugal, NUTS II region of continental Portugal. It has an area of with 467,495 permanent inhabitants and incorporates 16 municipalities (concelho, ''concelhos'' or ''município ...

team return to the

after a six-year absence. Manafá made his debut in the Portuguese top tier on 7 August 2017, playing 16 minutes in a 2–1 home win against

Boavista F.C. Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football league system, Portuguese football, at the Estádio do B ...

and providing the assist for

Bruno Tabata Bruno Vinícius Souza Ramos, known as Bruno Tabata (born 30 March 1997) is a Brazilian footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Internacional. Club career Early career Born in Ipatinga, Tabata began playing at local clubs Aciaria ...

's winner. He scored his first league goal on 25 August of the following year, also putting one past his own net in a 2–2 draw with C.D. Santa Clara also at the

Estádio Municipal de Portimão Estádio Municipal de Portimão is the current stadium of Portimonense S.C. It is located in the centre of Portimão in the Algarve, Portugal and was opened in 1937 for local football club Portimonense S.C. Its capacity is 4,961 people. It hoste ...

. During the latter campaign, he was reconverted by manager António Folha to a full-back.

Porto

On 21 January 2019, Manafá signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

; the initial transfer fee was €3 million for 60% of the player's economic rights, with the remainder bought for €4 million in 2020–21. He made his debut nine days later in a 3–0 home win over

B-SAD B-SAD was a Portuguese football club currently based in Almada, founded on 30 June 2018 as an independent entity. An offshoot of Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, they played four seasons in the Primeira Liga, being relegated to the Liga Portugal ...

, playing the final ten minutes in place of

Éder Militão Éder Gabriel Militão Pinheiro (born 18 January 1998) is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a centre-back for the La Liga club Real Madrid CF, Real Madrid and the Brazil national football team, Brazil nationa ...

, and scored his first goal on 4 May in a 4–0 defeat of C.D. Aves also at the

Estádio do Dragão The Estádio do Dragão (; ') is an all-seater football stadium in Porto, Portugal, and the home ground of FC Porto since 2003. It has a seating capacity of 50,033, making it the third-largest football stadium in Portugal. Designed by Portugue ...

. His team lost two finals on penalties to Sporting that season: the

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 ...

in which he was an unused substitute, and the

in which he came off the bench in the 77th minute. Manafá started regularly under

Sérgio Conceição Sérgio Paulo Marceneiro da Conceição (; born 15 November 1974) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player who mostly played as a right winger. Throughout his career, he played for ten teams in five countries. After gain ...

, but eventually lost his position to João Mário on the right flank and Zaidu Sanusi on the left. On 30 December 2021, shortly after having replaced the former in ''

O Clássico O Clássico () is the name given in Association football, football to matches between Portuguese clubs S.L. Benfica and FC Porto. Originally, the term ''O Clássico'' only referred to games played in the Primeira Liga, league, but now tends to in ...

'' against

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

, he suffered a serious injury to his right-knee

patellar tendon The patellar tendon is the distal portion of the common tendon of the quadriceps femoris, which is continued from the patella to the tibial tuberosity. It is also sometimes called the patellar ligament as it forms a bone to bone connection whe ...

, subsequently undergoing surgery and missing the rest of the season. Still injured, Manafá was one of four Porto players suspended for the 2022 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira and fined €510 for having made insults towards Benfica during title celebrations. After recovering, he started playing again with the reserves in the second tier.

Later career

On 7 August 2023,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

Manafá signed for

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

, newly-promoted to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. Having arrived injured, he only made five appearances during his spell in

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, his league bow coming on 5 November in a 1–0 away loss to

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol, S. A. D. (; ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF or simply Valencia, is a Spanish professional Association football, football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top tier of the Spani ...

where he played ten minutes. Manafá was meant to move to Brazil in January 2024, joining Série A club

Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas Botafogo de Futebol e Regatas (; ''Botafogo Football and Rowing'') is a Brazilian sports club based in the neighborhood of Botafogo, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Although it competes in a number of different sports, Botafogo is mostly known ...

on a two-year contract. However, even after being officially announced, the deal fell through and he stayed at Granada. On 28 January 2024, Manafá moved to

Shanghai Shenhua F.C. Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua i ...

in the

Career statistics

Honours

Porto *

: 2019–20, 2021–22 *

: 2019–20, 2021–22,

2022–23 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 ...

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 ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Shanghai Shenhua *

Chinese FA Super Cup The Chinese FA Super Cup (), formerly named Chinese Football Super Cup (), is a Chinese football super cup competition that takes place every year before the start of the new season. It is contested between the champions of the previous Chinese Su ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

2025 So far, the year has seen the continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudanese civil war, and the Gaza war. Internal crises in Bangladesh post-resignation v ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Manafa, Wilson 1994 births Living people People from Oliveira do Bairro Portuguese sportspeople of Angolan descent Portuguese sportspeople of Bissau-Guinean descent Black Portuguese sportspeople 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen Portuguese men's footballers Footballers from Aveiro District Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers Men's association football utility players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Campeonato de Portugal (league) players Sporting CP B players S.C. Beira-Mar players Anadia F.C. players Varzim S.C. players Portimonense S.C. players FC Porto players FC Porto B players La Liga players Granada CF footballers Chinese Super League players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in China Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Spain Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in China