Full name Hugo Cardoso Porfirio 1992–1997 Sporting CP Years Team Height 1.70 m | 1985–1992 Sporting CP Role Footballer Name Hugo Porfirio | |
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Date of birth (1973-09-28) 28 September 1973 (age 42) | ||
Hugo porfirio sporting cp
Hugo Cardoso Porfírio (born 28 September 1973) is a retired Portuguese footballer who played mostly as a winger.
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He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 86 games and ten goals over the course of nine seasons, representing five different clubs. He also competed professionally in England, Spain and Saudi Arabia.
Porfírio appeared for Portugal at Euro 1996.
Football career
Born in Lisbon, Porfírio graduated from Sporting Clube de Portugal's prolific youth academy, joining the professionals for the 1992–93 season alongside Emílio Peixe. After some appearances as a substitute, he had loan spells with fellow first division clubs F.C. Tirsense and U.D. Leiria.
After impressive displays with the latter, Porfírio earned an international callup to the Portuguese national team. After making his debut on 29 May 1996 in a 1–0 win over Ireland, in Dublin, he made the nation's squad-of-22 for UEFA Euro 1996, playing 15 minutes in the 1–0 group stage win against Turkey.
Some months later, Porfírio was also in the roster at the 1996 Olympic Games, where Portugal finished fourth, its best result ever in the competition. On 9 November he received his last cap for the full side, a 1–0 home success over Ukraine for the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Porfírio returned to Sporting for 1996–97, but soon moved on loan to England's West Ham United. There, he scored four goals in all competitions: against Nottingham Forest in the League Cup, Wrexham in the campaign's FA Cup and Blackburn Rovers and Chelsea in the Premier League. Released by Sporting in June 1997, he spent one season with La Liga's Racing de Santander: netting once during the campaign in a 2–2 draw at CD Tenerife, he was also sent off twice as his team went on to rank in 14th position.
In 1998–99 Porfírio joined Sporting neighbours S.L. Benfica, being loaned in the January transfer window to Nottingham Forest where he appeared sparingly and scored once, against Sheffield Wednesday. He returned to Benfica in July, terminating his contract for unpaid salaries, joining C.S. Marítimo in August on a free transfer but returning to the former at the end of the season after reaching amicable terms; After a brief spell in the first team, he was soon demoted to Benfica B where he would spend almost two years, terminating his link in February 2004.
Subsequently Porfírio had short spells, playing with modest Portuguese teams (S.U. 1º de Dezembro and Clube Oriental de Lisboa) and retiring in 2008 after a season in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr FC.