Rafa Silva

Rafa Silva
Personal information
Full name Rafael Alexandre Fernandes Ferreira Silva
Date of birth (1993-05-17) 17 May 1993
Place of birth Forte da Casa, Portugal
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Playing position Midfielder
Club information
Current team
 Braga
Number 18
Youth career
2002–2003 Povoense
2003–2011 Alverca
2011–2012 Feirense
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
2012–2013 Feirense 41 (10)
2013– Braga 85 (13)
National team‡
2013 Portugal U20 2 (0)
2013–2015 Portugal U21 13 (3)
2014– Portugal 6 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 00:00, 29 April 2016 (UTC).
† Appearances (goals)

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 25 March 2016

Rafael Alexandre "Rafa" Fernandes Ferreira Silva (born 17 May 1993) is a Portuguese footballer who plays for S.C. Braga as a midfielder.

Club career

Feirense

Born in Forte da Casa, Vila Franca de Xira, Silva started playing football with Atlético Povoense and F.C. Alverca, both in the Lisbon District. In 2011, aged 18, he signed with C.D. Feirense with which he played his last year as a junior.

Silva made his professional debut on 29 July 2012, playing the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 home win against F.C. Penafiel for the season's domestic League Cup.[1] He only missed one game in the league campaign, totalling more than 3,200 minutes of action to help his team finish 13th in the second division.[2][3]

Braga

In June 2013, Silva signed a five-year contract with S.C. Braga for an undisclosed fee.[4] He made his Primeira Liga debut on 26 August, starting in a 2–1 win against C.F. Os Belenenses.[5] On 10 November, he scored his first goals, striking twice in a 3–1 win at S.C. Olhanense in the fourth round of the Taça de Portugal;[6] nineteen days later he netted for the first time in the league, in a 4–1 home triumph over the same opposition,[7] finishing his first year with 23 appearances and three goals[8] to help to a ninth-place finish.

The following season, Silva was a league ever-present for the Minho Province team and started all but one game. He scored three times in that edition of the cup, including one in the final which his team lost in a penalty shootout to Sporting Clube de Portugal at the Estádio Nacional on 31 May 2015.[9]

International career

Silva made his first appearance for the Portuguese under-20 team on 23 April 2013, against Uzbekistan.[10] He was not selected to that year's FIFA U-20 World Cup, however.

On 28 February 2014, Silva received his first callup for the senior side, for an exhibition game with Cameroon on 5 March.[11] He played the first 45 minutes of the game, in a 5–1 win in Leiria.[12]

On 19 May 2014, Silva was named in the final 23-man squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[13] He remained unused in the group stage exit.

After scoring in both games against Azerbaijan in qualification,[14][15] Silva was part of the under-21 team that finished as runners-up at the 2015 UEFA European Championship in the Czech Republic.[16]

Club statistics

As of 29 April 2016[17]
Club Season League Cup League Cup Europe Total
AppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
Feirense 2012–13 41102140--4711
Total 41 10 2 1 4 0 0 0 47 11
Braga 2013–14 233544200329
2014–15 342633000435
2015–16 28820401234611
Total 85 13 10 7 11 2 12 3 90 25
Career Total 126 23 12 8 15 2 12 3 137 36

References

  1. ↑ "Feirense 2:1 Penafiel". Zerozero. 29 July 2012. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  2. ↑ "Feirense-Freamunde, 3–1: Pires carimbou a vitória" [Feirense-Freamunde, 3–1: Pires sealed win] (in Portuguese). Record. 28 April 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  3. ↑ ""Doidos" por Rafa" ["Crazy" about Rafa] (in Portuguese). Record. 2 July 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  4. ↑ "Rafa até 2018" [Rafa until 2018] (in Portuguese). Record. 21 June 2013. Retrieved 25 September 2013.
  5. ↑ "Golo nos descontos salva um displicente Sp. Braga frente ao Belenenses" [Injury time goal saves nonchalant Sp. Braga against Belenenses] (in Portuguese). Público. 26 August 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  6. ↑ Rodrigues, Hugo (10 November 2013). "Olhanense perde com o Braga e sai da Taça de Portugal" [Olhanense lose to Braga and exit Portuguese Cup] (in Portuguese). Sul Informação. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  7. ↑ "Primeira Liga: Braga 4 Olhanense 1". FourFourTwo. 29 November 2013. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  8. ↑ "Jackson Martínez y Felipe Pardo, figuras en la Liga de Portugal" [Jackson Martínez and Felipe Pardo, figures in the Portuguese League] (in Spanish). El Tiempo. 9 February 2014. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  9. ↑ "Sporting beats Braga on penalties to win Portuguese Cup". Yahoo! News. 31 May 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2016.
  10. ↑ "Seleção de sub-20 perde diante do Uzbequistão" [Under-20 national team loses against Uzbekistan] (in Portuguese). RTP. 23 April 2013. Retrieved 3 October 2013.
  11. ↑ "Rafa e Ivan Cavaleiro convocados para jogo da selecção com os Camarões" [Rafa and Ivan Cavaleiro called for national team game with Cameroon] (in Portuguese). Público. 28 February 2014. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  12. ↑ "Ronaldo reaches new milestone in Portugal win". UEFA.com. 5 March 2014. Retrieved 5 March 2014.
  13. ↑ "Paulo Bento announces Portugal's 23-man World Cup squad". PortuGOAL. 19 May 2014. Retrieved 20 May 2014.
  14. ↑ "Portugal press on with Azerbaijan win". UEFA.com. 15 October 2013. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  15. ↑ "Portugal end group in perfect fashion". UEFA.com. 9 September 2014. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  16. ↑ "Sweden beat Portugal on penalties to win U21 title". UEFA.com. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  17. ↑ "Rafa Silva". Soccerway. Retrieved 27 June 2014.

External links

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