José Luís Vidigal
Portuguese footballer
José Luís da Cruz Vidigal (born 15 March 1973) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.
During his extensive career, the no-nonsense midfield battler spent more years abroad (Italy, eight) than in his country of adoption (seven), where he represented mainly Sporting CP.
A Portugal international for two years, Vidigal appeared with the national team at Euro 2000, helping them to third place.
Club career
Early career and Sporting CP
Born in Sá da Bandeira, Portuguese Angola, Vidigal moved to Portugal at an early age, and started his footballing career with amateurs O Elvas CAD, joining Segunda Liga club G.D. Estoril-Praia in summer 1994.
The following year, Vidigal signed with another team from the Lisbon area, Sporting CP of the Primeira Liga. After tentative beginnings, he became an essential defensive unit, contributing a career-best (in Portugal) 32 games in the 1999–2000 season as the Lions won their first title in 18 years, his only career trophy.
Italian spell
At 27, Vidigal moved to Italy, where he would remain the following eight years. He started out at SSC Napoli after signing along Sporting teammates Facundo Quiroga and Abdelilah Saber, but only played four Serie A matches in his first year and the team was also relegated. His best individual year – 33 appearances, five goals in the 2002–03 campaign – was incidentally spent in the Serie B, but they narrowly avoided another relegation after ending 16th.
Napoli finished higher in 2003–04, but were finally relegated off the pitch. Upon this, Vidigal moved to fellow top-flight side AS Livorno Calcio, starting throughout most of the season and helping to a comfortable ninth position.
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This entry incorporates text from “José Luís Vidigal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.