Romário Baldé

Romário Baldé (born 25 December 1996) is a professional footballer who plays as a winger. He was born in Guinea-Bissau, but represented Portugal internationally on junior levels. On senior level, he switch allegiance back to his country of birth.

Romário Baldé
Personal information
Full name Romário Baldé
Date of birth (1996-12-25) 25 December 1996
Place of birth Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
Height 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Winger
Youth career
2006–2008 Estrela da Amadora
2008–2015 Benfica
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2014–2017 Benfica B 30 (1)
2015–2016 → Tondela (loan) 24 (2)
2017–2019 Lechia Gdańsk 10 (1)
2018–2019 → Académica (loan) 30 (2)
2019–2020 Gil Vicente 7 (0)
2020 → Leixões (loan) 4 (0)
National team‡
2011 Portugal U16 9 (1)
2011–2013 Portugal U17 19 (0)
2014 Portugal U18 5 (1)
2014–2015 Portugal U19 10 (5)
2015 Portugal U20 7 (2)
2019– Guinea-Bissau 1 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:22, 29 December 2020 (UTC)
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 8 June 2019

Club career

Born in Bissau, Baldé arrived in the youth ranks of Benfica at age 12, from local Estrela da Amadora.

He represented the club on the debut season of UEFA Youth League, helping them progress all the way through the final, lost to Barcelona.[1] The following season, the 17–year old made his professional debut for Benfica B in a 2014–15 Segunda Liga match against C.D. Trofense on 9 August 2014.[2] He also represented Benfica again in the UEFA Youth League, reaching the quarter-finals against FC Shakhtar Donetsk, where he missed a penalty, attempted in panenka style, that would have given his team the lead. They were later eliminated in the penalty shootout.[3]

In May 2015, Baldé announced that he would be leaving the club, after he could not agree on a new contract with Benfica.[4] However, two months later, he back-tracked on that decision and signed a five-year extension with Benfica, being immediately loaned to Primeira Liga side Tondela for one season.[5][6] He made his debut for Tondela in the 1–0 loss against Vitória de Guimarães on 13 September,[7] and scored his first goal three weeks later in a 1–1 draw with Moreirense.[8] Being regularly used throughout the season, he finished the campaign with 25 appearances and two goals.[9]

In the following season, Baldé was not loaned out and remained at Benfica B,[10] appearing in 21 games and scoring once.[9] On 25 August 2017, Baldé moved on a permanent deal to Polish club, Lechia Gdańsk, signing a three-year contract.[11] On 31 August, he moved to Académica de Coimbra on a one-year loan with an option to sign permanently.[12]

International career

He represented Portugal at the 2014 UEFA European Under-19 Championship, scoring one goal.[13] Balde captained the Portugal U20s for the 2016 Toulon Tournament.[14]

He made his Guinea-Bissau national football team debut on 8 June 2019 in a friendly against Angola, as a half-time substitute for Jorginho.[15]

Honours
Benfica

References
  1. "'Proud' Benfica hold heads high after final defeat". UEFA. 14 April 2014. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  2. "SL Benfica B – Trofense, 3-2: Águias vencem no Seixal ao intervalo" [SL Benfica B – Trofense, 3-2: Eagles win in Seixal at break] (in Portuguese). SL Benfica. 9 August 2014. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  3. "Benfica's Romário Baldé heartbroken after embarrassing Panenka penalty miss". The Guardian. 18 March 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  4. "Romário Baldé: Espero um dia regressar ao Benfica" [Romário Baldé: I hope to return at Benfica one day]. Record (in Portuguese). 16 May 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  5. "Romário Baldé emprestado ao Tondela" [Romário Baldé on loan to Tondela] (in Portuguese). S.L. Benfica. 31 July 2015. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  6. "Benfica: Romário Baldé fica e renova contrato" [Benfica: Romário Baldé stays and signs new contract]. Mais Futebol (in Portuguese). 28 July 2015. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  7. "Agressividade blindou a baliza" [Aggressiveness blocked the goalposts]. Record (in Portuguese). 16 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  8. "Tondela-Moreirense, 1-1: A aflição dos dois não deu para mais" [Tondela-Moreirense, 1-1: The desperation of both teams did not help]. Record (in Portuguese). 3 October 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  9. "Romário Baldé". Soccerway.com. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  10. "Benfica inscreve três fora das contas" [Benfica registers three leftovers]. Record (in Portuguese). 1 September 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  11. "Romario Balde w Lechii Gdańsk" [Romário Balde in Lechia Gdansk]. Lechia Gdańsk Official website (in Polish). 25 August 2017. Retrieved 25 August 2017.
  12. "Romário Baldé é reforço da Académica" [Romário Baldé strengthens Académica] (in Portuguese). Académica. 31 August 2018. Retrieved 11 September 2018.
  13. "Sub-19: Eleitos para o Europeu" [Under-19: Elected to the European] (in Portuguese). FPF. 23 June 2014. Archived from the original on 25 July 2014. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
  14. "La fiche de match Anglaterre Portugal". Festival International Espoirs Toulon - Var - Provence (in French). 19 May 2016. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  15. "Angola v Guinea-Bissau game report". National Football Teams. 8 June 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.