Tonel
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40%Born
1980 (44 years old)
Birth Place
Lourosa, PortugalPosition
Defender
Status
Ethnicity
White
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Height
1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
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SoccerTeam
_Retired Soccer
2nd Team
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António Leonel Vilar Nogueira Sousa (Portuguese pronunciation: ; born 13 April 1980), known as Tonel, is a retired Portuguese professional footballer who played as a central defender.
Over the course of ten seasons, he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 223 games and 16 goals, mainly representing Sporting with which he won four major titles. He also played three years in Croatia, with Dinamo Zagreb.
Club career
Porto / Marítimo
Coming through the youth teams of FC Porto, Tonel was born in Lourosa (Santa Maria da Feira), and made his professional debut when he was loaned out to Académica de Coimbra during 2000–01, helping them promote to the Primeira Liga in his second year. Despite earning a good reputation during his three-season spell, he was deemed surplus to requirements by his parent club and was released, moving to C.S. Marítimo during the 2004 off-season as part of an exchange deal with Porto which saw Pepe arrive at the Estádio do Dragão.
Tonel enjoyed a hugely successful season for the Madeira side, picking up some European experience during their UEFA Cup tie against Rangers. He formed a fomidable partnership with Dutch Mitchell van der Gaag in defence and became one of the team's leading figures, playing 28 league games and scoring once, in a 2–1 home win over Boavista F.C. on 25 September 2004.
Sporting
On 23 July 2005, after an impressive season, Tonel signed a three-year deal with Sporting Clube de Portugal for €500,000. The second stint with another club of the Big Three was much more successful this time, as he was an everpresent figure at Sporting's back four since his arrival alongside Brazil international Ânderson Polga, also scoring the occasional goal on set pieces.
Shortly after furthering his link with the Lions until 2011, he scored five goals overall during 2007–08, including one in a 2–1 win at FC Dynamo Kyiv for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League (incidentally, Polga netted the other).
In late October 2008, after an injury in a draw at F.C. Paços de Ferreira, Tonel lost his place to youth graduate Daniel Carriço, and never regained it again during the season, although he himself took Polga's place midway through the following campaign.
Dinamo Zagreb
On 27 August 2010, after falling out of favour with new manager Paulo Sérgio, 30-year-old Tonel signed for Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb. He made his official debut in an Eternal derby match against HNK Hajduk Split on 11 September; he was awarded No. 13 shirt in the Prva HNL, but played with No. 28 in European fixtures, as Dario Šimić had been registered with the former number at the start of the 2010–11 season, before retiring in August 2010.
Tonel was released by Dinamo at the end of his contract, in December 2012.
Beira-Mar
On 7 January 2013, Tonel returned to his homeland and joined top division club S.C. Beira-Mar, signing until June 2014. After suffering relegation, however, he terminated his link and went on to spend a further two seasons in the second tier with C.D. Feirense.
Belenenses
On 9 June 2015, 35-year-old Tonel returned to the Portuguese top division after agreeing to a one-year contract with C.F. Os Belenenses. Early into the campaign, he was criticized for committing a 90th-minute penalty in favour of his former team Sporting when the score was 0–0 at the Estádio José Alvalade, with his action resulting in an eventual loss.
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