Joël Almada Monteiro

Sion born, and shaped by a route through Switzerland's lower divisions before anyone at the top level noticed. Joël Almada Monteiro came up through the FC Sion academy but left senior football to find its feet away from the spotlight, at FC Azzurri 90 LS and FC Conthey, in the 1. Liga Classic and 2. Liga Interregional respectively, scoring regularly enough to keep moving upward. The breakthrough came through FC Lausanne-Sport, first with the U21 side, where he scored 11 goals in 17 appearances for Team Vaud, then in the first team itself. A loan to FC Stade Lausanne-Ouchy followed, brief and largely a formality on the way to what came next.

That next step was BSC Young Boys, where Monteiro made around 132 league appearances and scored 28 goals, enough to make him a regular part of back-to-back Swiss Super League titles in 2022–23 and 2023–24, alongside a Swiss Cup won in the first of those seasons. That spell ended this year, with Monteiro leaving for US Lecce in Italy for a reported fee of three million euros.

At international level, Monteiro made his Switzerland debut against Spain, and opened his scoring account for the national side against the same opponents in a Nations League win. A second goal followed in a friendly defeat to Germany. He also holds Portuguese citizenship alongside his Swiss nationality.