João Ferreira

João Ferreira came up through Rio Ave's youth ranks before Benfica took him into its academy, where he worked his way through Benfica B, making 38 appearances in Liga Portugal 2 and scoring twice. Loan spells followed at Vitória de Guimarães and then Rio Ave, before Watford signed him from Benfica in January 2023 for a reported fee of around £2 million.

His time in England produced only five appearances, and the club sent him out again — first to Udinese in Serie A, where he made 27 league appearances over the 2023–24 season, then to Braga in the Primeira Liga for 2024–25. At Braga he made 21 league appearances and featured seven times in the UEFA Europa League, alongside outings in the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga.

Internationally, Ferreira worked his way through Portugal's youth sides, from the under-15s up to the under-19s, where he scored once in seven caps. He has not yet been capped by the senior national team.

His only honour to date came with Benfica, as a runner-up in the 2019–20 UEFA Youth League, a season before his loan moves began. In August 2025, Watford sold him permanently to Saint-Étienne in Ligue 2 for a reported €3 million plus add-ons, closing the chapter that had taken him from Portugal to England, Italy and back to Braga on loan.