Wilson Manafá

Wilson Manafá took the long way to the top of Portuguese football. Portimonense, signed on a free transfer, proved the turning point: three and a half seasons there put him on the radar of FC Porto, who paid €7 million for him in January 2019.

He won the Primeira Liga twice, the Taça de Portugal three times and the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira once.

He left Porto as a free agent for Granada in August 2023, a switch to Spanish football that lasted only a matter of months. In January 2024 he moved on again, this time to Shanghai Shenhua for a fee of €150,000, a sharp drop from the money Porto had once paid for him. A move to Botafogo was reportedly agreed around the same time but collapsed after the clubs failed to agree terms, leaving him in China instead. He has since won the Chinese FA Super Cup in both 2024 and 2025 and was named in the Chinese Super League Team of the Week during the 2024 season.

Internationally, his story has an open question mark. He represented Portugal's under-20s but never advanced to senior recognition, and despite interest from the Guinea-Bissau federation in 2021, given his heritage, he has not played for that country at any level either.