João Vasconcelos Faria Gonçalves

João Vasconcelos grew up in the Braga academy and by the 2023/2024 season had already made his mark, winning the under-19 title with SC Braga B. He spent the following campaigns as a regular in the club's third-tier reserve side, a stage that ended with his promotion to the first team in 2024.

His senior debut came far from home, on 25 July 2024 in a UEFA Europa League tie against Maccabi Petah Tikva. The step into Portugal's Primeira Liga followed several months later, on 9 February 2025, when he came on against Gil Vicente. By May 2025 his first-team appearances stood at three, without a goal to his name.

The clearer picture of his progress lies with Portugal's youth sides, where he has featured at every level from under-15 to under-20. The busiest and most productive of those spells came with the under-17s, where he made sixteen appearances and scored four goals. He also found the net regularly for the under-16s and under-18s, a scoring habit that thinned out by the time he reached the under-20 group, for whom he had yet to score in five outings as of May 2025.

In July 2026, Braga let him leave on a permanent switch to Santa Clara, though the Minho club kept half of his economic rights, a structure reported by Portuguese outlets Pressnet and O Minho. At his new home he took the number 17 shirt.