| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Álvaro Cardoso da Silva | ||
| Date of birth | (1914-01-14)14 January 1914 | ||
| Place of birth | Setúbal,Portugal | ||
| Date of death | 12 May 2004(2004-05-12) (aged 90) | ||
| Position(s) | Central defender | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1933–1938 | Vitória Setúbal | ||
| 1938–1948 | Sporting CP | 148 | (1) |
| International career | |||
| 1941–1947 | Portugal | 13 | (0) |
| Managerial career | |||
| 1953 | Sporting CP | ||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Álvaro Cardoso da Silva (14 January 1914 – 12 May 2004) was aPortuguesefootballer who played as acentral defender. He was known asSenhor Cardoso during his highly successful spell atSporting.
Cardoso played forVitória Setúbal from 1933 to 1938. In 1938, he joinedSporting, where he would spend ten years at theLisbon club. He is regarded as one of the best captains of Sporting, having worn the armband during the age of the famousCinco Violinos ("Five Violins"). In this period, he won thePrimeira Divisão four times, theTaça de Portugal four times, as well as theCampeonato de Lisboa four times. His final match for Sporting was in the1948 Taça de Portugal Final, in a 3–1 win overBelenenses. In all competitions for Sporting, he made 252 appearances and scored three goals.
Cardoso representedPortugal thirteen times, with eleven of those as the captain. He made his debut on 12 January 1941 in Lisbon, againstSpain, which finished in a 2–2 draw. He was also part of the team that beat Spain for the first time in an official match, on 26 January 1947. According to legend, he received an anonymous phone call telling him to bury a lucky talisman behind the nets. He received a silver goat horn wrapped in tissue, and asked his teammateSerafim Neves to bury it at night, so that no one would know. He did so, and Portugal won 4–1.[1] Cardoso's final appearance for Portugal was in a 10–0 loss toEngland, where he demanded to be substituted in the first half, having been humiliated byTom Finney, the player he was supposed to be marking.[2]
Having been the assistant manager at Sporting for the past two seasons underRandolph Galloway, Cardoso became manager in 1953. However, he lasted ten matches, winning six, drawing one and losing three. He was replaced in the same year byJoão Joaquim Tavares da Silva.
  | This biographical article related to a Portuguese association football defender is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |