Nani

Source Lazio Wiki

Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, known as Nani, was born in Praia, Cape Verde Islands, on November 17, 1986. He is of Portuguese nationality.

He first started playing football with Real Sport Clube, from Queluz near Lisbon, in 2000.

In 2003 he joined Sporting Lisbon youth set up. In the 2004-05 season he joined the first team and in 2005-06 made his debut. He played 29 league games with 4 goals, 5 games in the domestic cup with 1 goal and 2 games in Europe (1CL +1 EL). The manager was Paulo Bento and the "Leões" finished 2nd and won the Taça de Portugal (the domestic cup).

In 2006-07 he played 29 games and scored 5 goals, 5 games in the domestic cup and 6 in the Champions League with 1 goal (Spartak Moscow). The Verde e Brancos (Green and Whites) again finished 2nd and won the Taça de Portugal.

In the summer of 2007 Nani made the big move to Manchester United in the Premier League. The manager was Alex Ferguson and the Red Devils won the league. Nani played 26 league games with 3 goals, 5 games in the domestic cups, 11 games in the Champions League plus the Community Shield (won vs Chelsea on pens). Manchester United won the Champions League beating Chelsea 6-5 on penalties (Nani scored his, the one just before John Terry's famous slip).

Nani stayed another six seasons with United, five under Sir Alex Ferguson. Manchester United and Nani won another 3 league titles, 2 League Cups and 1 World Cup for Clubs. In this time, they also won another 4 Community Shields and lost another 2 Champions League finals. Nani played a total of 230 games for United and scored 40 goals. His teammates included Rio Ferdinand, Patric Evra, Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes, Carlos Tevez, Cristiano Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and Robin Van Persie just to name a few.

In August 2014 Nani returned to Sporting Lisbon on loan for a season. The manager was Marco Silva (future Everton and Fulham) and the Sportinguisti finished 3rd but again won the cup. Nani played 27 league games with 7 goals, 3 games in the domestic cup with 1 goal and 7 games in Europe (5 in CL and 2 in EL) with 4 goals in CL.

In 2015-16 Nani played in Turkey for Fenerbahçe. The manager was fellow Portuguese Vítor Perira and the "Sari Kanaryalar" (Yellow Canaries) were runners up both in the league (Beşiktaş) and in the cup (Galatasaray). Nani played 28 league games with 8 goals, 6 games in the Turkish Cup and 13 in Europe (2 in CL +11 in EL) with 1 goal.

In 2016-17 he played in Spain for Valencia. The Blanquinegres had three managers; Pako Ayestaran, Voro, Italian Cesare Prandelli and then Voro again and finished 12th. Nani played 25 with 5 goals and 1 game in the Copa del Rey.

In 2017-18 he played with Lazio on loan. The manager was Simone Inzaghi and it was an unlucky season, apart from winning the Italian Supercoppa beating Juventus 3-2. Lazio finished 5th narrowly missing out on Champions Leagueue, lost in the semi-final of Coppa Italia and in the quarter finals of the Europa League. Nani played 18 league games with 3 goals (Udinese, Benevento, Chievo), 1 game in Coppa Italia and 5 games in the Europa League.

In the summer 2018 he returned again to Sporting Lisbon but only until February. There were three managers; José Peseiro, Tiago Fenandes and Marcel Keizer. Nani played 18 league games with 7 goals, 5 in the domestic cups and 5 in the Europa League with 1 goal. The "Leões" came 3rd and won both domestic cups but Nani had already left.

In 2019 he went for the MLS experience in the States and joined Orlando City in Florida. In three seasons he played a total of 88 games and scored 31 goals.

In January 2022 he came back to Italy and joined Venezia in Serie A. The manager was first Paolo Zanetti and then Andrea Soncin for the last four matches. The "Leoni Alati" (The Winged Lions) were relegated and Nani played 10 league games.

In 2022-23 Nani went down under to Australia and played for Melbourne Victory. He played 10 league games for the Blues and 1 in the Australian Cup.

In 2023-24 he played in Turkey again, this time for Adana Demirspor. The Mavi Şimşekler (Blue Lightnings) finished 12th. Nani has so far played 34 games with 4 goals.

In 2024-25 he went back to Portugal and signed for Estrela Amadora.

Nani has had an excellent international career. He has won 112 caps for Portugal and scored 24 goals. He won a bronze at the European Championship in Poland-Ukraine in 2017 and gold at the European Championship in France in 2016. He also played 11 games for the U21's with 1 goal.

Nani is an attacking midfielder. He is often played on the wing, right or left. He is skilful, strong and quick with exceptional dribbling abilities. He is more of an assist man than a goal scorer but has got his fair share of goals in his career. He is considered one of Portuguese greatest players behind the untouchables, CR7 and Eusebio.

At Lazio he was a mixed success. He was on loan so not a regular player. He played a total of 25 games with 3 goals. His time in Rome was enough however for the Laziali to see glimpses of his immense talent.

Lazio career

Season	Total appearances (goals)	Serie A	Coppa Italia	Europa League
2017-18	25 (3)	18 (3)	1	6

Sources

Wikipedia