Abel Ferreira


Abel Fernando Moreira Ferreira, known simply as Abel as a player, is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a right back, and the current manager of Greek club PAOK FC.

Playing career

Abel was born in Penafiel, Porto District. After emerging through hometown club F.C. Penafiel's youth ranks, he developed while at Vitória de Guimarães where he made his Primeira Liga debut. He then signed with another Minho Province-based team for the 2004–05 season, S.C. Braga.
Abel transferred to Sporting CP in January 2006, in a two-way loan deal involving Wender, a Brazilian who already had represented the northerners. The move was made permanent before the 2006–07 campaign.
On 27 November 2007 Abel scored a spectacular goal against Manchester United, in a UEFA Champions League group stage 1–2 away loss. During that season he was also called up for the Portuguese national side, but eventually did not earn any caps.
From 2008–09 onwards, Abel began having stiff competition from Brazilian Pedro Silva. This situation was aggravated from January 2010 onwards, after the purchase of Braga's João Pereira.
Veteran Abel was still relatively used by Sporting in the following seasons, as Pereira featured regularly as a midfielder. On 24 October 2010 he netted his first league goal for the Lisbon team, scoring in the 90th minute to defeat Rio Ave F.C. at home ; he retired at the end of the 2010–11 campaign at the age of 32, amassing top division totals of 234 matches and three goals.

Coaching career

Ferreira started working as a manager immediately after retiring, being in charge of Sporting's juniors as well as their reserves in the Segunda Liga. In February 2015, he was appointed at Braga B who also competed at that level.
On 26 April 2017, Ferreira succeeded Jorge Simão at the helm of Braga's first team. In his first full season in charge he led them to the fourth place, with the subsequent qualification to the UEFA Europa League's third qualifying round.
PAOK FC paid a reported €2 million to acquire Ferreira's services on 30 June 2019, after former manager Răzvan Lucescu left for Al-Hilal FC of Saudi Arabia. His first year at PAOK participated in the 3rd Qualifying Round of the Champions League where he was eliminated by Ajax, with the referee in the second match wronging PAOK with 2 penalties against him which should not have been given. In the Play-offs of the Europa League, he was eliminated by Slovan Bratislava. In the Super League he managed to lose from Aris on 4 January 2020 with 4–2 and to finish the undefeated record of PAOK that was in force since March 2018. While he managed with great difficulty to finish in 2nd place with 19 points behind Olympiacos. In the Cup, he was eliminated by Olympiakos in the semi-finals. At the moment, a decision has been made for the dismissal after a miserable season where he failed to conquer all the goals of the team.

Managerial statistics

Honours

Player

Sporting