Matilde Fidalgo


Matilde Mota Veiga Santiago Fidalgo is a Portuguese footballer who plays as a right-back for Manchester City of the FA WSL in England. She made her debut for the senior Portugal national team in September 2013 and represented her country at UEFA Women's Euro 2017.

Career

Club

Fidalgo was born in São Domingos de Benfica, Lisbon and from a young age has played football. In 2009, Fidalgo started her career at CF Benfica in the Portuguese League. She played for the Lisbon club until June 2017 when she moved to Sporting CP. With Benfica, Fidalgo won one national title in the 2015/2016 season and was elected "Best Player" for the 2015/2016 season by the "Sindicato dos Jogadores Profissionais de Futebol ". She also captained the team for several seasons. In March 2018, Fidalgo won the "Quinas de Ouro" award as one of the "11 Best Players in the Women's League". The award is given by the Portuguese Football Federation.
In 2018 she moved to the rival team SC Braga, with whom she won the Portuguese League title – Braga's first championship win.
On 30 May 2019, it was announced that Fidalgo was signed to Women's Super League team Manchester City.

International

Fidalgo debuted for Portugal U19 on February 22, 2011 in a win against Finland U19 for the 2011 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship Qualifying Round. She also represented Portugal at the qualifying stages of the 2012 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship and the 2013 UEFA Women's Under-19 Championship. On September 26, 2013, Fidalgo debuted for the Portuguese Senior Team in a win against Greece, a 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup qualification's match. Since then, she represented Portugal in several international competitions including the qualifying stages for the UEFA Women's Euro 2017 and the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup. On July 6, 2017, Fidalgo was called by coach Francisco Neto to represent Portugal at the UEFA Women's Euro 2017, the first time the Portuguese team reached the final stage of a big international tournament. She didn't play in any matches as her team was eliminated while still in the Group Stage.

Personal life

Fidalgo is a cousin of Bernardo Silva. Both were born in 1994, share the same great-grandparents, play internationally for the Portugal national team and play their club football at Manchester City.