Fernando Aguiar

Fernando João Lobo Aguiar (born 18 March 1972) is a retired Portuguese footballer who played as a defensive midfielder.

He was arguably Canada's second most successful player to have competed in Portugal, after Alex Bunbury, and is one of about a dozen Portuguese Canadians to have played football in the country.

Aguiar amassed Primeira Liga totals of 138 games and 13 goals over the course of six seasons, representing in the competition Marítimo, Beira-Mar, Benfica, União de Leiria and Penafiel. He added 195/25 in the Segunda Liga.

Club career

Born in Chaves, Aguiar moved to Canada at an early age, beginning his career in the Canadian Soccer League where he represented hometown's Toronto Blizzard. Although the league disbanded in 1992, he remained with the team for its only season in the American Professional Soccer League.

Dubbed RoboCop due to his powerful frame, Aguiar started competing in Europe in 1994, with Portuguese first division side C.S. Marítimo. However, he had trouble making the first-team lineups and subsequently dropped down to the second level where he spent four of the next five years, playing for C.D. Nacional, F.C. Maia and S.C. Beira-Mar, helping the latter achieve promotion in 2000 and subsequently stay in the top flight.