Tonel

Tonel

150px Tonel playing for Dinamo Zagreb in 2011
Personal information
Full name	António Leonel Vilar Nogueira Sousa
Date of birth	(1980-04-13) 13 April 1980
Place of birth	Lourosa, Portugal
Height
Position(s)	Centre back
Team information
Current team	Belenenses
Number	4
Youth career
1994–1995	Espinho
1995–1996	Porto
1996–1997	Espinho
1997–1999	Porto
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1999–2001	Porto B	40	(1)
2001–2004	→ Académica (loan)	112	(9)
2004–2005	Marítimo	28	(1)
2005–2010	Sporting CP	117	(11)
2010–2012	Dinamo Zagreb	48	(4)
2013	Beira-Mar	4	(0)
2013–2015	Feirense	69	(8)
2015–	Belenenses	8	(0)
International career
2000–2002	Portugal U21	24	(1)
2006–2010	Portugal	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 00:00, 1 December 2015 (UTC)

António Leonel Vilar Nogueira Sousa (Portuguese pronunciation: [tuˈnɛɫ]; born 13 April 1980), known as Tonel, is a Portuguese footballer who plays for C.F. Os Belenenses as a central defender.

Over the course of nine seasons he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 211 games and 17 goals, mainly representing Sporting with which he won four major titles. He also played three years in Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb.

Club career

Porto / Marítimo

Coming through the youth teams of FC Porto, Tonel was born in Lourosa, Santa Maria da Feira, and made his professional debut when he was loaned out to Académica de Coimbra during the 2000–01 season, helping the club promote to the top division in his second year. Despite earning a good reputation for himself during the three-season spell, he was deemed surplus to requirements by his parent club and was released, moving to C.S. Marítimo during the summer of 2004 as part of an exchange deal with Porto which saw Pepe arrive at the Estádio do Dragão.

Tonel enjoyed a hugely successful season for the Madeira team, picking up some European experience during the club's UEFA Cup tie against Rangers. He formed a fomidable partnership with Dutch Mitchell van der Gaag in defence and became one of the team's leading figures, playing 28 league games and scoring once, in a 2–1 home win over Boavista F.C. on 25 September 2004.

Sporting

On 23 July 2005, after an impressive season, Tonel signed a three-year deal with Sporting Clube de Portugal for €500,000. The second stint with another side of the Big Three was much more successful this time, as he was an everpresent figure at Sporting's back four since his arrival alongside Brazilian international Ânderson Polga, also scoring the occasional goal on set pieces.

Shortly after furthering his link with the Lions until 2011, he scored five goals overall during 2007–08, including one in a 2–1 win at FC Dynamo Kyiv for the season's UEFA Champions League (incidentally, Polga netted the other).

In late October 2008, after an injury in a draw at F.C. Paços de Ferreira, Tonel lost his place to youth graduate Daniel Carriço, and never regained it again during the season, although he himself took Polga's place midway through the following campaign.

Dinamo Zagreb

On 27 August 2010, after falling out of favour with new manager Paulo Sérgio, 30-year-old Tonel signed for Croatian club GNK Dinamo Zagreb. He made his official debut in an Eternal derby match against HNK Hajduk Split on 11 September; he was awarded No. 13 shirt in domestic competition, but played with No. 28 in European fixtures, as Dario Šimić had been registered with the former number at the start of the 2010–11 season, before retiring in August 2010.

Tonel was released by Dinamo at the end of his contract, in December 2012.

Return home

On 7 January 2013 Tonel returned to his homeland and joined top division club S.C. Beira-Mar, signing until June 2014. After suffering relegation, however, he terminated his link and went on to spend a further two seasons in the second tier with C.D. Feirense.

International career

Tonel made his debut with Portugal in a UEFA Euro 2008 qualifier against Kazakhstan in Coimbra, playing 77 minutes in a 3–0 win on 15 November 2006. His second cap came more than three years after (on 3 March 2010), as he was called as a last-minute replacement for injured Ricardo Carvalho for a friendly with China, played in the same venue (2–0 win).

Club statistics

As of 18 September 2015

Club	Season	League			Cup		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Porto	1999–2000	Primeira Liga	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Académica (loan)	2000–01	Segunda Liga	18	2	0	0	—		18	2
	2001–02	Segunda Liga	31	2	3	0	—		34	2
	2002–03	Primeira Liga	31	2	2	1	—		33	3
	2003–04	Primeira Liga	31	3	1	0	—		32	3
	Total		111	9	5	1	—		116	10
Marítimo	2004–05	Primeira Liga	28	2	4	0	2	0	34	2
Sporting	2005–06	Primeira Liga	30	2	1	0	1	0	32	2
	2006–07	Primeira Liga	25	2	4	0	6	0	35	2
	2007–08	Primeira Liga	27	4	13	1	6	1	46	6
	2008–09	Primeira Liga	12	1	3	0	5	1	20	2
	2009–10	Primeira Liga	23	1	5	0	1	0	29	1
	Total		117	10	26	1	19	2	162	13
Dinamo Zagreb	2010–11	Prva HNL	22	2	6	2	6	0	34	4
	2011–12	Prva HNL	20	2	6	0	10	0	36	2
	2012–13	Prva HNL	6	0	1	0	8	1	15	1
	Total		48	4	13	2	24	1	85	7
Beira-Mar	2012–13	Primeira Liga	4	0	0	0	—		4	0
Feirense	2013–14	Segunda Liga	34	3	5	0	—		39	3
	2014–15	Segunda Liga	35	5	6	1	—		41	6
	Total		69	8	11	1	—		80	9
Belenenses	2015–16	Primeira Liga	3	0	0	0	5	0	8	0
Career total			376	33	59	5	48	3	483	41

Honours

Sporting

• Taça de Portugal: 2006–07, 2007–08
• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2007, 2008
• Taça da Liga: Runner-up 2007–08, 2008–09

Dinamo Zagreb

• Croatian First Football League: 2010–11, 2011–12
• Croatian Football Cup: 2010–11, 2011–12

External links

• Tonel at footballzz.co.uk
• Tonel profile at ForaDeJogo
• PortuGOAL profile
• Tonel at National-Football-Teams.com