Vieira next: The 6 Portuguese players to play for Arsenal in the PL era

Rahul Lakhani • 19 Jun 2022

Arsenal’s new signing Fabio Vieira will become the seventh Portuguese player to represent Arsenal in the Premier League era, but he will be hoping to follow a different path to his predecessors.

With an alumni a million miles off the French, German or Dutch players in Arsenal’s history, the Portuguese haven’t had the best time in north London. And despite two currently being part of the Arsenal squad, there is no one who stands out among a fairly underwhelming crowd.

The aptly named Vieira will join for around £32million, and the 22-year-old midfielder looks an exciting talent. It certainly won’t take much for him to become the best Portuguese Arsenal player.

We’ve taken a look at the six previous Portuguese Gunners and how they got on at the club.

Rui Fonte

A graduate of Arsenal’s youth academy, the striker would only make one appearance for the club, as a substitute for Carlos Vela in a League Cup victory over Wigan in 2008.

Spells at a number of clubs including Espanyol, Benfica and Fulham followed, and the 32-year-old now finds himself at Estoril.

Not quite Ronaldo.

Luis Boa Morte

There were a lot of top-quality strikers at Arsenal in the late 1990s. Luis Boa Morte was not one of them.

Ian Wright, Nicolas Anelka, Thierry Henry, Nwankwo Kanu and more outstanding talent being at the club meant that Boa Morte would find opportunities tough to come by after joining from Sporting Lisbon.

The forward managed just four goals in 37 appearances over three years before moving on to Southampton and eventually Fulham, among others.

Cedric Soares

The right-back joined the club on an initial loan in January 2020 which was eventually made permanent on a long-term deal.

One of Mikel Arteta’s first signings, Cedric mainly plays a backup role behind Takehiro Tomiyasu but has come in for criticism with many believing that the 30-year-old isn’t even good enough for the bench.

Unlike his namesake from Harry Potter, Cedric isn’t really capable of performing magic. But occasionally he does send sparks flying…

Cedric Soares marks his Premier League debut for Arsenal with a goal to put the Gunners 4-0 up…#ARSNOR pic.twitter.com/PndPCeWgWT

— BetConnect (@betconnect) July 1, 2020

Nuno Tavares

A £7million signing from Benfica, the 21-year-old left-back had a roller-coaster first season in north London.

Tavares has shown promise at times, with his strength and speed proving to be useful, but he often plays with the same level of chaos as the Tasmanian Devil on steroids.

A perfect example of a typical Tavares performance is the one he delivered against Manchester United in April, where he opened the scoring before producing a horror show, which included giving a penalty away.

It’s never an easy game with Tavares, and it remains to be seen whether he will be loaned out or given more chances to prove himself at the Emirates.

READ: All hail Nuno Tavares, the priceless harbinger of Arsenal’s glorious chaos

Amaury Bischoff

Not to be confused with the biscuit brand, Bischoff joined Arsenal in 2008 at the same time as Aaron Ramsey but was far less successful than the Welshman.

As Arsene Wenger himself admitted, the signing of Bischoff was “a gamble on his talent.” That talent was insufficient and the gamble backfired.

Making just four appearances in one season after his move from Werder Bremen, the Portuguese midfielder eventually moved on and went on to play for a number of clubs in Portugal and Germany.

The 35-year-old was most recently spotted in the French fifth division.