Nuno Assis

Nuno Assis

Assis playing for Omonia in 2014
Personal information
Full name	Nuno Assis Lopes de Almeida
Date of birth	(1977-11-25) 25 November 1977 (age 46)
Place of birth	Lousã, Portugal
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Youth career
1992–1996	Sporting CP
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1996–2001	Sporting CP	0	(0)
1996–1999	→ Lourinhanense (loan)	59	(23)
1999–2000	→ Alverca (loan)	19	(0)
2000–2001	→ Gil Vicente (loan)	26	(2)
2001–2004	Vitória Guimarães	107	(11)
2005–2008	Benfica	56	(4)
2008–2010	Vitória Guimarães	49	(12)
2010–2011	Ittihad	25	(3)
2011–2012	Vitória Guimarães	25	(4)
2012–2016	Omonia	110	(21)
Total		476	(80)
International career
1999	Portugal U21	1	(0)
2002–2003	Portugal B	3	(2)
2002–2009	Portugal	2	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nuno Assis Lopes de Almeida (born 25 November 1977) is a Portuguese former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder.

He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 282 matches and 33 goals over 12 seasons, representing in the competition Alverca, Gil Vicente, Vitória de Guimarães (three spells) and Benfica. He also spent four years in the Cypriot First Division, with Omonia.

Club career

Born in Lousã, Coimbra District, Assis started playing football in his hometown, before being spotted by Sporting CP. He then moved to the Lisbon club's youth system, and later was loaned to its farm team Sporting Clube Lourinhanense. He made his debut in the Primeira Liga in 1999–2000, playing 19 matches for F.C. Alverca while still on loan from Sporting, and was subsequently loaned a final time the following season to Gil Vicente FC, for whom he scored his first-ever top flight goals.

In summer 2001, Assis was released by the Lions, signing with Vitória de Guimarães. In his second year he scored three goals in 33 matches, netting four in 31 in the following campaign. He started off 2004–05 with the Minho side, but moved to S.L. Benfica in the following winter transfer window to replace fading Zlatko Zahovič; ^{[1] [2]} he scored on his debut, in a 2–1 away success against Moreirense FC. ^[3]

Prior to 2008–09 kick-off, after being used relatively in three and a half seasons, Assis was released by Benfica alongside Luís Filipe, re-joining Vitória Guimarães. ^[4] On 30 January 2009 he netted his first career hat-trick, in a 4–2 win at Vitória de Setúbal. ^{[5] [6]}

In the 2009–10 season Assis continued to feature prominently for Vitória, scoring five goals in 26 matches as the team finished sixth. In mid-June 2010, the 32-year-old signed with Saudi Arabian team Ittihad FC, for his first abroad experience; in his first match, on 14 August, he helped to a 2–1 win against Al-Ettifaq.

In late August 2011, Assis re-joined Vitória Guimarães. In the following summer he moved clubs and countries again, after agreeing to a deal with Omonia Nicosia. ^[7] He netted twice from 28 Cypriot First Division appearances in his debut campaign, but had the intention to leave after his contract expired due to financial differences, eventually changing his mind and also becoming captain. ^{[8] [9]}

Doping case

After a domestic league match between Benfica and C.S. Marítimo on 3 December 2005, Assis allegedly tested positive for a banned substance. In February of the following year, UEFA's Control and Disciplinary Body suspended the player from all official UEFA matches, after the test results were declared – ^[10] Benfica won 1–0 and the result was not contested. On 7 May Benfica's president, Luís Filipe Vieira, came out contesting the alleged positive result, as proper procedure was not followed for the tests (the 72-hour delay between collection of the sample and the test for anomalous quantities of different substances might have led to sample degradation and false positives).

On 14 July 2006, the Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation threw out the sentence on technicalities, specifically the disregard for the defence of Assis, ^[11] and removed the six-month suspension to the player after he was initially suspended for five months. Benfica threatened to press charges to try and identify who was responsible for the false charges and for the whole procedure, and asked for the destitution of the laboratory director and the technicians involved in this case; on the 19th, Portuguese sports newspapers O Jogo and A Bola quoted the president of the laboratory that handled the sample and made the analysis (LAD, Anti-Doping Lab) claiming that the player had been tested positive for 19-norandrosterona, a steroid – according to the president statement, sample A contained 4.5 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) and the counter-sample 4.0 ng/ml. The legal limit for such substance is 2.0 ng/ml and a normal person usually has between 0.1 and 0.2 with a maximum of 0.6 ng/ml.

The following day Vieira replied, accusing Luís Horta (president of LAD) and Luís Sardinha (president of the National Anti-Doping Council, CNAD) of fabricating data and lying to protect themselves – he brought to light that the meeting of CNAD that decided to prosecute the athlete did so disregarding the technical analysis that proposed that charges should be dropped, according to the meeting's agenda. ^[12] One of his charges stated that CNAD punished the athlete knowing he was innocent only to hide the mess made by LAD collecting and analysing the sample. The original Justice Council of the Portuguese Football Federation sentencing included an indication that, in order to claim doping, it had to be proved that an athlete had the illegal substance in his body and that he had intentionally done it; at this point the World Anti-doping agency stepped in because the burden of proof of consumption intent in doping cases would undermine any doping situation. This appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport Archived 9 February 2014 at the Wayback Machine agreed with the agency and found that foul-play was with the player and the original six-month sentence was increased to one year. ^{[13] [14]} At no point during the appeal were the LAD or CNAD procedures contested.

International career

Assis' first full cap for Portugal was won under coach Agostinho Oliveira in November 2002, in a friendly match. He came in as a substitute in the 2–0 victory over Scotland. ^[15]

Assis returned to the national team after more than six years of absence, ^[16] taking the pitch during the second half of the decisive 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against Malta (4–0, in Guimarães). ^[17] He was not picked, however, for the final stages in South Africa.

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition ^{[18] [19]}

Club	Season	League			Cup		Continental		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Lourinhanense	1997–98	Segunda Divisão B	28	12			—		28	12
	1998–99	Segunda Divisão B	31	11			—		31	11
	Total		59	23			—		53	23
Alverca	1999–2000	Primeira Liga	19	0	0	0	—		19	0
Gil Vicente	2000–01	Primeira Liga	26	2	1	1	—		27	3
Vitória Guimarães	2001–02	Primeira Liga	31	2	2	0	—		33	2
	2002–03	Primeira Liga	32	3	3	0	—		35	3
	2003–04	Primeira Liga	31	4	2	0	—		33	4
	2004–05	Primeira Liga	13	2	2	2	—		15	4
	Total		107	11	9	2	—		116	13
Benfica	2004–05	Primeira Liga	15	2	2	1	2 [a]	0	19	3
	2005–06	Primeira Liga	10	0	0	0	2 [b]	0	12	0
	2006–07	Primeira Liga	14	1	0	0	7 [b]	0	21	1
	2007–08	Primeira Liga	17	1	6	1	5 [b]	0	28	2
	Total		56	4	8	2	16	0	80	6
Vitória Guimarães	2008–09	Primeira Liga	23	7	6	0	—		29	7
	2009–10	Primeira Liga	26	5	7	1	—		33	6
	Total		49	12	13	1	—		62	13
Ittihad	2010–11	Pro League	25	3	2	0	7 [c]	3	34	6
Vitória Guimarães	2011–12	Primeira Liga	25	4	2	0	—		27	4
Omonia	2012–13	First Division	28	2	6	1	2 [d]	0	36	3
	2013–14	First Division	28	3	3	0	2 [d]	0	33	3
	2014–15	First Division	26	6	3	0	5 [d]	1	34	7
	2015–16	First Division	28	10	5	1	4 [d]	0	37	11
	Total		110	21	17	2	13	1	140	24
Career total			436	66	43	7	32	4	521	80

1. Appearances in UEFA Cup
2. Appearances in UEFA Champions League
3. Appearances in AFC Champions League
4. Appearances in UEFA Europa League

Honours

Benfica ^[20]

• Primeira Liga: 2004–05
• Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira: 2005
• Taça de Portugal runner-up: 2004–05

Omonia ^[20]

• Cypriot Super Cup: 2012
• Cypriot Cup runner-up: 2015–16

Individual

• Cypriot First Division Team of the Season: 2015–16 ^[21]

See also

• List of doping cases in sport

References

1. Nuno Assis in Benfica switch; UEFA, 23 January 2005
2. "Um confronto de "ioiós"" [A clash of “yo-yos”] (in Portuguese). Record. 28 February 2005. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
3. "Nuno Assis já marca de águia ao peito" [Nuno Assis already scores as an eagle] (in Portuguese). Correio da Manhã. 30 January 2005. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
4. "Benfica: Nuno Assis e Luís Filipe no V. Guimarães" [Benfica: Nuno Assis and Luís Filipe to V. Guimarães] (in Portuguese). Mais Futebol. 6 August 2008. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
5. "Cajuda foi a Setúbal roubar três pontos e mostrar que Guimarães não adormeceu" [Cajuda went to Setúbal to steal three points and show Guimarães is not asleep] (in Portuguese). Público. 31 January 2009. Retrieved 28 June 2017.
6. "Nuno Assis: "Fizemos tudo para ganhar"" [Nuno Assis: "We did everything to win"] (in Portuguese). Record. 4 February 2009. Retrieved 21 June 2015.
7. Πράσινος και με... βούλα ο Ασις! (Green and... Assis signs!) Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine ; Politis, 3 July 2012 (in Greek)
8. Ανανέωση συνεργασίας με Νούνο Ασίς (Renewal of contract with Nuno Assis); AC Omonia, 4 July 2014 (in Greek)
9. Στα 38 διδάσκει ποδόσφαιρο (Teaching football at 38); Shoot and Goal, 3 May 2015 (in Greek)
10. Nuno Assis tests positive; UEFA, 3 February 2006
11. FPF release; at Portuguese Football Federation (in Portuguese)
12. Correio da Manhã (in Portuguese)
13. Assis suspended until summer; UEFA, 4 January 2007
14. Court of Arbitration for Sport press release in the doping incident Archived 8 October 2006 at the Wayback Machine
15. "Sílvio é o 14.º a estrear-se com Agostinho Oliveira" [Sílvio is debutant number 14 with Agostinho Oliveira] (in Portuguese). Record. 7 September 2010. Archived from the original on 10 June 2015. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
16. "César Peixoto e Nuno Assis são as grandes novidades" [César Peixoto and Nuno Assis are major novelties] (in Portuguese). TSF. 1 October 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
17. "Portugal-Malta, 4–0 (crónica)" [Portugal-Malta, 4–0 (match report)] (in Portuguese). Mais Futebol. 14 October 2009. Retrieved 26 October 2017.
18. "Nuno Assis". ForaDeJogo. Retrieved 2 May 2014.
19. "Nuno Assis". Soccerway. Retrieved 15 May 2014.
20. "Nuno Assis – Trophies". Soccerway. Retrieved 3 July 2016.
21. Nuno Assis na equipa do ano da Liga do Chipre (Nuno Assis in the Cypriot League's team of the year); SJPF, 25 May 2016 (in Portuguese)

External links

• Nuno Assis at ForaDeJogo (archived)
• Nuno Assis national team profile at the Portuguese Football Federation (in Portuguese)
• Nuno Assis at National-Football-Teams.com