Ribeiro: Bruno Miguel Fernandes (Bruno)

1997-1999 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Left Midfield

Born: Setubal, Portugal: 22-08-1975

Debut: Arsenal (h): 09-08-1997

5’7 1/2” 12st 3lb (2000)

Ribeiro started his career with his local club Vitoria Setubal, wher he joined the club as an eleven year old and worked his way through each step of the club's junior teams until he sat unused on the bench for the first team in the game at home to Farense on 29th May 1994. He made his debut as a sixty-sixth minute substitute for Paulo Gomes in a 0-3 defeat at Gil Vincente on 29th September 1994, making his starting debut in a 1-1 home draw with Farense on 23rd October 1994 and he scored his first goal in the seventy-fifth minute of the home win over Uniao Madeira on 28th May 1995 to give his side a 2-0 lead in a game they eventually won 4-1. He ended the 1994-95 season with one goal from nine starts and two more from the bench and had sat unused in seven others. He had begun to build up quite a reputation and by the end of the 1996-97 season had scored three goals in thirty-two starts, nine more from the bench and had sat unused on another eight occasions. He had also gained representative honours, making five appearances for Portugal at the Under-Twenty-One level. He was spotted by the Leeds management team of George Graham and David O’Leary when the pair went to assess the capabilities of Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, when he was in action for his team Boavista against Vitoria Setubal. Ribeiro’s skills shown in the game impressed them greatly and Ribeiro was signed for £500,000 by Leeds manager George Graham on 18th July 1997. He had also been attracting the attention of Monaco and Benfica, but could not resist the challenge of making his mark in England, where the crowds were bigger and the game much quicker than in his native Portugal. He and Hasselbaink were brought instantly into the Leeds team and both debuted in the 1-1 draw with Arsenal at Elland Road on the opening day of the 1997-98 season. A compact and versatile player, with an eye for goal and a crisp shot he scored several spectacular goals in his first season, but also had a tendancy to have a short fuse, which caused him to see red more than once from the referee. He became a key component of the rebuilding exercise that Graham had been brought in to do at Leeds, running the midfield and sometimes looking like a latterday Johnny Giles. Unfortunately he was injured at the start of the 1998-99 season, and he never really regained his place in the midfield under new manager David O’Leary. He was eventually transferred to Sheffield United on 25th October 1999 for £500,000. Injuries and disputes with management prevented him from cementing a spot in the Blades line-up on a regular basis and after just one goal in twenty-five League appearances, thirteen as a substitute, he left Bramall Lane on loan to Portuguese club Uniao Leiria, where he made five starts and four appearances from the bench and sat unused on nine other occasions without scoring. He subsequently returned to Portugal, moving to SC Beira-Mar in 2001 and spent the 2001-02 season with them, scoring once in making sixteen starts, nine appearances from the bench and being an unused substitute on another three occasions. In 2002-03 he moved on to play for Santa Clara, scoring twice in twenty-three games, of which seven were as a substitute, and sitting unused on the bench on five more occasions before rejoining Vitória Setubal, where he had started his professional career, in 2003. He played regularly for his hometown team and captained them. He picked up some silverware along the way, with a Portuguese Cup Winners’ medal in 2005 and a runners-up medal in 2006. He twice won runners-up medals in the Portuguese Super Cup in 2005 and again in 2006, together with a Carlsberg Cup winners’ medal in 2008. He remained with Vitoria Setubal until the end of the 2009-10 season, but had a short spell on loan to Segunda Liga side, Grupo Desportivo de Chaves from mid-September to the beginning of November 2009, in which time he started four League and two Cup games without scoring, but returned to Vitoria to complete the season at which time he retired as a player at the age of thirty-four. In the League he scored five goals in one hundred and eleven starts, twenty-five more as a substitute and thirty times he was also an unused substitute in his second spell at Vitoria Setubal. He never played at full international level. He became a coach, after gaining his certificates, and was appointed coach to the Vitoria Setubal under-seventeen team in late 2010 and when Manuel Fernandes was sacked by the club as Chief Coach/Manager in early March 2011, Ribeiro was appointed as his replacement. He did not last a year and was sacked after a run of bad results which saw the club in deep relegation troubles. He was appointed Manager of the newly-promoted to Segunda Liga side SC Farense on 2nd June 2012 but when it looked as if he was failing to gain promotion to the top flight he was sacked on 15th January 2013. He joined Maura AC in March 2014 on his appointment he said that he had been to Scotland to take to complete his level III UEFA and had completed the IV in Portugal and then had been to Chelsea to learn frim Jose Mourinho and that he was looking forward to the challenge that Moura AC in Serie H presented. He stayed with Moura AC until 14th November 2014 when he took over at Serie G side Clube Desportivo Pinhalnovense. In January 2015 he returned to Setubal to replace Domingos Paciencia. He succeeded in saving them from relegation but only won three of seventeen games in the 2014–15 season and decided to leave the club as his contract had ended. He became head coach with Bulgarian Parva Liga champions Ludogorets Razgrad in June 2015. The club lost the first three games of his tenure, seeing them eliminated from the UEFA Champions League and the 2015 Bulgarian Supercup. He was sacked after less than two months. He returned to Portugal and in February 2016 he joined LigaPro side Académico de Viseu on a contract until the end of the 2016–17 season. However, after failing to win any of his first five games, he resigned from the club on 10th March 2016. He was appointed manager of Port Vale of English League One, on a three-year contract, in June 2016. He started well, winning the first six home games but by Christmas they had slumped to seventeenth on the ladder. Ribeiro resigned on Boxing Day.