Zé António

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José António dos Santos Silva (born March 14, 1977), often referred to as Zé António, is a Portuguese professional football (soccer) player from Torres Vedras in Portugal.

José António was playing professional football in his native country for a couple of sides including FC Alverca, Varzim SC and lately Académica de Coimbra. Spending some time in the academy of Superliga top-side FC Porto, he managed to earn less than a handful of caps for the U21 of Portugal. Avoiding relegation from the Superliga with Académica at the end of the 2004-2005 season he took advantage of his outrunning deal to join Borussia Mönchengladbach in the German Bundesliga on a deal lasting for two initial season.

Obtaining a starting role in the Mönchengladbach backline two games into the 2005-2006 season, the defender got off to a good start at his new club. He opened his goalscoring account in what was just his fourth Bundesliga appearance, netting the winning goal in a home fixture against MSV Duisburg with a header. As his form did not peter out, he remained a starter for Mönchengladbach through the 2005-2006 campaign. An accurate tackler, the left-foot was surprisingly included in the preliminary squad of Portugal for the World Cup, but in the end he failed to make it into the final 23 of Luiz Felipe Scolari for the tournament.

On September 14, 2006, Borussia Mönchengladbach announced the contract extension of José António for two further seasons. That is going to bind the strong-in-the-air defender to the club until June 2009.

Borussia Mönchengladbach - Current Squad