Hélder Tavares

Hélder Luís Lopes Vieira Tavares (born 26 December 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Liga Portugal 2 club Tondela. Born in Portugal, he represented the Cape Verdean national team, earning 14 caps.

Club career
Born in Olivais, Lisbon of Cape Verdean descent, Tavares spent his first years as a senior in Portuguese amateur football. In the summer of 2013, aged nearly 24, he signed with Beira-Mar in the second division from Pinhalnovense in the third.

Tavares made his professional debut on 27 July 2013, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 away loss against Portimonense in the first round of the Taça da Liga. He first appeared in division two on 12 August, featuring the entire 2–3 home defeat to Porto B.

In the 2015 off-season, after one year in Romania with Oțelul Galați, Tavares joined Primeira Liga club Tondela. His first match in the Portuguese top tier occurred on 14 August when he started an eventual 1–2 home loss against Sporting CP, and he finished his debut season with 30 appearances as his team managed to avoid relegation. In June 2016, he renewed his contract for another year.

In January 2019, as his link was due to expire on 30 June, Tavares was sold to Altay of the Turkish TFF First League and agreed to a one-and-a-half-year deal.

International career
Tavares made his debut for Cape Verde on 28 March 2017, in a friendly against Luxembourg.