Fernando Nélson - Defender/Midfielder Full name : Fernando Nélson Jesus Vieira Alves Date of Birth: November 5, 1971 Birthplace: Lisboa, Portugal Nationality: Portugese Height: 1.78m / 5'10" Previous Clubs: Sporting Lisboa Joined Villa: July 14, 1996 Acquisition Price: £1.75 million Debut: August 24, 1996 (Derby (h)) Left Villa (for): July 8, 1998 (FC Porto, Portugal) Selling Price: £1,1 million

Joined Aston Villa from Sporting Lisboa in the summer of 1996 for £1.75 million. He is a star in his home country of Portugal, and has been capped many a time. He was with the portugese junior national team that became world champions in 1991. He played with Sporting Lisboa for 6 years, playing a total of 117 matches. He was mainly brought in to replace the long-time injured right back Gary Charles. He started pretty badly, having to skip the opening matches due to an injury. However, in the midst of the season, Nelson was settled, and started to show his brilliance. He filled the empty spot left by Gary Charles with great skill, but with Gary Charles back at the end of that season, a friendly duel for the right back spot amongst the starting eleven developed. Nelson also tried his skills in the midfield, with good results if not astonishing. However, he didn't play enough to get back on the Portugese national team, and in the end, he decided to call it quits. John Gregory let him go without much fuss, and he signed for FC Porto after the 97/98 season.

Apperances has substitutions in brackets, i.e. the games when he came on as a sub and didn't start on the pitch. All the stats include cup games.