Cristovao Vilela

Cristóvão Vilela (born 1 February 1980) is a Portuguese entrepreneur and retired footballer. During his short-lived playing career he played in the lower divisions of Portuguese football, most notably for U.D. Santana. He now works as an businessman and media personality sharing his time between London, where he lives with his wife, Olympic gold medalist Marta Baldó, and Portugal. On 23 April 2010, Baldó gave birth to male twins, the couple's first children, named Cristovao Junior and Salazar.
Early and personal life
Vilela was born into a strongly Catholic family living on a farm close to São Brás de Alportel in southern Portugal. Along with his his six brothers and two sisters, Vilela lived an active childhood, working on the farm and taking part in many sports at school. He moved to Madeira at the age of 13 and it was here that he took his first steps into professional football.
After retiring, Vilela married his long-term girlfriend Marta Baldó, the pair having originally met not long after her Olympic gymnastics success in 1996 while the pair trained at the same fitness club in Bilbao.
Football
U.D. Santana
Vilela made his name rising through the ranks of U.D. Santana on the island of Madeira. Despite playing in the third tier of Portugese football, Vilela showed much promise, scoring many goals with his head despite his diminutive size. Unfortunately, in 2004 he was involved in a motorcycle accident while returning from training after his Pápa-Léguas struck a sheep which strayed out into the road.
Louletano D.C.
Released by U.D. Santana, Vilela returned to his native region of Faro. He joined local club Louletano D.C. and even scored on his debut against C.D. Pinhalnovense. Nevertheless, Vilela could not shake off his injury and failed to make an impact with his new club, failing to score in any of his other matches. Unable to play, Vilela came to an agreement with his club and he was released, taking up a job as a radio commentator for the club's matches with local station Rádio Costa d'Oiro. Several of Vilela's commentaries were sampled by the Portugese psych folk band Dopo on their 2007 album For the Entrance of the Sun, including the lines "Que ele tenha peito peludo" and "Eu venderia a minha própria esposa para marcar como ele".
Media and business
After his football career was cut short, Vilela became a media personality in his native Portugal and to a lesser extent in his wife's home country of Spain. This began after his radio commentary attracted the attention of national television broadcaster RTP1. Vilela appeared as one of the pundits on Futebol antes de esposa, a late night football show which analyzed the weekend's matches.
In 2009 he stared in the Portuguese remake of the BBC series Long Way Down staring Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman. In the Portugese version, Longo caminho em um pequeno país, Vilela rode a vintage Pápa-Léguas from Melgaço in the north to Sagres Point in the south.
In December 2009, a celebrity sex tape featuring Vilela surfaced on the internet. It features Vilela with an unknown woman who can be heard speaking in Somali on several occasions although it is not believed that Vilela himself speaks this language. The film would appear to be from his the earlier period of his footballing career since he does not have the Pápa-Léguas tattoo which he got after his notorious motorcycle crash.
A passionate drummer, Vilela has toured with Portuguese band Toranja, performing at numerous concerts throughout Iberia and Europe, although as yet he has never appeared on any of the group's studio albums due to other commitments and residing in London. In 2006, Vilela released his own self-funded album, Cigarros e espinafre, featuring him performing vocals, guitar and drums on all tracks. Released firstly in Portugal and Spain, it failed to chart, but was re-released in 2007 in Macau and reached as high as 37th place in the music chart there.
As a renowned media personality in his native Portugal, Vilela has made cameo appearances in several episodes of the soap opera Morangos com Açúcar, acting alongside other celebrities such as Daniel Bedingfield, Sugababes and fellow footballer Nuno Gomes.
In 2010 Vilela completed a doctorate in Mathematics at the Universidade Estadual de Londrina, exloring the position of mathematics as a language. This also coincided with the release of an anthology of a self-funded anthology of poetry, written consecutively in mathematical language and Portuguese, called '
Living in London, Vilela is also the part owner of several adult book shops alongside his other business interests, which include a Portuguese café in Leyton. and a gymnastics studio run by his wife.
Vilela had been planning on running the 2010 London Marathon, collecting sponsorship for the Benevolence International Foundation but was forced to pull out having sustained a broken hallux while training for the event.
Vilela has endorsed his own brand of enchido which are available throughout Portugal, including Quente e salgado and Tamanho importa. Currently they are not available outside of Portugal.
Vilela has publicly stated that he is supporting the British National Party at the British General Election.

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