Nearly 30 years have passed since the first Portuguese player to grace the Premier League arrived in east London as a West Ham United player.
Dani was the trailblazer for the footballers of the Iberian nation, with the number of players from Portugal to have featured in the English game’s elite competition now nearing its first century.
Nine of that number have featured in the Claret and Blue of the Hammers - with the tenth now due to follow suit after Mateus Fernandes completed his move from Southampton on Friday.
In the intervening years since Dani first trod that path, Portugal have enjoyed a period of unprecedented success on the pitch, lifting the UEFA European Championship in 2016, and the UEFA Nations League in 2019 and 2025.
With the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Rúben Dias, Ricardo Carvalho, João Cancelo, Paulo Ferreira and Diogo Jota all having helped their clubs lift the Premier League crown too, Portuguese players have certainly made their mark on English football.
Here we take a look at those nine who have laced up their boots for the Irons in the Premier League.
Dani
A skilled attacking player, Daniel da Cruz Carvalho arrived at West Ham on loan from Sporting Lisbon in 1996 - becoming the first Portuguese player to feature in the Premier League in the process.
His time in east London was fleeting - but memorable - his two goals in nine appearances came in victories over Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.
Nevertheless, the 19-year-old Dani, who also had a fondness for London’s nightlife scene, returned to his parent club at the end of the 1995/96 campaign, and after featuring for his country at the Atlanta Olympics that summer, joined Ajax.
Spells with Benfica and Atlético Madrid - and nine senior Portugal caps - would follow, but there would be a sense of unfulfilled talent at the end of the mercurial Dani’s career.
Paulo Futre, Hugo Porfirio, Paulo Alves
The Irons’ dalliance with Dani led to a relative opening of the floodgates for his fellow countrymen to arrive through the Boleyn Ground doors, as three more Portuguese were signed by Harry Redknapp over the next two years.
Paulo Futre and Hugo Porfirio were signed at the start of the 1996/97 season - Futre having earned 41 senior caps and won league titles in his homeland and Italy during a glittering career, and Porfirio, while at the other end of his footballing journey, had already shown his talent with Sporting.
While neither hit those heights in east London, they did make 32 league appearances between them before moving on at the end of the campaign, when another Portuguese, Paulo Alves - also of Sporting - was signed by Redknapp.
His Hammers loan spell would encompass four games, and he later managed several clubs in his homeland, winning the second-tier title twice, with Gil Vicente and Moreirense.
Luis Boa Morte
It would then be another nine years until the next Portuguese player would make his way to the Hammers - and this one came with plenty of Premier League experience, with Luis Boa Morte having featured over 200 times for Arsenal, Southampton and Fulham.
His time at the Boleyn Ground would last four-and-a-half years and 109 games in all competitions, before he moved on at the end of the 2010/11 campaign.
Spells in Greece and South Africa followed, before he ended his playing career with a stint at Chesterfield.
He would coach under compatriot Marco Silva at Everton and Fulham and was most recently manager of the Guinea-Bissau national team.
Ricardo Vaz Tê
The Portuguese to have left the most lasting impression to date with the Hammers is undoubtedly Ricardo Vaz Tê, who famously netted the winning goal in our 2-1 EFL Championship Play-Off final victory over Blackpool at Wembley Stadium in May 2012.
The forward signed for the Hammers from Barnsley four months earlier, and netted a vital 12 goals in our push for promotion.
Upon our return to the top flight, the former Bolton Wanderers man - where he had also worked with manager Sam Allardyce - netted a further five times in 36 outings as we re-established ourselves back at the top table.
Vaz Tê then turned out in China, at Charlton, in Turkey and finally with Portimonense in his homeland before hanging up his boots in 2021. He then represented the Irons once more at The Soccer Tournament in the United States earlier this year.
José Fonte
2016 UEFA European Championship and 2019 UEFA Nations League winner José Fonte made 24 Premier League appearances in Claret and Blue between January 2017 and February 2018, having turned out nearly 300 times for Southampton on their rise from League One to the top flight and European football over the previous eight years.
The centre-back has enjoyed a storied late-career run, then going on to lift the Ligue 1 title with Lille in 2021 and the Portuguese League Cup with Braga in 2024.
He is still turning out today in his home country’s top flight, at the age of 41, for Casa Pia.
João Mario
João Mario became the second Portuguese player in David Moyes’ 2017/18 squad when he came in on loan from Inter Milan in the winter transfer window.
With the Irons successfully defending their top-flight status, the former Sporting midfielder notched twice in 13 Premier League outings, including an important strike in the 2-0 victory at Leicester City which eventually sealed the deal.
The Porto-born player returned to Inter at the end of that campaign and after three years with Benfica, is now in his second season at Turkish side Beșiktaș.
Xande Silva
The most recent man from Portugal to feature in the top flight for West Ham is striker Xande Silva.
Signed to our Academy from Vitória Guimarães in 2018, the forward's sole Premier League appearance came in December of that year in a 2-0 loss at Burnley.
He moved on to Nottingham Forest in 2021 and is currently with Hapoel Tel Aviv, having also played for Dijon, Atlanta United and St Louis City.
Domingos Quina, now of Cypriot side Pafos, made six cup appearances in his time with the Irons in the 2016/17 and 2017/18 campaigns, while other Portuguese players to have spent time with the Irons without making a first-team outing include defender Gonçalo Cardoso, now with Paços de Ferreira, and forward Mésaque Dju, who featured for our U21s, and currently plays for Portuguese second-tier side Oliveirense.
