The touching story of Roni Moura, the man who shocked the Portuguese champions | OneFootball

Roni Moura celebrates scoring against FC Porto (Photo: AVS Futebol SAD)

Without the weight of expectation against the hungover champions, Portugal was shocked by the most improbable scoreline of the season last weekend.

AVS Futebol SAD (abbreviated to AFS) were mathematically condemned to Liga Portugal 2 in Matchday 30 after winning just one match – the worst record of any Liga Portugal side in 92 seasons of the current league structure.

Curiously, Desportivo das Aves had previously held the record for six years. A far cry from when the defunct entity famously beat Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 2017/18 edition of the Taça de Portugal, importantly with no relation to the newly formed club also based in Vila das Aves (known as the ‘Portuguese MK Dons’ after a separation and relocation of the UD Vilafranquense entity).

Without the weight of expectation for what remained of their disastrous league campaign, and against the hungover champions, the country was shocked by the most improbable scoreline of the season.

The star of the show? Roni Moura.

The 27-year-old midfielder bagged a brace, with an especially exquisite second strike leaving Cláudio Ramos scrambling.

To honour the fallen soldiers of Liga Portugal ahead of an exciting final game week with plenty left to decide at both ends of the table, PortuGOAL’s latest Figure of the Week is awarded to an AVS player. If you’re surprised to read this, I’m equally as surprised to write it. Kevin Fernandes reports.

From São Paulo to Santo Tirso

Roni Medeiros de Moura was born in São Paulo, commencing his footballing journey as a five-year old at Brazilian giants Corinthians and representing the Timão for 20 years.

After achieving relative success at youth level, even winning silverware along the way, Roni made his senior debut for Corinthians in 2020, scoring on his debut and dedicating the goal to his brother Tupã, who had tragically died playing grassroots football.

Tupã was forced to retire upon discovering a heart condition, but his love of the game could never prevent him from playing. Roni revealed that he had promised Tupã in hospital that he would become a professional football and take care of their family. With an incredible strike, 19-year-old Roni kept his promise and announced himself to Brazilian football.

The story of Roni is one of immense hardship and struggle, as despite making over 100 appearances for Corinthians and for various reasons, it became increasingly difficult to follow that debut performance.

The pressures of the professional game

In 2025 and after a loan spell at Atlético Goianiense, Roni faced Corinthians as a Mirassol player, recounting: “The fans have always supported me. There was a difficult period when I suffered a lot. I couldn’t even sleep properly and was heavily criticised, but I’ve also had some really good times. The fans have always given me strength during the tough times, and I’ve had some happy moments here too.”

After receiving limited minutes for the Brasileirão revelation side of 2025, Roni left his beloved São Paulo and headed to the other side of the Atlantic to the Portuguese municipality of Santo Tirso, as AVS paid over 700 thousand euros for his services in January, despite relegation seeming inevitable.

Rugged Roni

The hard-working midfielder has helped to revolutionise AVS. For the overwhelming majority of the season, the team were disorganised, disjointed and overly dependent on lacklustre and overambitious individualised transitional play.

With Roni playing as a deep-lying organiser, AVS look more capable and controlled in possession while the ball-winners energy importantly secures João Henriques’ side defensively.

Players like Roni Moura make teams harder to beat, while also demonstrating that mentality is vital to succeed in this cut-throat world (not limited to football).

Kudos to the latest PortuGOAL Figure of the Week as success may await him in Liga Portugal 2.