Hélder Jorge Leal Rodrigues Barbosa is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a left winger for Turkish club Hatayspor. He amassed Primeira Liga totals of 148 matches and 19 goals, mainly for Braga and Académica. He also played for teams in Spain, Greece, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. All youth levels comprised, Barbosa won 77 caps for Portugal. He made his senior debut in 2012.
Club career
Porto
Barbosa was born in Paredes, Porto District. A product of FC Porto's youth academy, he made his Primeira Liga debut in the last day of the 2005–06 season, with the northerners already crowned champions: he played the second half of a 1–1 away derby against Boavista FC, and was sent off in the last minute. From 2006 to 2008, Barbosa was loaned to fellow league club Académica de Coimbra, but was recalled by Porto in mid-January 2008 to make up for the loss of Tarik Sektioui, who was selected by Morocco for the Africa Cup of Nations. He served another loan in 2008–09 to lowly newcomers C.D. Trofense, notably scoring against S.L. Benfica in an historic 2–0 home win– he only missed two league games during the season, but could not help prevent immediate relegation back. Barbosa was again loaned for the following campaign, now to Vitória de Setúbal. He scored his first goal for the Sadinos on 31 August 2009, but in a 1–8 loss at Benfica.
Braga
On 2 July 2010, after helping Setúbal avoid top level relegation, Barbosa was definitely released by Porto, signing a three-year contract with S.C. Braga. Rarely used in the first months, he began gaining more playing time after the January 2011 departure of Matheus, who left for a team in Ukraine, and contributed with four league goals in an eventual fourth-place finish. In less than one month, starting on 25 August 2011, Barbosa scored in four consecutive games for Braga, including one goal in a 3–1 home win against Gil Vicente F.C. and two at Birmingham City in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League, in another 3–1 success. The following 14 February, he was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 0–2 home loss against Beşiktaş J.K. for the Europa Leagueround-of-32, after diving in the penalty area. On 28 August 2013, Barbosa was loaned to La Liga side UD Almería. He netted his first goal for the Andalusians on 11 January 2014, but in a 1–6 away defeat to Athletic Bilbao.
On 31 July 2014, Barbosa signed a three-year deal with AEK Athens F.C. on a free transfer. He scored five goals in 26 appearances in his debut season, helping the club return to the Superleague Greece after a two-year absence.
