West Ham United confirm permanent exit for Goncalo Cardoso in post-11pm announcement
West Ham have confirmed Goncalo Cardoso’s permanent exit from the London Stadium with the defender returning to Portugal.
Fifteen minutes after the transfer window closed on Thursday night (1 September), the Irons announced on their Twitter account that the 21-year-old centre-back had joined Maritimo.
West Ham’s tweet thanked Cardoso for his time in East London in their tweet.
Good luck
Most West Ham fans probably forgot that Cardoso was on the books at the club.
He joined from Boavista in 2019 as a promising young centre-back with the hopes of one day breaking into the senior set-up at the London Stadium.
The former Portugal Under-20 international did make David Moyes’ bench a fair few times but never got that chance to show what he can do on the pitch in men’s football for the club.
Cardoso did have chances out on loan.
He was sent to Basel in Switzerland in January 2021 on loan with the option for them to buy him but that wasn’t triggered and a year later, he was loaned to Real Betis.
In Spain, Cardoso failed to make a senior appearance and was stuck in Betis’ B team, where he played 16 times.
Based on that evidence, it was clear that he was never going to make it in claret and blue so it was the right decision on deadline day to let him go.
The ex-Boavista defender is now back in Portugal with Maritimo.
We assume that he’ll be a first-team regular there and we wish him all the best on his move and for the rest of his career.