Mani has completed a loan move from Portuguese side CD Mafra to Finnish top-flight club SJK Seinäjoki, joining the Veikkausliiga outfit on a temporary deal starting 2026-02-06 and running until 2026-06-30. The agreement is recorded as a loan transfer between the Liga 3 club and the Veikkausliiga team, confirming the 21-year-old central midfielder’s first spell in Finnish football and another step in his increasingly itinerant early career.
The deal sees Mafra retain the player’s registration, with Mani scheduled to return to the Portuguese club at the end of the loan on 2026-06-30. With no market value currently listed at Mafra and no fee beyond the loan arrangement indicated, the move underlines SJK Seinäjoki’s willingness to take a low-risk opportunity on a young midfielder with experience across several European youth systems. It also creates the possibility that his contractual situation may evolve quickly after his return, depending on his performances in Finland and Mafra’s plans for the following season.
Born in Bissau on 06 Jan 2005, Mani represents both Portugal and Guinea-Bissau at nationality level and operates primarily as a central midfielder, preferring his right foot. Standing at 1.74 m, he has built his profile through some of the most prominent youth structures in Portuguese football before embarking on a series of moves abroad, both permanent and on loan.
His development path began at UD Ponte Frielas Formação in Portugal, from where he joined SL Benfica’s academy setup at U15 level. He progressed through Benfica’s U15 and U17 sides before a switch in 2022 to FC Porto U19, remaining within the Portuguese elite youth environment. In 2023 he stepped up to FC Porto B, entering professional senior football structures in Portugal.
From Porto B, his career has been marked by a series of strategic moves. He spent a loan spell with Southampton FC U21 in England during the 2023–24 season, returning to Portugal at the end of that loan. Later, he joined Torino Primavera in Italy in 2024, adding Serie A youth competition experience, before signing for CD Mafra in 2025 and dropping into Liga 3, Portugal’s third tier, in search of regular senior opportunities.
Market value assessments have fluctuated during this period. At FC Porto B in late 2023, Mani was valued at €500,000, before that figure was revised to €350,000 during his time with Torino Primavera in 2024 and mid-2025. By the time he joined Mafra in 2025, his listed market value had fallen to zero, a reflection of limited recent data and perhaps the instability of frequent moves rather than a firm judgment on his ability.
The loan to SJK Seinäjoki now places Mani in the Veikkausliiga, a new environment outside Portugal and Italy where he will compete in Finland’s top division rather than in his home country’s lower tiers. The transfer marks a clear shift from development squads and Liga 3 football to a senior top-flight league, and gives him a platform to re-establish his value on the market ahead of his scheduled return to Mafra.
With no detailed appearance or performance statistics provided for his recent seasons, there is no public breakdown of his goals, assists or minutes played leading into this move. However, his consistent presence in academies such as Benfica and Porto, his time in England with Southampton’s U21s and in Italy with Torino Primavera indicate that he has been considered a prospect worth investing in by multiple clubs across Europe.
For SJK Seinäjoki, the deal brings in a midfielder schooled in Portuguese possession-based football, with additional exposure to English and Italian systems, on a short-term basis that carries limited financial risk. For Mafra, it offers the chance for a young asset with no current recorded market value to gain top-flight experience and potentially return as a more established player or a more attractive prospect in the transfer market.
As Mani settles into life in Finland, his performances in the Veikkausliiga will likely determine whether he returns to Mafra to compete for a key role, moves again—possibly as a free agent at a later stage if no extension is agreed—or attracts renewed interest that restores and exceeds the market values once attached to his name. The coming months at SJK Seinäjoki could therefore be decisive in shaping the trajectory of his career and his reputation as a dual-national midfielder seeking to turn a nomadic early journey into a stable, upward path in European football.
