Fábio Miguel Malheiro Paím (born 15 February 1988) is a Portuguese former professional
footballer who played as a
winger.
Touted as a promising player at a young age while he was in
Sporting CP, including by
Cristiano Ronaldo who was also a
youth academy graduate at the club, he would later
fail to make any significant impact in the sport.[2] After an unsuccessful four-month loan spell at
Chelsea in 2008, he went on to play for a host of minor teams in a variety of countries, without settling anywhere.[3][4]
Paím moved to
Luiz Felipe Scolari's
Chelsea in August 2008,[9] but only appeared for
their reserves during a four-month spell. On 11 December he left the English club and moved, yet again on loan, to
Rio Ave FC.[10] Coach
Carlos Brito decided not to keep him mainly due to his high salary,[11] and the player did not manage to attract any interest before the end of winter
transfer window, spending the rest of the campaign unattached.
On 25 September 2009, both Sporting and
Real S.C. – which had
Filipe Ramos, a former Sporting player, as a coach, with the side competing in the
third tier – agreed to a one-year loan deal until the end of
2009–10, making Paím the ninth Sporting player loaned out to that team.[12][13] In the 2010 off-season, without any official appearances to his credit, the 22-year-old left the
Estádio José Alvalade for good, signing with
S.C.U. Torreense of the same league. He left after only a couple of months, spending the following years in
Angola with
C.D. Primeiro de Agosto and
S.L. Benfica (Luanda).[14]
Paím joined
C.F. Benfica of the Portuguese third division for the
2012–13 season.[15] After some months trying to regain match fitness, he made his official debut against
C.D. Mafra; in December 2012, however, he moved teams and countries again, penning a two-year deal with
Al Kharaitiyat SC of the
Qatar Stars League.[16]
In the summer of 2015, Paím moved to
Union 05 Kayl-Tétange in Luxembourg's
division two.[19] He was dismissed from the team in September, for "unprofessional behavior".[20]
Paím was acquitted of
sexual crimes in 2012 in Portugal, and in 2015 in Lithuania.[27] In August 2019, he was arrested by the
Public Security Police after an undetermined amount of illegal drugs were found in his possession in Estoril.[28] He was eventually acquitted on the grounds that
wire tapping was not
admissible evidence in a court of law,[29] but he previously served time in the
Caxias prison.[30][31]
In October 2023, Paím stated that he would have been a better footballer than Cristiano Ronaldo if he had worked half as hard as him, and that he believed that he would have won the
Ballon d’Or in place of Ronaldo.[31] The following month, Ronaldo responded to those claims on
Instagram by commenting on the podcast clip: "WTF. Who is this guy?"[32][33]
^Pereira, Sérgio (11 December 2008).
"Fábio Paim já treina no Rio Ave" [Fábio Paim already training at Rio Ave] (in Portuguese). Mais Futebol. Archived from
the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 23 February 2009.
^Morais, André (12 July 2012).
"Fábio Paim no Futebol Benfica" [Fábio Paím in Futebol Benfica]. O Jogo (in Portuguese). Retrieved 3 November 2012.
^Lopes Gomes, Leonel (31 December 2012).
"Fábio Paim a caminho do Catar" [Fábio Paím on his way to Qatar]. A Bola (in Portuguese). Archived from
the original on 3 January 2013. Retrieved 31 December 2012.
^Vasconcelos, Ricardo (10 November 2017).
"Fábio Paím vai assinar pelo Leixões B" [Fábio Paím will sign for Leixões B]. Record (in Portuguese). Retrieved 13 November 2017.