César Peixoto

Belenenses

After spending his first two professional seasons at lowly Caçadores das Taipas, near Guimarães where he was born, Peixoto's ability as a left winger allowed him to jump from the fourth division straight into the Primeira Liga with Belenenses, thanks to former player João Cardoso. He scored seven goals in his first year, one of them a long range shot closing a 3–0 win against Porto at the Estádio do Restelo. In July 2002, he signed with Porto, going on to be managed by José Mourinho.

Porto

Peixoto's Porto career did not go as planned; while talented, he failed to impose in the first team, and in his first season only made 15 appearances, scoring three goals. He was starting to make his presence felt in the starting XI when, after netting in two consecutive league matches in 4–1 wins, he was seriously injured in the UEFA Champions League 3–2 away victory over Marseille on 22 October 2003 and, while it did not seem serious at first, on the next day a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament was diagnosed, which forced him to miss most of the campaign. After his recovery, Peixoto crashed his Mercedes-Benz SL500 while speeding to arrive in time at Porto's training center in Vila Nova de Gaia, and while only getting minor bruises, the car was completely wrecked and he was promptly asked for explanations by Mourinho. His image as a professional suffered much from the accident, and midway through the following campaign he was loaned to Vitória de Guimarães…

Aged 28, Peixoto earned his only cap for Portugal, appearing as an 84th-minute substitute for Maniche in a 6–2 friendly loss to Brazil on 19 November 2008. He was called up by Carlos Queiroz for the final games of 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, but did not play.

Peixoto started working as a manager on 11 March 2019, being appointed at LigaPro side Varzim. On 19 June that year, after succeeding in avoiding relegation, he moved to Académica de Coimbra in the same league. He left his post five months later, having collected only nine points in ten matches. On 19 December 2019, Peixoto signed with Chaves, succeeding José Mota at the team eighth in the second division. He had his first experience in the top tier in November of the following year, when he replaced the departed Ricardo Soares at Moreirense on a short-term contract. Having won one of five league fixtures, he resigned on 2 January 2021. Peixoto took over from Jorge Simão at Paços de Ferreira on 16 December 2021; arriving with the team in 13th, he finished the season two places higher. He opened the following campaign with no wins and two points from nine games, and after a 2–0 loss to Liga 3 side Vitória de Setúbal in the third round of the cup on 16 October 2022 he was dismissed. He returned to the same job at the turn of the year, after his replacement Mota had resigned with no points from four fixtures. Paços were eventually relegated as second-bottom, and he chose not to renew his contract. On 3 June 2024, Peixoto returned to Moreirense; he replaced Rui Borges, who had led the club to a best-ever 55 points in the main division. On 24 February 2025, after only one victory from the last 12 matches, he was fired. Peixoto returned to Gil Vicente on 2 March 2025, being…

From 2005 to 2007, Peixoto was married to actress and Rádio e Televisão de Portugal presenter Isabel Figueira. The couple had one child, a son. On 3 January 2022, Peixoto tested positive for COVID-19.