Sérgio Pinto

Early years and Schalke

Born in Vila Nova de Gaia, Porto District, Pinto played four years with Porto's youth teams, moving to Germany at the age of 12 with his family and settling in the North Rhine-Westphalia town of Haltern am See. He then continued his football development at TuS Haltern. In 1999, Pinto made his Bundesliga debut with Schalke 04 after four years at the club as a youth, appearing twice for the first team in the 1999–2000 season, the first game being a 3–2 away loss against Bayer Leverkusen on 11 September. Most of his spell, however, was spent with the reserves, as he only took part in 21 matches more in four seasons.

Alemannia Aachen

Pinto signed for Alemannia Aachen of the 2. Bundesliga for 2004–05, for a transfer fee of €125,000. He totalled 58 league appearances in his first two years while scoring eight goals, achieving promotion in his second; on 25 November 2005, after helping to a 2–1 home win over SC Paderborn, he received the Tor des Monats (Goal of the Month) award from the ARD. In the subsequent top-flight campaign, Pinto appeared regularly for the North Rhine-Westphalia side, netting in a 2–0 victory at Energie Cottbus on 10 March 2007, but the team eventually finished second-bottom and suffered relegation. In the ensuing summer, he reunited with former Aachen coach Dieter Hecking at Hannover 96, joining on a three-year contract that was previously agreed in February.

Hannover 96

Pinto played his first official…