Paulo Domingos Gali da Costa Freitas (born 31 December 2004), commonly known as Gali Freitas, is a Timorese professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga 1 club PSIS Semarang.
Club career
PSIS Semarang
On 2 June 2023, PSIS Semarang brought in a player from Timor-Leste, Paulo Gali for a foreign player slot from ASEAN. Gali contracted for one season. On 3 July 2023, Gali scored a goal in his debut match against Bhayangkara at the Jatidiri Stadium, Semarang.
International career
On 1 September 2018, Gali made his debut for the senior team in a 2018 AFF Championship qualification game against Brunei in the first-leg in a 3–1 win. On 27 January 2022, Gali scored his debut goal for the senior team in a friendly match against Indonesia.
Career statistics
International
International goals
Honours
Lalenok United
Copa FFTL: 2020
Individual
AFF U-16 Youth Championship top scorer: 2019 (7 goals)
Controversy
In 2019 Timor Leste's under 15 team for the 2019 AFF U-15 Championship were accused of fielding overage players at the tournament, with team captain Paulo Domingos Gali da Costa Freitas being one of the prominent players accused of being over age with claims that he was at least 22 years old at the time. These protests lead to a formal investigation by the ASEAN Football Federation into the incident. The protests however were later dismissed with Paulo being deemed to be eligible to participate in the tournament.