Born in Barreiro, Portugal, on 27 May 1994, João Cancelo started out playing in his hometown before joining Benfica youth system.

He rose through the ranks and made his first team debut in 2013/14. After one year with the seniors, he was loaned to Valencia and eventually signed for them, spending three years there, including a season on loan at Inter Milan before switching to another of Italy's top clubs, Juventus.

His next stop was Manchester City, who he joined in 2019, playing there for two seasons, before going on loan to Bayern Munich in the 2022/23 season and then to FC Barcelona on a similar arrangement for 2023/24 season. His next move was to Saudi Arabia to play for Al Hilal.

After a season and a half, he is back on loan at Barça to play the second half of the 2025/26 season. He has already won several trophies in this career such as the league title in Portugal, Italy, and England.

Her joined the blaugranes in his first spell as an option for the right back position, but he often played on the left under Xavi Hernández. Furthermore, his final years at Manchester City saw him play a key midfield role under Pep Guardiola, starting from fullback but joining the play in the middle. As such, a very useful player for Hansi Flick given his versatility.