Born in
Vila Nova de Cerveira,
Viana do Castelo District, Cabral started his senior career with local
SC Vianense, promoting to the
third division in his first year and playing two full seasons with the first team overall. After one year in amateur football he went straight to the
Primeira Liga for
1994–95, with
F.C. Tirsense, but his league input consisted of 24 minutes of action. In the summer of 1995, Cabral returned to the third level with
F.C. Vizela. Subsequently, as first-choice, he spent three seasons in
division two with Tirsense,
C.D. Aves and
C.F. Os Belenenses, appearing in 31 matches for the latter club (one goal) in the
1998–99 campaign as it achieved top-flight promotion. Cabral continued to be an undisputed starter with the
Lisbon side in the following two seasons, which attracted the attention of neighbouring
S.L. Benfica. He played 13 league games in
his first year but soon fell out of favour, returning to Belenenses for a further year where he featured sparingly due to injuries, and retiring in June 2005 at the age of 33. ==International career==