Born in Vila do Conde, Coentrão grew up in the Caxinas fishing neighbourhood, as did his long-time international teammates Bruno Alves and Hélder Postiga.

[5] In 2006–07 he established himself as first-choice, as Rio Ave barely missed promotion back and had a good run in the Taça de Portugal, ended by Sporting CP with a 2–1 win in Lisbon;[6] whilst playing for the club, he earned the nickname "Figo das Caxinas".

[15] On 2 December, having played some matches as a left-back, he scored his first goal in European competition, against FC BATE Borisov of Belarus in a 2–1 away win in the group stage of the UEFA Europa League.

[20][21] On 2 November he scored his first career brace, helping to a 4–3 home defeat of Olympique Lyonnais in the group phase of the UEFA Champions League – in a 67-minute fast break, he combined with Carlos Martins to make it 4–0 for the hosts.

[22] On 5 July 2011, after extensive negotiations, Benfica and Real Madrid reached an agreement in principle over the transfer of Coentrão, who signed a six-year contract the same day for €30 million[23][24]– Ezequiel Garay went in the other direction as part of the deal.

[26] His first two official games were against FC Barcelona in the Supercopa de España: in the first leg, he came on as a substitute for Sami Khedira in the second half of a 2–2 home draw and played as a defensive midfielder, and he started at left-back in the second match, a 3–2 loss at the Camp Nou.

[28] While he featured mostly in these positions, he was also deployed by manager José Mourinho as a right-back, against Sporting de Gijón on 3 December[29] and against Barcelona the following week,[30] winning the league in his first year.

In the last minutes of the second matchday in the 2012–13 season, Coentrão was sent off after insulting referee Pérez Lasa whilst on the substitutes bench, in an eventual 2–1 defeat at Getafe CF.

[31] Coentrão scored his first goal with Real Madrid on 16 December 2012, netting after a Cristiano Ronaldo pass to help the hosts come from behind against RCD Espanyol, as the game eventually ended 2–2.

It was accepted by the Spaniards, but the deal fell through when they failed to secure a replacement in Guilherme Siqueira from Granada CF, who subsequently joined Benfica on loan.

[34] He also started both legs of the Champions League semi-final against holders FC Bayern Munich as Real Madrid dismantled the opposition 5–0 on aggregate en route to their tenth European title, La Décima.

[43][44] He himself admitted not being fit enough to represent the club;[45] in the season's Champions League he appeared in two group stage games,[46][47] and his team won the competition for the second consecutive time.

Subsequently, he represented the nation in the 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup[60] and, two years later, made his under-21 debut, notably taking part in the Toulon Tournament and scoring a hat-trick in the 6–0 group stage rout of Qatar.

[67] He played a key role in a 2–1 home defeat of Serbia on 29 March 2015, which put them top of the Euro 2016 qualifying group, crossing for the opening goal by a Ricardo Carvalho header and then scoring the winner from João Moutinho's pass.