After beginning at Porto, where he won eight items of silverware along the way, he amassed Primeira Liga totals of 195 games and 54 goals over 11 seasons, with that club, Sporting CP and Rio Ave.

[12] In January of the following year, trying to earn a place in the 2006 World Cup, he moved on loan to Saint-Étienne,[13] where he netted twice in Ligue 1, against Metz and Le Mans, both resulting in 1–0 away wins.

[16] A regular starter in the beginning, he nonetheless fell out of favour towards the end of the season, losing his place to Brazilian Adriano though he still managed to score 11 league goals;[17][18][19] in his two spells, he appeared in 165 games in all competitions and netted 48 times.

[22] On 1 June 2008, Postiga moved to Portuguese rivals Sporting CP, signing a three-year contract for a reported transfer fee of €2.5 million, with the Lisbon side acquiring 50% of the player's rights.

[24] Postiga's second season as a Lion was disastrous, both collectively – Sporting finished fourth – and individually (he only found the net on 19 April 2010, closing the 2–1 home win over Vitória de Setúbal after just one minute on the pitch);[25] although he began as a starter, he soon lost his job to youth graduate Carlos Saleiro.

[29] After three disallowed goals in as many matches,[30] Postiga opened his scoring account on 16 October 2011, netting twice in a 2–0 home defeat of Real Sociedad; this included a bicycle kick in the 11th minute of the game.

[46] On 14 May 2016, in the last fixture, Postiga scored the winning goal as his team won 2–1 at União da Madeira, qualifying for the Europa League and relegating their opponents.

[48][49] Early in his second match of the season, away to Kerala Blasters on 5 October, he suffered another long-term injury; the club's ownership admitted that due to such concerns they had wanted a different figurehead.

Postiga earned the first of his 71 caps for the Portugal national team (27 goals)[53] on 12 February 2003 in a friendly with Italy, where he came on as a substitute for Tiago Mendes in the 70th minute – this game was also Luiz Felipe Scolari's first as manager.

[58][59] In the tournament, he managed to save his team from defeat against England during the quarter-finals, netting an 83rd-minute equaliser to level the score at 1–1 as Portugal would prevail in the penalty shootout 6–5 after a 2–2 draw.

[67] On 4 June 2011, Postiga scored the only goal in a Euro 2012 qualifier against Norway played at Estádio da Luz, which made him the tenth highest scorer in Portugal's history.

[69] Picked by Paulo Bento for the finals in Poland and Ukraine as first-choice striker, Postiga scored in the group-stage fixture against Denmark, the second in an eventual 3–2 win.

On 6 September 2013, he was sent off in the first half of a 3–2 win in Northern Ireland for headbutting Gareth McAuley;[72] at the finals, he started the second game against the United States after an injury to Hugo Almeida in the opener, but was himself substituted 16 minutes later due to physical problems[73] as Portugal were eliminated in the group stage.

A childhood fan of Benfica who went on to play for their two main rivals,[74] Postiga grew up in the Caxinas fishing neighbourhood of Vila do Conde, as did his long-time international teammates Bruno Alves and Fábio Coentrão.