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Simão Sabrosa
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Simão Pedro Fonseca Sabrosa, OIH, commonly known as Simão Sabrosa (pron. ) or just Simão (born 31 October 1979 in Constantim, Portugal), is a Portuguese football winger who plays for Atlético Madrid and the Portuguese national team. His primary attributes are free kicks, penalties, and dribbling.
Sporting CP
Simão started his career at Sporting CP.
Barcelona
Simão moved to Barcelona in the summer of 1999 on a €15 million transfer.
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Encyclopedia
Simão Pedro Fonseca Sabrosa, OIH, commonly known as Simão Sabrosa (pron. ) or just Simão (born 31 October 1979 in Constantim, Portugal), is a Portuguese football winger who plays for Atlético Madrid and the Portuguese national team. His primary attributes are free kicks, penalties, and dribbling.
Club career
Sporting CP
Simão started his career at Sporting CP.
Barcelona
Simão moved to Barcelona in the summer of 1999 on a €15 million transfer. In 2001, after a comparatively low-key tenure at the Spanish club, playing 46 times in two seasons and only scoring 3 times. Simão then moved back to Portugal to the Portuguese giants Benfica, on a deal reportedly worth €12 million.
Benfica
Simão instantly became a fan-favorite, quickly acquired the status of captain and was often acclaimed as Benfica's top player during the six years he spent at the club and also one of the Portuguese championship's best. Since he arrived at Benfica, Simão has always ended seasons as the best goalscorer of the squad. He has scored a total of 95 goals in 230 matches for Benfica, in all competitions. He has written 2 books and recently launched a DVD teaching children how to play football.
In his first four seasons, Simão netted over ten goals in each season. In the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League, Simão scored a free kick against Manchester United and a goal against defending champions Liverpool, helping to knock Liverpool out of the tournament.
The summer 2005 transfer window saw Simão targeted by English Premiership club Liverpool in an offer worth approximately £12 million, though negotiations reportedly failed over Benfica's increase in asking price. During the 2006 summer transfer window, several clubs, such as Arsenal and Valencia, revealed interest in Simão, but he decided to stay in Benfica. During the January 2007 transfer window, he was targeted by Atlético Madrid, but denied these rumours. Liverpool also revived their interest after their chief executive, Rick Parry, confirmed that interest.
Atlético Madrid
Ultimately, on July 26, 2007 it was announced by Benfica that they had agreed to a fee of €20 million with Atlético Madrid for the sale of Simão. He scored 7 goals in 30 matches in the 2007/2008 La Liga season in Spain. He also scored 3 goals in 6 matches in the UEFA Cup.
Career statistics
National team
Simão's path to the national team began when he won the European Under-16 Championship, in 1996. In the following year, he began playing for the under-18 team, moving on to become a regular in the under-21 team in 1998. Simão made his debut for the national team at the senior level at 19 years of age, on November 18, 1998, against Israel. He came on for Rui Costa and scored one of the goals in the 2-0 win.
Simão was not present in the 2002 FIFA World Cup due to injury, but he did participate in the UEFA Euro 2004 tournament, where Portugal finished in second place. His most notable appearance during Euro 2004 came against England in the quarter-finals. He came on as a second half substitute and assisted the equalizing goal in the late minutes of the game to bring the game into extra time. Simão also scored a penalty during the shootout which Portugal won.
In the 2006 World Cup, he scored a penalty kick on the 24th minute against Mexico. Portugal won that game 2-1. Then, on 1 July, in the quarterfinals, Portugal and England went into extra time and then a penalty shootout. Simão scored another penalty for Portugal, who emerged victorious 3-1 on penalties.
Penalty technique
Simão uses a stutter step method of approaching the ball on penalty situations to fool goalkeepers into prematurely deciding on what side to dive towards. As a result, Simão will attempt to slot the ball into the opposing side or tucks the ball just beyond the goalkeeper's reach. Due to this method, he has successfully scored the majority of his club goals for Benfica and Portugal from the penalty spot. Despite Cristiano Ronaldo's responsibility for taking penalty kicks for Manchester United, on national duty, Simão remains the prime penalty kick taker. Simão has only missed three penalties during his tenure with Benfica, and has never missed for Portugal.
Honours
Portuguese SuperLiga (2005, S.L. Benfica)
Portuguese Supercup (2005, S.L. Benfica)
Portuguese Cup (2004, S.L. Benfica)
Individual Honours
Portuguese Golden Ball (2005, S.L. Benfica)
Portuguese Footballer of the Year (2007, S.L. Benfica)
External links
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