David Martins Simão (born 15 May 1990) is a Portuguese professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Primeira Liga club F.C. Arouca.

Club career

Born in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, ...

, France, Simão played most of his youth career at

S.L. Benfica Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Be ...

, having arrived at the age of 10 from Grupo Instrução Musical Desportiva Abóboda. On 19 January 2008, he was called to the first team for a

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 sea ...

tie against C.D. Feirense, courtesy of manager

José Antonio Camacho José Antonio Camacho Alfaro (; born 8 June 1955) is a Spanish former football left-back and manager. He spent 15 professional years at Real Madrid, appearing in more than 500 official matches with the team and helping win 19 major titles, inc ...

, and was even picked to both

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

round-of-16 matches against Getafe CF, not being used however in any of the three fixtures. Simão made his professional debut with C.D. Fátima, on loan, his first appearance being against C.D. Santa Clara in the 2009–10 season opener in the Segunda Liga, a 1–0 away loss. On 26 September 2009, he scored his first goal for the side, in a 1–1 away draw to Gil Vicente FC. On 17 June 2010, Simão moved to

F.C. Paços de Ferreira Futebol Clube Paços de Ferreira () is a Portuguese football club based in Paços de Ferreira, Porto district. Founded in 1950, the club competes in the Primeira Liga, holding home games at the 9,077-seater Estádio da Mata Real, a municipal s ...

, still on loan. He made his Primeira Liga debut on 14 August in a 1–0 home win over

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

, and only missed five league games (19 starts, 2,051 minutes of action) during the campaign as the team finished in seventh position. Simão returned to Benfica for 2011–12 but, deemed surplus to requirements by manager

Jorge Jesus Jorge Fernando Pinheiro de Jesus (; born 24 July 1954) is a Portuguese professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of Süper Lig club Fenerbahçe. He started his career with Sporting CP, going on to play for 1 ...

, he moved to fellow top-tier Académica de Coimbra again on loan, on 17 January 2012. He scored his first goal for his new club on 26 March, netting from 40 yards in a 2–1 defeat at

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga () (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese ...

. On 31 July 2012, Simão was loaned to

C.S. Marítimo Club Sport Marítimo MH M, commonly known as Marítimo ( locally ), is a Portuguese sports club founded in Funchal, Madeira, in 1910. Marítimo is best known for its football team playing in Portugal's top-flight competition, the Primeira Lig ...

in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long move. He terminated his contract with Benfica late into June of the following year, and signed a three-year deal with F.C. Arouca also in the top flight. Aged 26, Simão moved abroad for the first time in his career, joining

First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) The First Professional Football League ( bg, Първа професионална футболна лига, Parva Profesionalna Futbolna Liga), also known as the Bulgarian First League or Parva Liga, currently known as the efbet League for spon ...

club

PFC CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

for three years. On 28 May 2017, he netted twice in

The Eternal Derby The Eternal derby of Bulgarian football or simply The Eternal derby ( bg, Вечното дерби) is the name of the local derby football match between the two most popular and successful football clubs in Sofia and Bulgaria: Levski Sofia an ...

to help overcome

PFC Levski Sofia Levski Sofia ( bg, Левски София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 b ...

3–0, but left on 31 August of that year to immediately sign with Boavista FC. Simão moved teams and countries again in January 2019, agreeing to a contract at Royal Antwerp F.C. of the

Belgian Pro League The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 tea ...

. On 22 June, he switched to the Super League Greece with

AEK Athens FC AEK FC ( el, ΠΑΕ A.E.K. ; Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; ''Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos'', meaning ''Athletic Union of Constantinople'') is a Greek professional football club based in Nea Filad ...

, signing until 2022 for an undisclosed fee. In February 2020, Simão was loaned to

Israeli Premier League The Israeli Premier League ( he, ליגת העל, ''Ligat Ha`Al'', ), is a professional association football league which operates as the highest division of the Israeli Football League – the state's league of Israel. The league is contested b ...

side

Hapoel Be'er Sheva FC Hapoel Be'er Sheva Football Club ( he, מועדון הכדורגל הפועל באר שבע, ''Moadon HaKaduregel Hapoel Be'er Sheva'') is an Israeli football club from the city of Be'er Sheva, that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The cl ...

. He and compatriots

Miguel Vítor Miguel Ângelo Leonardo Vítor (; born 30 June 1989) is a professional footballer who plays as a centre-back for Israeli club Hapoel Be'er Sheva, where he is also captain, and for the Israel national team. He spent most of his career with ...

and Josué Pesqueira won the

Israeli State Cup The Israel State Cup ( he, גביע המדינה, ''Gvia HaMedina''), is a knockout cup competition in Israeli football, run by the Israel Football Association (IFA). The State Cup was first held in 1928 as the People's Cup. Because it involv ...

on 13 July with a 2–0 final victory over Hapoel Petah Tikva FC.

Personal life

Simão's older brother,

Bruno Bruno may refer to: People and fictional characters *Bruno (name), including lists of people and fictional characters with either the given name or surname * Bruno, Duke of Saxony (died 880) * Bruno the Great (925–965), Archbishop of Cologne, ...

, was also a footballer, in the defender position.

Career statistics

Honours

Académica *

: 2011–12 Hapoel Be'er Sheva * Israel State Cup: 2019–20 Individual * SJPF Young Player of the Month: December 2012, January 2013

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simao, David 1990 births Living people Portuguese people of French descent Sportspeople from Versailles, Yvelines Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players S.L. Benfica footballers C.D. Fátima players F.C. Paços de Ferreira players Académica de Coimbra (football) players C.S. Marítimo players F.C. Arouca players Boavista F.C. players Moreirense F.C. players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players PFC CSKA Sofia players Belgian Pro League players Royal Antwerp F.C. players Super League Greece players AEK Athens F.C. players Israeli Premier League players Hapoel Be'er Sheva F.C. players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Greece Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Israel