Miguel Ângelo da Cruz Simão (born 26 February 1973) is a Portuguese retired 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 lea ...

who played mainly as a forward.

Football career

Born in

Porto Porto (), also known in English language, English as Oporto, is the List of cities in Portugal, second largest city in Portugal, after Lisbon. It is the capital of the Porto District and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto c ...

, Simão successfully emerged through local

Boavista FC Boavista Futebol Clube (), commonly known as Boavista, is a Portuguese professional sports club from the of Porto that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football, at the Estádio do Bessa. It is one of the oldest clubs ...

's youth system, making his professional debuts in the Segunda Liga with C.D. Nacional and joining another club in that division,

C.D. Feirense Clube Desportivo Feirense, commonly known as CD Feirense or just Feirense, is a Portuguese association football, football club based in Santa Maria da Feira. Founded on 18 March 1918, Feirense play in the LigaPro, the second tier of football in ...

, in the following season. He first competed in the

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

with S.C. Salgueiros, playing in 22 games in 1993–94 as his team finished in 11th position (five goals scored). Simão spent most of the following four years in the second level, the exception being the 1996–97 campaign with Salgueiros. In the 1998 summer he joined Scottish club St Johnstone, making his debut on 29 August in a 0–4 loss against Rangers at

Ibrox Stadium Ibrox Stadium is a football stadium on the south side of the River Clyde in the Ibrox area of Glasgow, Scotland. The home of Scottish Premiership team Rangers, Ibrox is the third-largest football stadium in Scotland, with an all-seated ca ...

, which proved to be manager

Paul Sturrock Paul Whitehead Sturrock (born 10 October 1956) is a Scottish former football coach and former player. As a player, Sturrock spent his entire senior career with Dundee United, making more than five hundred appearances between 1974 and 1989. He w ...

's final game in charge; he played in 26

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

matches in his first year, netting four times. Three days shy of celebrating one year since playing his first game for the Saints, Simão scored two late goals as a substitute against

Vaasan Palloseura Vaasan Palloseura, commonly referred to as VPS, is a Finnish football club, based in Vaasa. It currently plays in the first tier of Finnish football (''Veikkausliiga''). The club's current manager is Jussi Nuorela. The club plays its home matc ...

in the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

, in a playoff round 2–0 home win (3–1 on aggregate).Football: Super sub Simao is at the double in fight to the Finnish; St Johnstone 2 VPS Vaasa 0 (St Johnstone win 3–1 on aggregate)]; 27 August 1999 After a few months in

J1 League The , the J.League or the for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Japan and the highest level of the Japanese football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation ...

with

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima () is a Japanese professional association football, football club based in Hiroshima. The club competes in the J1 League, top flight of the Japanese football league system. Sanfrecce is one of the most successful clubs in Ja ...

, he returned to Portugal for a further two-and-a-half seasons with three clubs, appearing with Gil Vicente F.C. in the top flight.

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simao, Miguel 1973 births Living people Footballers from Porto Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football forwards Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Segunda Divisão players Boavista F.C. players C.D. Nacional players C.D. Feirense players S.C. Salgueiros players Académica de Coimbra (football) players C.D. Aves players Gil Vicente F.C. players Moreirense F.C. players AD Fafe players Scottish Premier League players St Johnstone F.C. players J1 League players Sanfrecce Hiroshima players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portugal men's under-21 international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Scotland Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Luxembourg Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Japan