Simão Sabrosa

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Fonseca and the second or paternal family name is Sabrosa.

Simão Sabrosa

Personal information
Full name	Simão Pedro Fonseca Sabrosa
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Position(s)	Winger
Team information
Current team	Atlético Madrid
Number	20
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of September 14, 2008

Simão Pedro Fonseca Sabrosa, OIH, commonly known as Simão Sabrosa (pron. IPA: [si'mɐ̃ũ sɐ'bɾɔzɐ]) 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

Barcelona

Simao moved to FC 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. So Simão moved back to Portugal to giants Benfica, on a deal reportedly worth €12 million.

Benfica

He became an instant 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, Simao netted over ten goals in each. In 2005-06 UEFA Champions League, Simão scored a free kick against Manchester United and a goal against defending champions Liverpool FC, helping to knock Liverpool out.

The summer 2005 transfer window saw Simão targeted by English Premiership club Liverpool FC 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.

Atletico Madrid

Ultimately, on July 26, 2007 it was announced by Benfica they had agreed a fee of 20 million euros with Atlético Madrid for the sale of Sabrosa. He scored 7 goals in 30 matches in the 2007/2008 primera liga season in Spain. He scored 3 goals in 6 matches in the UEFA cup.

Career statistics

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Sporting CP	1996–97	2	1
	1997–98	21	1
	1998–99	30	10
	Total	53	12
Barcelona	1999-00	21	1			7	0
	2000-01	25	2			9	0
	Total	46	3			16	0
Benfica	2001–02	26	11	2	0	–		28	11
	2002–03	33	18	0	0	–		33	18
	2003–04	32	17	4	1	8	1	44	19
	2004–05	34	15	4	3	3	0	41	18
	2005–06	24	9	3	2	8	2	35	13
	2006–07	24	11	3	1	6	0	33	12
	Total	173	81	16	7	25	3	214	91
Atlético Madrid	2007-08	30	7	6	0	6	3	42	10
	2008-09	14	4	1	0	6	2	21	6
	Total	44	11	7	0	12	5	63	16
Career total		316	107

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 World Cup due to injury, but he did participate in the 2004 European Championship, 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 never missed a penalty kick for any club(and country).

Honours

• Portuguese SuperLiga (2005, SL Benfica)
• Portuguese Supercup (2005, SL Benfica)
• Portuguese Cup (2004, SL Benfica)
• UEFA Under-16 Championship (1996, Portugal)

Individual Honours

• Portuguese Golden Ball (2005, SL Benfica)
• Portuguese Footballer of the Year (2007, SL Benfica)

External links

• Simão Sabrosa's Official Website
• UEFA player profile for Simão Sabrosa
• Goal.com profile
• FootballDatabase.com statistics for Simão Sabrosa
• Toda a Informação sobre Simão Sabrosa (S.L.Benfica)