Eduardo Manuel Melico Simões (born 25 January 1982) is a Portuguese former

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 as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Club career

Born in

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, Simões joined

S.L. 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'', Benfica is one of the " ...

's youth system at the age of 9, and completed his development in 2001 by winning the under-19 championship. He was subsequently promoted to the reserves in the third division, making his debut on 2 September 2001 against A.D. Camacha. Despite being called up for the training sessions of the first team on several occasions in his first two seasons, he only played once for the main squad in official matches, on 1 June 2003. In July 2003, Simões agreed to extend his contract until 2005, hoping to play in a more competitive league in the 2003–04 campaign were he not to remain with the roster. However, it was decided that he would be loaned to Amora F.C. of the third level, a move he disliked because he expected to play in the professional leagues: "When I renewed my contract, it was mentioned that I would be loaned to a team 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 ...

or the Segunda Liga. That did not happen, but I will still present myself without any worries." In 2004–05, Simões joined the first team pre-season in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

, and Benfica attempted to find him a club in division two, but despite interest from Alverca F.C. he remained and returned to the reserve side for a further season. After his contract expired, he resumed his career in the third tier, with C.D. Olivais e Moscavide, C.D. Mafra and Real SC. This was interspersed with a brief stint in Bulgaria, with

FC Vihren Sandanski OFC Vihren () is a Bulgarian football club from the town of Sandanski, currently playing in the Second League. Sandanski's home ground is the Sandanski Stadium in Sandanski with a capacity of 6,000. Vihren Sandanski's team colours are green an ...

. Simões spent the vast majority of his remaining career in the Lisbon regional leagues, in representation of Grupo Sportivo Loures, União Desportiva Alta de Lisboa and Clube Atlético Pêro Pinheiro.

International career

All categories accounted for, Simões earned 31

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for

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

at youth level. He represented the under-16 side at the 1999 UEFA European Championship in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

, helping the country reach the quarter-finals; he was also part of the squad that failed to qualify for the 2000 edition. In 2000, Simões appeared with the under–18s in the qualifying stages for the 2001 European Championships. The following year, he played under–20 football at the V

Madeira Madeira ( ; ), officially the Autonomous Region of Madeira (), is an autonomous Regions of Portugal, autonomous region of Portugal. It is an archipelago situated in the North Atlantic Ocean, in the region of Macaronesia, just under north of ...

International tournament.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simoes, Eduardo 1982 births Living people Footballers from Lisbon Portuguese men's footballers Men's association football defenders Primeira Liga players Segunda Divisão players S.L. Benfica B players S.L. Benfica footballers Amora F.C. players C.D. Olivais e Moscavide players C.D. Mafra players OFC Vihren Sandanski players Real S.C. players GS Loures players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Girabola players C.R.D. Libolo players Portugal men's youth international footballers Portuguese expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Angola Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Portuguese expatriate sportspeople in Angola 21st-century Portuguese sportsmen