{"id":4686,"date":"2011-07-21T17:07:45","date_gmt":"2011-07-21T21:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=4686"},"modified":"2011-07-21T17:19:27","modified_gmt":"2011-07-21T21:19:27","slug":"exploring-the-possibilities-simao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/?p=4686","title":{"rendered":"Exploring the Possibilities: Simao"},"content":{"rendered":"

During\u00a0the first full\u00a0week of the summer transfer window, New England Soccer Today will examine three players that may be targeted by the New England Revolution for a summer transfer. While the Revolution have revealed little in terms of which player(s) has been targeted, three possibilities have emerged. In the\u00a0second part of this series,\u00a0Brian O’Connell\u00a0spotlights Simao<\/strong>, the Besiktas midfielder who\u00a0may fit the bill as a potential transfer target.<\/em><\/p>\n

Could\u00a0the highly-sought Portuguese playmaker\u00a0many fans\u00a0have clamored for finally crash onto the Revolution’s shores during this summer’s transfer window?<\/p>\n

That answer may be found between the lines\u00a0of a report from The Boston Globe<\/em><\/a>. The report details that the team\u00a0is reportedly interested in signing a Turkish-based player who, according to MLS sources, “is among the top goal-scorers in his national team\u2019s history” – both descriptions that fit current Besiktas midfielder\u00a0and Portuguese National Team goalscorer Simao.<\/p>\n

Although the\u00a0Revolution don’t reveal potential targets until they are signed, Simao, who\u00a0is tied with Nene as the eighth-leading scorer in Portuguese National Team history with 22\u00a0international\u00a0goals, could very well be the\u00a0creative playmaker\u00a0that manager Steve Nicol has sought given the team’s\u00a0obvious goalscoring woes.<\/p>\n

Earlier this season,\u00a0Nicol and\u00a0Revolution Vice President of Player Personnel Michael Burns boarded a plane for Europe to scout their target, but returned without giving any further clues concerning their target. Coincidentially, Simao’s side – Besiktas – played against Buyuksehir Belediyespor in the Turkish Cup Final during Nicol and Burns’ European excursion in May.<\/p>\n

The addition of\u00a0the 31-year-old winger\u00a0would\u00a0unquestionably cost the Revs a seven-figure sum, and require the team to\u00a0use\u00a0its first-ever\u00a0Designated Player Allocation. Last fall, Revolution\u00a0COO Brian Bilello publicly announced that \u00a0the team fully\u00a0intended to\u00a0bring\u00a0in “one or more”\u00a0players worthy of the designated player title\u00a0after the Revs missed the playoffs for the first time since 2001.<\/p>\n

Should the Revs come to acquire Simao,\u00a0it\u00a0would not only give the Revolution a tremendous boost at the box office given the dense Portuguese community residing in southeastern New England, but an experienced and creative force with a solid international pedigree at both the club and country levels.<\/p>\n

Prior to signing with Besiktas, Simao spent three-and-a-half seasons with Spanish side Atletico Madrid, who paid Portuguese club Benfica 20 million euros for his services after scoring 76 goals in 172 matches from 2001-2007.\u00a0 Before his stay Lisbon, the creative midfielder had a brief spell at Barcelona (1999-01),\u00a0who paid\u00a0another Portuguese side – Sporting\u00a0CP –\u00a015 million\u00a0euros for his services.<\/p>\n

In addition to his success at the club level, the playmaker has accumulated 85 caps for Portugal, and\u00a0starred with\u00a0A Seleccao<\/em>\u00a0during\u00a0the 2006 and 2010 World Cups. During qualifying for the 2010 tournament,\u00a0it was\u00a0he\u00a0led his country with four goals, and later scored another during Portugal’s 7-0 rout of North Korea in the Group stages.\u00a0In August, he announced his retirement from the national team, citing “personal reasons.”<\/p>\n

While the summer transfer window open, a player of Simao’s skill would almost immediately improve the Revs fortunes.\u00a0And with the Revs’ form\u00a0rapidly regressing this season,\u00a0the front office\u00a0would be wise to sign him before it’s too late.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could Simao be Foxborough-bound this summer?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[24,3],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/nesoccertoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/simao-sabrosa22.jpg?fit=451%2C231&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4686"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5605,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4686\/revisions\/5605"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nesoccertoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}