Simao quits Portugal duty

Winger retires from international football

By Luis Mira   Last updated: 28th August 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Simao quits Portugal duty

Simao: International retirement

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Portugal winger Simao Sabrosa has announced his retirement from international football.

The Atletico Madrid player, 30, has made 85 appearances for his country stretching back to 1998 and scored 22 goals.

He played a major role as Portugal reached the final of Euro 2004 and then advanced to the semi-finals of the World Cup two years later.

More recently, he was part of the squad that crashed out of the World Cup in South Africa in the last 16 after a defeat to Spain.

He has now decided to make himself unavailable due to personal reasons and Carlos Queiroz will have to look elsewhere when Portugal begin their Euro 2012 qualifying campaign next week with matches against Cyprus and Norway.

Honour

A letter sent to the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) read: "From this moment on, and due to personal reasons, I will not be available to officially represent as a professional player the Portuguese national squad.

"After deep reflection, I believe the time has come for me to put an end to my presence as a professional player in representing our national team on the field, this way also opening up room for new talented players to make their own successful path, just like I was given that same opportunity in the past.

"It was a tremendous honour and pleasure to wear the shirt of the national team and represent and serve Portugal during all these years, and I am extremely proud to have been part of such extraordinary teams who conquered so many victories in this world of football."

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