António Semedo

Casa Pia and Estrela Amadora

Semedo was born on 1 June 1979 in Lisbon, Portugal and began playing junior-level football in 1996 at Casa Pia. Two years later, he started to play for the club's senior side in the fourth league, helping them earn promotion to the third league in the 1999–2000 season. In 2000, Semedo joined Estrela Amadora, making his Primeira Liga debut on 20 August when coach Quinito sent him in the 59th minute to replace Jorge Cadete in a 2–0 away loss to Leiria. He scored his first goal in the league on 14 October in a 4–0 home win over Campomaiorense. Subsequently, he netted another three goals in three draws against Braga, Paços Ferreira and Beira-Mar, but the team was relegated to the second league at the end of the season. Semedo stayed with the club in the second league, helping it gain promotion back to the first league after a two-season absence. In the 2003–04 season he appeared regularly for the team, scoring one goal in a 2–1 away loss to Braga, as the team suffered another relegation. After one year in the second league, he earned another promotion with Estrela back to the first league. In the following season, Semedo had his last and most prolific season in the Primeira Liga. He scored a brace in a 2–0 win over Belenenses and another three goals in three 1–0 wins over Penafiel, Vitória de Guimarães and Vitória Setúbal, one goal in a 2–0 victory against Vitória de Guimarães, as the team finished in 9th place. Semedo has a total of 97…

Semedo played 16 games for Portugal's under-21 national team, scoring his only goal on his debut, which occurred on 6 October 2000 in a 3–1 win over Ireland's under-21 national team during the successful 2002 European Under-21 Championship qualifiers. He was selected by coach Agostinho Oliveira to be part of the final tournament squad, playing in a loss to Switzerland U21 and a victory over England U21, as his side failed to progress from their group.

Upon retiring from football, Semedo relocated to England with his wife and children. In a 2011 interview, Semedo said that the team he enjoyed playing the most was CFR Cluj:"At CFR Cluj, I was an idol, I had the impression that I was Cristiano Ronaldo. I would walk the streets of the city and see people with t-shirts with my face on them. In Cluj, we ended the dictatorship of the big teams from Bucharest". In an interview for Orange Sport from 2022, he talked about his experiences with racism in football and how he views it:"To me it seemed perfectly normal to hear racist insults when I was playing. But that didn't make those people racist. They simply believed and hoped that they could destabilize me during the match in favor of their favorite team. That's it. That's how I see it and I saw the situation then as well. Off the pitch, no one treated me and my family badly because I was of a different color. On the contrary."

Casa Pia

Terceira Divisão: 1999–2000 CFR Cluj

Liga I: 2007–08 Cupa României: 2007–08 Unirea Urziceni

Supercupa României runner-up: 2010