Nicolae Simatoc

Nicolae Simatoc (also known as Nicolae Șmatoc, Miklós Szegedi or Nicholas Sims; 1 May 1920 – 11 December 1979) was a Romanian football player and manager.

Nicolae Simatoc

Simatoc in 1950
Personal information
Date of birth	(1920-05-01)1 May 1920[1]
Place of birth	Grimăncăuți, Kingdom of Romania
Date of death	11 December 1979(1979-12-11) (aged 59)[2]
Place of death	Sydney, Australia
Height	1.92 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Position(s)	Midfielder
Youth career
1934–1938	Ripensia Timișoara
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1938–1941	Ripensia Timișoara	44	(3)
1941–1942	Carmen București[a]	0	(0)
1942–1944	Nagyváradi AC	32	(3)
1945	Vasas	9	(3)
1945–1947	Carmen București	12	(0)
1948–1949	Inter Milan	17	(3)
1949–1950	Brescia	30	(8)
1950	Hungaria FbC Roma
1950–1952	Barcelona	34	(2)
1952–1953	Real Oviedo	5	(0)
Total		183	(22)
International career
1940–1946	Romania	8	(0)
Managerial career
1959–1960	Lleida
1960–1961	Sabadell
1962–1963	AEL Limassol
1963–1968	Budapest Sydney
1969–1972	Polonia Western Eagles
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Simatoc started playing junior level football at age 14 in 1934 at Ripensia Timișoara.^[2] He made his Divizia A debut on 28 May 1939 in a 1–0 home loss to Juventus București.^[3][5] In 1941 he went at Carmen București where he spent one season and a half before moving to Hungary at Nemzeti Bajnokság I team, Nagyváradi AC with whom under the guidance of coach Ferenc Rónay he won the title in the 1943–44 season, contributing with one goal in 19 matches.^[2][3][5][6] Afterwards he spent one year at Vasas, then he returned to Romania at Carmen where on 7 December 1947 he made his last Divizia A appearance in a 6–2 home win against Ciocanul București.^[2][3][5]

In 1948, Simatoc went to play at Inter Milan, making his Serie A debut on 25 January under coach Giuseppe Meazza in a 3–0 loss to Napoli.^[3][5][7][8] He scored his first goal in a 4–1 over Fiorentina, scoring two more until the end of the season in a victory against AS Roma and a loss to Triestina.^[3][8] In the following season, he helped Inter to a runner-up position in the league, making his last appearance in the competition in a 0–0 against Lucchese.^{[3][9][10][11]}

Afterwards he went to play for one season at Brescia in Serie B where he scored a personal record of eight goals to help earn a sixth place.^{[2][3][5][7][8][9]} In 1950, Simatoc played alongside László Kubala at Hungaria FbC Roma, a team that was formed mainly from Hungarian players that left the Eastern Bloc and they would play exhibition games in Italy and Spain under the guidance of Ferdinand Daučík.^{[2][5][7][9][12]}

His next spell was at Barcelona where on 10 September 1950 he made his La Liga debut under coach Daučík in a 8–2 win over Real Sociedad, managing to score once and provide three assists.^{[2][3][5][7][8]} He played regularly for the Catalans in his first season, wearing the number 10 shirt, appearing in a 7–2 win over Real Madrid in the El Clásico, then scoring his second goal in another 7–2 victory against Málaga, also managing to win the Copa del Generalísimo.^{[3][7][8][10]} In his second season with Barça, Simatoc made six league appearances as the club won The Double.^{[3][8][9][10]} Simatoc spent the last season of his career at Real Oviedo where on 22 March 1953 he played his last La Liga game, a 4–0 away loss to Valencia, having a total of 39 matches with two goals netted in the competition.^{[3][7][8][13]}

International career

Simatoc played eight games for Romania, making his debut on 22 September 1940 at age 20 under coach Liviu Iuga in a friendly which ended with a 2–1 away victory against Yugoslavia.^[14][15] His last three games for the national team were at the 1946 Balkan Cup, consisting of a draw against Bulgaria, a victory over Yugoslavia and a loss to Albania.^[14]

Managerial career

After retiring as a player he became a coach, managing Spanish side Lleida between 1959 and 1960 in the Spanish third league, promoting Eladio to the team.^{[5][8][10][16]} Then he worked at Sabadell between 1960 and 1961 in the second league.^{[5][8][10][16][17]} In 1961 he worked as a technical director for Espanyol, afterwards in 1962, Simatoc went in Cyprus at AEL Limassol for one year.^{[2][8][10][16]}

In 1963, he moved to Australia, coaching Budapest Sydney for five years, then at Polonia Western Eagles for three years.^{[8][9][10][16][18]}

Personal life

Simatoc was born to Romanian parents on 1 May 1920 in Grimăncăuți, then part of Romania, present-day Moldova.^[2][3][5] His birth name was Nicolae Șmatoc, while in Hungary he was known as Miklós Szegedi and in Australia as Nicholas Sims.^[2][5] Simatoc was married to a Hungarian woman named Etelka Stolárcsik, with whom he had two sons, Silvio and Santi.^{[2][5][8][9][19]} Silvio, born in 1950, had followed his father's footsteps and played for the junior squads of Barcelona and in the first league of Australia at Hakoah Sydney City.^[8][16]

Simatoc was multilingual, speaking ten languages: Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, English, French, Catalan and German.^{[2][5][16][20]} After retirement he became a professional poker player and owned a casino in Australia.^[2][5][8][9]

Death

He died in Sydney on 11 December 1979 at age 59 after suffering a heart attack while playing a game of poker.^[2][10]

Legacy

A stadium in Lozova, Moldova is named after him.^[21]

A book about him was written in 2013 by Octavian Țîcu and Boris Boguș called Nicolae Simatoc (1920 – 1979). Legenda unui fotbalist basarabean de la Ripensia la FC Barcelona (Nicolae Simatoc (1920 – 1979). The legend of a Bessarabian footballer from Ripensia to FC Barcelona).^{[2][5][10][16][22]} A documentary about him called Nicolae Simatoc - variațiuni pe un nume (Nicolae Simatoc - variations on a name) was released in 2017.^[2][5][23]

Honours

Nagyváradi

• Hungarian League: 1943–44^[1]

Barcelona

• La Liga: 1951–52^[1]
• Copa del Rey: 1951, 1952^[1]

Notes

1. The Divizia A 1940–41 was the last season before World War II and the Divizia A 1946–47 was the first one after, so the appearances and goals scored during this period for Carmen București are not official with the exception of the 1945–46 regional championship.^[3][4]