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

Romania and Hungary

Simatoc began playing junior-level football at age 14 in 1934 at Ripensia Timișoara.^[2] He made his Divizia A debut on 28 May 1939 under coach Sepp Pojar in a 1–0 home loss to Juventus București.^[3][5][6] In 1941 he went to Carmen București where he spent one and a half seasons.^[2][3][5] Subsequently, he moved to Hungary at Nagyváradi AC, making his Nemzeti Bajnokság I debut on 18 October 1942 under coach Ferenc Rónay in a 3–0 home victory against Ferencváros.^{[2][3][5][7][8]} Under the guidance of Rónay, he won the title in his first season, contributing with one goal in 19 matches.^{[2][3][5][7][9]} Afterwards, Simatoc spent one year at Vasas, making his last Nemzeti Bajnokság I appearance on 13 December 1944 in a 2–0 home victory against BKV Előre SC, totaling 41 matches with six goals in the competition.^[2][3][5][7] He returned to Romania at Carmen where on 7 December 1947 he played his last Divizia A match in a 6–2 home win against Ciocanul București, having a total of 57 games with three goals in the Romanian top-league.^[2][3][5]

Italy

In 1948, Simatoc joined Inter Milan, making his Serie A debut on 25 January under coach Giuseppe Meazza in a 3–0 loss to Napoli.^{[3][5][10][11]} He scored his first goal in a 4–1 win over Fiorentina, scoring two more until the end of the season in a victory against AS Roma and a loss to Triestina.^[3][11] 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 draw against Lucchese.^{[3][12][13][14]}

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 finish.^{[2][3][5][11][12]} In 1950, Simatoc played alongside László Kubala for Hungaria FbC Roma, a team that was formed mainly from Hungarian players that left the Eastern Bloc and played exhibition games in Italy and Spain under coach Ferdinand Daučík.^{[2][5][10][12][15]}

Spain

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][10][11]} 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.^{[3][10][11][13]} He netted his second goal in another 7–2 victory against Málaga, also managing to win the Copa del Generalísimo.^{[3][10][11][13]} In his second season with Barça, Simatoc made six league appearances as the club won The Double.^{[3][11][12][13]} 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 in the competition.^{[3][10][11][16]}

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.^[17][18] His last three games for the national team were in the 1946 Balkan Cup, consisting of a draw against Bulgaria, a victory over Yugoslavia and a loss to Albania.^[17]

Managerial career

After retiring as a player, Simatoc became a coach, managing Lleida between 1959 and 1960 in the Spanish third league, promoting Eladio to play for the team.^{[5][11][13][19]} Afterwards he coached Sabadell from 1960 until 1961 in the second league.^{[5][11][13][19][20]} In 1961 he worked as a technical director for Espanyol, then in 1962, Simatoc went to Cyprus to coach AEL Limassol for one year.^{[2][11][13][19]}

In 1963, he moved to Australia, coaching Budapest Sydney for five years, then at Polonia Western Eagles for three years.^{[11][12][13][19][21]}

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][11][12][22]} 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.^[11][19]

Simatoc was multilingual, speaking ten languages: Romanian, Hungarian, Serbian, Russian, Italian, Spanish, English, French, Catalan and German.^{[2][5][19][23]} After retirement he became a professional poker player and owned a casino in Australia.^{[2][5][11][12]}

Death

He died in Sydney on 11 December 1979 at age 59 after suffering a heart attack while playing a game of poker.^[2][13]

Legacy

A stadium in Lozova, Moldova is named after him.^[24]

A book about him was written in 2013 by Octavian Țîcu and Boris Boguș titled 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][13][19][25]} A documentary about him called Nicolae Simatoc - variațiuni pe un nume (Nicolae Simatoc - variations on a name) was released in 2017.^[2][5][26]

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]