Miguel Danny, whose photo you can see in the article, is a Portuguese midfielder, one of the leaders of the Zenit club from St. Petersburg. Throughout his career, he played for Portuguese and Russian clubs, as well as for the youth, Olympic and national teams of his country. As already mentioned, he plays as a midfielder, and also feels good in the place of the forward.
Childhood
The footballer's father was from the Portuguese city of Madeira. In 1979, he left his homeland with two of his friends and moved to the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, where he opened a restaurant and married a local resident. Miguel Danni was born here on August 7, 1983. As a child, the boy was very interested in cycling and football. Since he was too small for him, the parents decided to send their son to a local football school. He started to succeed very quickly, and soon the guy became the best player here. His talent was noticed by the scouts of the Maritimo team, who offered Miguel to transfer to a club school. To do this, it was necessary to go to Portugal, to Madeira. The father and mother were categorically against such an idea, but the persuasions of the grandmother who lived there helped to convince them.
First football steps
Miguel Danny, whose biography as a professional football player began in 1990 with the Maritimo club, moved to Portugal at the age of seven. Ten years later, his parents also moved there. The official debut of the football player as part of his team took place on October 1, 2001. Then, in the national championship match against Gil Vicente, he came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute of the game. He scored his first goal two and a half months later against Salgueiros. During his debut season in Portugal, the footballer took part in 20 matches. He scored five goals in them. Maritimo finished sixth in the final standings.
"Sporting"
At the age of eighteen, Miguel Danni became interested in the country's leading clubs, in particular Porto and Sporting. Since the player himself was a big fan of the first of the mentioned teams, he gave his preliminary consent to go to it. However, the leaders of Maritimu were not satisfied with the amount of the transfer. As a result, for the amount of 2.1 million euros, the player moved to the Lisbon club. Here he played for one year, but did not achieve tangible success. In this regard, the following season, on loan, the athlete returned to his home team. At that time, the coach of "Maritimu" was a domestic specialist Anatoly Byshovets. The coach once said these words about Danny: "Miguel is a very talented and hardworking football player, so he will undoubtedly succeed." The player himself later repeatedly admitted that the Russian mentor taught him a lot.
"Dynamo"
In 2005, the athlete received an offer from Dynamo Moscow, as a result of which he moved to Russia. He played the first match in its composition on March 9. It was a cup meeting against Samara "Wings of the Soviets". At the end of his debut season as part of his club, he was named the best player. In total, the football player spent 94 games in the Dynamo T-shirt, in which he scored 16 goals. It should also be noted that in 2007 his ball against Rostov was recognized as the best in the Russian championship according to the voting results.
"Zenith"
In order to get a player like Miguel Danny, Zenit in August 2008 was forced to pay Dynamo an amount of 30 million euros. At that time, it was the most expensive internal crossing in the history of Russian football. For the St. Petersburg team, the athlete made his debut in a meeting against the English club Manchester United in the Russian team then won with a score of 2: 1, and Miguel himself scored the decisive goal and was recognized as the best player of the match. The following season, the football player was awarded the tenth game number in the club.
In May 2009, Danny was seriously injured in training, due to which he could not enter the football field for 10 months. His return took place in 2010. Then he helped his team defeat Rostov, scoring the only goal in the match. On June 14, 2011, the player extended with Zenit, and on September 29 he played his 100th match as part of the St. Petersburg team. It was noteworthy that the rival of the Russian club in that match was the Portuguese Porto, and the footballer himself scored a goal in it. In 2012, the player was once again seriously injured. This time Miguel was forced to miss 8 competitive months. Be that as it may, after returning to the field, he continued to demonstrate a bright and enchanting game. As a result, the football player remains the leader of the St. Petersburg club to this day.
National team
In 2007, the player received an invitation to the Venezuelan national team, but turned it down because he dreamed of playing for Portugal. Miguel Danny made his debut match as part of the national team on August 20, 2008. Then he came on as a substitute against. During the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he had three fights, including a 1/8 final match against Spain, in which the Portuguese lost 1-0. For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, despite an excellent season at the club, for unknown reasons, he was not invited by the head coach of the Paulo Bento team.
The football player scored his first hat-trick in his career on August 3, 2012 in a meeting against Volga from Nizhny Novgorod as part of the Russian championship.
In November 2012, the player was chosen as the captain of Zenit.
After the end of the 2012/2013 season Miguel Danny changed his game number from 10 to 35. He explained such an unexpected decision by the fact that he played with such a number on his back at the beginning of his professional career as part of Maritimo.
On August 13, 2014, after a goal against Ural, he entered the list of the top ten scorers in the history of the St. Petersburg club.
As for his personal life, Miguel is married. His wife's name is Petra. The couple has two sons (twins).
Photo: foci-live.hu
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"Sankt-Peterburg.ru" considered possible options for continuing the career of the Portuguese and identified five teams that would gladly accept Danny in their ranks.
The captain of "Zenith" Miguel Danny will leave the St. Petersburg club. As it became known to "St. Petersburg.ru" from a source close to the football player's family, the Portuguese will not renew the contract with the blue-white-blue.
Now the player is considering offers from several football clubs. It is not yet known for sure whether the 31-year-old midfielder will leave at the end of the season as a free agent or leave Zenit in the winter transfer window.
"Sankt-Peterburg.ru" considered possible options for continuing the career of the Portuguese and identified five teams that would gladly accept Danny in their ranks.
5. Dynamo Moscow
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Perhaps the most incredible option for the transfer of the Portuguese legionnaire. Rumors about Danny's possible return to the Moscow club, which opened this talented football player to Russian fans, were lost in the news as quickly as they appeared.
However, there is nothing impossible in such a transfer. In his favor is the fact that Dynamo Moscow will definitely be able to satisfy the financial needs of the eminent legionnaire. The ambitions of the blue-and-whites in the European arena should be supported by a qualitative reinforcement, and a creative player of the level of Danny, who is well acquainted with the realities of domestic football, looks almost an ideal candidate.
And the Portuguese himself will not have to seriously change his usual way of life and break away from his familiar place.
4. Krasnodar
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Information about the possible transition of Miguel Danny to the Krasnodar club is already being discussed with might and main in various forums. Several facts speak in favor of such a transition. Warm, friendly relations have long been established between the teams. Zenit players are willing to go on loan or continue their careers at Krasnodar.
In addition, the "bulls" proved to be the most spectacular, brightly attacking team in our championship. Krasnodar's game is based on creative players who are able to both give a sharp pass and complete the attack on their own. Sometimes the players of the Krasnodar club do not have enough experience and composure to complete a difficult match in their favor. It was Miguel Danny who could become the leader of Krasnodar, that diamond who would easily join the team from the very first games.
The only obstacle to such a transition is the ambition of the footballer himself. Will Danny himself want to move to a club that, in its current form, only claims to participate in the Europa League.
3. Everton
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Everton's interest in Miguel Danny became public this summer. The Toffees then considered the Portuguese midfielder as a replacement for Gerard Deulofeu, who was supposed to return to Spanish Barcelona.
Now the English club is fighting on two fronts, which is not very good for the game in the domestic championship. The ambitions of team coach Roberto Martinez are clearly aimed higher than the ninth place currently occupied by the club from Liverpool.
Midfielder "Zenith" can be a great reinforcement for "toffees". Everton has always been wary of expensive transfers, and Danny can get the club for a penny, or even for free.
2. Benfica
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Returning to his homeland is one of the most possible career options for Miguel Danni. The Portuguese himself a few years ago even considered the option of moving to the camp of the Eagles, but then Zenit managed to convince the player by significantly improving the terms of his personal contract.
From that moment on, Benfica did not lose sight of Danny, but did not make specific proposals to Zenit. Here the financial side of the issue played a big role - only Porto could pull the "person" of the player of the St. Petersburg club in Portugal.
Now much indicates precisely that the Portuguese legionnaire will choose the option of returning to his homeland. The football player's family will certainly speak out for this option, and the player himself, who has exchanged his third decade, is unlikely to refuse to play for a club that regularly claims the championship in his country and plays in the Champions League.
1. Besiktas
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The most substantive interest in the Portuguese midfielder is shown by the Turkish Besiktas. The Turkish club, in search of strengthening for midfield, initially considered the option of Wolfsburg midfielder Diego, who plays on loan for Atlético Madrid, but failed to agree on a transfer.
According to the Turkish press, Besiktas has already made an offer to transfer the Portuguese for 4 million euros, but then the parties could not reach an agreement. It is known that the Turkish club promised the player a salary of 2.5 million euros per year and 15 thousand as a bonus per match. The term of the contract was to be three years.
The option with the Turkish championship looks the most interesting for Danny, for the reason that here he will certainly be offered the most favorable contract terms. The warm climate and a large number of compatriots playing in the Turkish national championship speak in favor of this particular option for continuing the career of a Portuguese football player.
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100 best legionnaires of the championship of Russia. 3rd place
At the 83rd minute, Cherkizovo fell into silence. Danny he said hello to his family, a few seconds before that, with a slight movement, he threw the ball over Guilherme and set the final score in the game with Lokomotiv. We guessed that this trick could be the last action of Miguel in a blue-white-blue T-shirt ...
... And still, until the last, I don’t want to believe in the news that he is still leaving.
This goal is like a litmus test of his career in Russia. With the last strength to compete with the defender at the end of the match, choose a position and elegantly, but at the same time it is so easy to throw the ball over the collar of the goalkeeper. Zeal and skill is what allowed Danny to score this ball. The same qualities that made him one of the best players in the history of our championship.
Nine years of over 250 matches, 68 goals, three league titles, two Cups, the UEFA Super Cup. Nine years of great love between Miguel and the city, imprinted on his arm in the form of a drawbridge tattoo. Nine years of difference between the frail guy, who was brought to Russia by an incomprehensible wind along with his star compatriots, and the recognized master, who was once hunted by Barcelona itself. Today, these nine years have come to an end and will turn from the present into history. The history of heated debates about the amount of the transfer from Dynamo, the goal of van der Sar, three recoveries from severe injuries, goals in the Champions League and much more.
The character of the captain. How Danny returned from the injuries of the "crosses"
Mircea Lucescu announced Danny's start at Anderlecht. We remember how Miguel returned from past injuries of the “crosses”.
His daily life in St. Petersburg revolved around the base in Udelny, "Petrovsky" and at home. In the morning he worked hard in training, making his teammates admire his form and skill, even when he was already over 30. In the evening he went out onto the field and once again fell in love with the blue-white-blue torsida. And then he went home - in the summer he walked with his family in the park, in the evening he sat at home with his children and wife, hiding from the prickly north wind.
“I have been living in Russia for 12 years and to some extent I feel Russian,” Miguel never hid that he really got attached to a country in which heat-loving compatriots most often feel out of place.
The love between Danny and Zenit, as expected, was spontaneous. He suddenly changed Moscow to St. Petersburg. Suddenly left half of the star Manchester United in the cold. Suddenly he ran to the corner flag to celebrate in the style of a dog a goal against Porto. In the summer of 2015, he suddenly announced that he was leaving Zenit. And a couple of days later he suddenly signed a new contract.
“These two years are the last of my career,” he said at the time. Perhaps Miguel will still play somewhere in Turkey, China or the USA. But he will definitely leave a piece of himself here, in the vast expanses of a huge cold country, where he once went without fear from the small island of Madeira warmed by the sun.
“I'm going back to Russia to keep winning trophies with Zenit,” he said in the summer of 2010 at the peak of his career after a trip with Portugal to the World Cup.
“I will come back and become even stronger,” Danny assured after he received another serious injury.
Someone doubts that Miguel did everything to go on the field and work out (work off, not earn) his salary at Zenit. He freely communicates in Russian, tears his veins on the field, has never got into scandals. An example not only for legionnaires, but for all RFPL players. In St. Petersburg, a solemn farewell will be arranged for the captain. He deserved it like no other.
“I thank you for the love that I always received in St. Petersburg, thank you all for that! I thank the players, coaches and all the employees with whom I shared these nine years. whom I got to know here and who were part of my life in St. Petersburg.
Just like Danny will forever remain in the history of the club. In the history of the RFPL. In the heart of every Zenit fan.
And still, until the last, I do not want to believe that he is still leaving.
Such breakups are not easy. But - the time has come.
Petersburg became related to this Portuguese guy. In fact, demanding, and even prickly in the Baltic in matters of kinship, the city has long considered it to be its own. If Peter accepts someone, then with all his heart he knows how it happens.
Danny is a favorite of Zenit fans. / Photo: © Instagram
Although it was probably impossible not to accept it. Because he always devoted himself entirely to football, because he did not work and did not play on the green rectangle - he lived there. All the hottest things that happened on the Petrovsky lawn, the most dashing, the most non-standard, the most delicious, usually had Miguel Danny as the root cause. He slipped through the defenders, fooled them with a clever feint, opened the game with a thin pass - he acted as an artist and a motor in one person.
Locomotive - Zenit. 0:2. Danny
Whoever was the coach of Zenit during these years - Lawyer, Spalletti, Villas-Boas, Lucescu - everyone needed him. Everyone was looking forward to if he suddenly happened to stay on sick leave. Because Danny for the team is something like an elixir: when it's bad, he will definitely breathe life.
So how could the people of St. Petersburg remain indifferent to someone who, even after the third break of the crosses, returned to the field and fearlessly went into battle again?
Although, to be honest, he often made the stands annoyed: he did not score from positions where a miss seemed impossible.
In two months he will turn 34: you can, perhaps, sum up. In this regard, the question is head-on: did he become what he promised at the moment when Zenit gave 30 million for him?
The answers are sure to be different. And this means that for a unanimous recognition of something he lacked. What exactly?
Perhaps natural health. Still, he suffered three injuries of the same knee, received without serious collisions (the first two times the injury generally happened in training). And each of the three took, along with a full restoration of gaming conditions, about a year.
Danny with his sons Bernardo and Francisco / Photo: Elena Razina
Perhaps he did not have enough technical equipment. In relation to Danny, this version may seem crazy, but it really is. If he had mastered the technique of impact to the same extent as, say, the technique of high-speed dribbling, he would have had much more chances to become a world star. And so the number of moments ruined at the gates of others in his career is quite comparable to the number of goals scored.
And such inconsistency of nature turned out, if you look more broadly, not only his personal property. The man whose Zenit life began with a record transfer of 30 million, and ended with a peremptory captaincy, is doomed to special influence, to fame, to the exclusive right to answer for everything.
Miguel appeared on the banks of the Neva in August 2008, and now June 2017 is in the yard: the ninth year is coming to an end. And he completed nine championships of Russia with Danny as part of Zenit. Three of them were gold. Three out of nine. Is this normal for the most powerful club in the country?
Of course, at this time there were other ringleaders in the team. Denisov, Shirokov, Hulk, Dzyuba. But the periods of their premiership turned out to be short-term, while Danny was the only one who remained in the lead all this time. And the entire era when Zenit began to be called a top club, he personifies more fully than any of his teammates.
Is there a feeling that Zenit missed too often in these years? Yes, he was bright, yes, he excited, amused, but at the same time he achieved his goals much less often than expected by the disposition.
Therefore, the current decision of the club may seem unexpected only at first glance. Alas, at 34, football players do not get better. And I want to grow. I want success, recognition, titles.
Although the main pearl in the club's trophy showcase will probably remain the UEFA Super Cup for a long time to come. And no one will forget whose blow brought him to Zenit.
