António Paulo Sanches Semedo (born 1 June 1979) is a Portuguese retired footballer. Operating as a winger or a second striker, he was nicknamed "The Black Panther". After starting out at Casa Pia, Semedo amassed Primeira Liga totals of 97 games and 11 goals over the course of three seasons with Estrela Amadora, where he played six years overall. He also competed professionally for CFR Cluj, Steaua București and Unirea Urziceni in Romania, Alki Larnaca in Cyprus, and Khazar Lankaran in Azerbaijan. Internationally, Semedo earned 16 caps for Portugal at under-21 level between 2000 and 2002.

Club career

Casa Pia and Estrela Amadora

António Semedo was born on 1 June 1979 in Lisbon, Portugal where he started playing junior level football in 1996 at Casa Pia, two years later starting to play for the club's senior side in the fourth league, helping the team earn promotion to the third league in the 1999–2000 season. In 2000, he went to play for Estrela Amadora, making his Primeira Liga debut on 20 August when coach Quinito sent him in the 59th minute in order to replace Jorge Cadete in a 2–0 away loss with Leiria. He scored his first goal in the league on 14 October in a 4–0 home win over Campomaiorense, scoring another three goals in three draws against Braga, Paços Ferreira and Beira-Mar, however the team relegated to the second league at the end of the season. Semedo stayed with the club in the second league, helping it promote back to the first league after two seasons. In the 2003–04 season he appeared regularly for the team scoring one goal in a 2–1 away loss with Braga, the team relegating once more at the end of the season. 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 also most prolific season in the Primeira Liga, scoring 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 in a 2–0 with Vitória de Guimarães, helping the team finish on the 9th place, having a total of 97 matches with 11 goals in the competition.

CFR Cluj

In 2006–07, Semedo joined Romania's CFR Cluj, together with compatriots Ricardo Cadú, Manuel José and Pedro Oliveira. He made his Liga I debut on 30 July 2006 when player-coach Dorinel Munteanu sent him on the field in the 63rd minute in order to replace Romeo Surdu in a 3–1 away victory over Oțelul Galați. On 21 October he scored his first goal in the league in a 2–0 home win over Argeș Pitești, afterwards scoring in victories against Oțelul Galați, Pandurii Târgu Jiu, Jiul Petroșani, a brace in a 5–0 over UTA Arad and the victory goal in a 3–2 with Rapid București, thus gaining a personal record of seven goals by the end of the season in which the team finished for the first time in its history on the third place. Semedo started the following season by opening the score in a 2–2 with Politehnica Timișoara. By the end of the season he continued to score five more goals, one against each of Politehnica Iași, UTA Arad, Universitatea Craiova and a double in a 2–1 with Dinamo București, all the games ending with victories. Semedo ended his second season with CFR by helping the club win The Double which were the first trophies in the club's history, contributing with six goals in the 28 league matches coach Ioan Andone used him. He was used by Andone in all the minutes from the 2008 Cupa României final, scoring the decisive goal in the 2–1 win over Unirea Urziceni after defeating goalkeeper Bogdan Stelea who defended his first shot but got defeated after his second one from six meters, also he made his debut in a European club competition, playing in both legs of the 3–1 loss on aggregate in front of Anorthosis from the UEFA Cup second qualifying round.

Steaua București

In 2008, Semedo was transferred by Steaua București from CFR for 1.2 million€, being presented at a press conference alongside George Ogăraru, Ricardo Pedriel and Andrei Ionescu. On 13 September, Semedo scored from a corner kick on his debut, as coach Marius Lăcătuș used him as a starter in Steaua's 4–1 win against Farul Constanța. The following week, he netted a brace in the 4–0 victory over Gaz Metan Mediaș. He also appeared six games in the 2008–09 Champions League group stage, playing against Bayern Munich, Lyon and Fiorentina, the team obtaining only one point after a 0–0 with the latter. For the 2009–10 season, Semedo was initially demoted to Steaua's B-squad alongside several other teammates but eventually in August 2009 he became free of contract.

Unirea Urziceni

Shortly after he left Steaua, Semedo signed a four-year contract with Unirea Urziceni where he was wanted by coach Dan Petrescu. On 30 November 2009 he scored his first league goal for his new team in a 2–0 home win over Gloria Bistrița, then he scored two more goals in the following two rounds in victories with Ceahlăul Piatra Neamț and Politehnica Iași. In the second half of the season he scored two more goals in a 4–4 with Dinamo București and a 4–1 away victory against "U" Craiova. He also made four appearances in the 2009–10 Champions League group stage, playing against Sevilla, Rangers and VfB Stuttgart, scoring a goal in a 3–1 loss against the latter, helping the team earn 8 points and finishing third, thus qualifying to the sixteenths-finals of the Europa League where he played in the second leg of the 4–1 loss on aggregate in front of Liverpool. In the following season he scored his last three goals in Liga I which were the only one in a victory with his former team, Steaua, one in a loss with Victoria Brănești and the last in a win with Sportul Studențesc București, having a total of 132 games with 24 goals scored in the competition, also during his period spent in Romania he made his only 14 appearances with one goal scored in European competitions of his career.

Alki Larnaca and Khazar Lankaran

In late December 2010, Semedo signed with Alki Larnaca. He made his Cypriot First Division debut on 15 January 2011 under the guidance of coach Itzhak Shum in a 3–2 loss with Apollon Limassol. He scored two goals in the league, the first one being the decisive one in a 2–1 win over APOEL, the second being in a 3–2 loss with Ethnikos Achna. In the summer of 2011, Semedo penned a one-year contract with Khazar Lankaran where he was wanted by Romanian coach Mircea Rednic who gave him his Azerbaijan Premier League debut on 27 August in a 1–1 with Ravan Baku. He scored three goals in the league, the first two being in victories over Gabala and Simurq, the last one being in a draw with Simurq.

International career

António Semedo played 16 games for Portugal's under-21 national team, scoring his only goal on his debut from 6 October 2000 in a 3–1 win over Ireland's under-21 national team at the successful 2002 European Under-21 Championship qualifiers. He was selected by coach Agostinho Oliveira to be part of the squad that participated at the final tournament, playing in a loss with Switzerland U21 and a victory over England U21 as they did not get past the group stage.

Personal life

After retiring as a footballer, Semedo relocated to England with his wife and children. In a 2011 interview, Semedo said that the team he liked 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."

Honours

Casa Pia CFR Cluj