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 has played for Portuguese and Russian clubs, as well as for the youth, Olympic and national teams of his country. On the football field, as already mentioned, plays in the position of a midfielder, and also feels rather well in the place of the striker.
Childhood
The football player’s father was from the Portuguese city of Madeira. In 1979, he left his homeland with his two friends and moved to the capital of Venezuela Caracas, where he opened a restaurant and married a local resident. Miguel Danny was born here on August 7, 1983. In childhood, the boy was very interested in cycling and football. Since he was too small to ride a bicycle , his parents decided to send his son to a local football school. He began to work out very quickly, and soon the guy became the best player here. His talent was noticed by the scouts of the Maritimo team, who invited Miguel to transfer to a club school. To do this, you had to go to Portugal, to Madeira. Father and mother strongly opposed such an idea, however, the persuasion of the grandmother who lived there helped to convince them.
First football steps
Miguel Danny, whose biography as a professional footballer 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 “Lived Vicente” he came on as a substitute in the 62nd minute of the game. He scored his first goal after two and a half months at the gate of “Salgeirush”. During his debut season in Portugal, the footballer took part in 20 matches. They scored five goals scored. “Maritimo” finished sixth in the final standings.
Sporting
At the age of eighteen, Miguel Danny 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 preliminary consent to go to it. However, the leaders of Maritimo were not satisfied with the transfer amount. 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, in the next season, the athlete returned to his home team on a rental basis. At that time, the coach of Maritim was a domestic specialist Anatoly Byshovets. The coach once said such 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 his first match on March 9th. It was a cup meeting against the Samara “Wings of the Soviets”. According to the results of the 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 be noted that in 2007 his ball into the goal of “Rostov” was recognized as the best in the Russian championship by the results of the vote.
"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 transition 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 UEFA Super Cup. The Russian team then won with a score of 2: 1, and Miguel himself scored a decisive goal and was recognized as the best player in 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, because of which he could not go to the football field for 10 months. His return took place on March 13, 2010. Then he helped his team defeat Rostov, scoring the only goal in the match. On June 14, 2011, the player extended the labor agreement with Zenit, and on September 29 he played the hundredth match as part of the St. Petersburg team. The fact that the Portuguese “Porto” was the rival of the Russian club in that match was noteworthy, and the footballer scored a goal in him. In 2012, the player 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 date.
National team
In 2007, the player received an invitation to the Venezuelan national team, but rejected it because he wanted to play for Portugal. Miguel Danny spent his debut match in the national team on August 20, 2008. Then he came on as a substitute against the Faroe Islands. During the 2010 world championship in South Africa, he had three fights, including the 1/8 finals 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, Paulo Bento was not invited to be the head coach of the national team.
Interesting Facts
The football player designed 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 selected as the captain of the Zenith.
After the end of the 2012/2013 season. Miguel Danny changed his game number from 10 to 35. He explained this unexpected decision by the fact that he performed with such a figure on his back at the beginning of his professional career with Maritimo.
On August 13, 2014, after a goal against Ural, he entered the list of ten top scorers in the history of the St. Petersburg club.
As for personal life, Miguel is married. His wife's name is Peter. The couple has two sons (twins).