Publications in the Uruguayan media give an account of the unexpected hiring announced by Barcelona Sporting Club.
Publications in the Uruguayan media report the unexpected hiring reported by Barcelona Sporting Club on Monday night. It was 9:33 p.m. when the Brazilian Leonai Souza was welcomed through the social channels of the Canarian club as the last reinforcement for the 2022 season.
“Neither in Nacional nor in Peñarol: Leonai Souza, the best foreigner of Uruguayan 2021, will play in Ecuador”, published this Tuesday Referee, the daily sports supplement The Observer.
Similar is the announcement of a stunned section Ovation, From the newspaper The country, when announcing the departure of the born in Pontal (São Paulo state) to the LigaPro of Ecuador: “Neither Nacional, nor Peñarol, Leonai Souza went to a semifinalist in the Copa Libertadores.”
Souza, a 26-year-old midfielder who had an outstanding 2021 season in Uruguayan football with the Plaza Colonia club jersey, has in his portfolio a 2021 Apertura tournament title, a runner-up in that league and third place in the Table Accumulated annual that granted his now former team the classification to the preliminary phase of the Copa Libertadores 2022.
The two Uruguayan media cited say that Nacional and Peñarol were interested in signing the player from São Paulo after the end of the 2021 Uruguayan Championship.
Referee, for his part, recalls that Souza was elected the Best Foreign Player of the Uruguayan Tournament 2021, in the survey carried out by that section of The Observer since 2008.
According to Transfermarkt, Souza’s current market value is 550,000 euros, about $ 624,000.
In Uruguay since 2019
The first foreign signing of Barcelona SC in the winter market of 2022 will be linked for a season on loan and his contract includes a purchase option at the end of the operation.
Souza, who “will join the squad in the next few days for the first team’s preseason work”, comes to the LigaPro of Ecuador with 63 matches played with Plaza Colonia since 2019. Before that, he played for Taquaritinga-SP and Comercial-SP of his country.
In 2021 he accumulated 29 performances and 2,618 minutes on the court, adding the Apertura and Clausura tournaments and the playoffs.
His last game last season was precisely against Peñarol -club that was interested in his record- in the semifinal of the playoffs in the definition of the Uruguayan Championship 2021. It was a confrontation between the champion of the Apertura (Plaza Colonia) and Clausura (Peñarol) that ended tied (1-1) and in the definition by penalties the charcoal box prevailed 7-8. Leonai played 120 minutes. (D)
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