As we all know, with the start of the latest round of training for the national team, fans outside are becoming more and more interested in naturalized players.
After all, aside from Hou Yongyong, who is currently being evaluated by Ivankovic, it will be some time before Serginho and Little Oscar also become eligible to wear the national team's jersey.
In addition to this, Shanghai Port recently completed a significant signing. This signing not only addresses the crisis of Wu Lei possibly not being able to play in the new season but also helps the national team retain a player who could potentially be their strongest naturalized player in the future.
This player is Leonardo, who played for Zhejiang last season.
We know that during this offseason, there has been a lot of news about Leonardo, mainly because he does not belong to Zhejiang but to Shandong Taishan.
Leonardo joined the Chinese Super League in February 2021 with Shandong Taishan, but by the end of July that year, he began his loan spell.
First, he was loaned to Hebei in the Chinese Super League, where he made 12 appearances, scoring 1 goal and providing 1 assist.
Then in February 2022, he was loaned to Ulsan Hyundai in the Korean K League and won the league championship with the team.
In April 2023, Leonardo returned to the Chinese Super League on loan to Changchun Yatai, where he had several outstanding performances.
Finally, in July 2023, he was loaned again to the current Zhejiang team and has been playing for them until now.
In the previous AFC Champions League, Zhejiang defeated Buriram United from Thailand 3-2 at home.
However, after the match, a fierce conflict broke out between the two sides, with multiple people fighting.
Leonardo did not stand idly by; instead, seeing his teammates at a disadvantage, he directly threw punches and was later given an eight-match ban by the AFC.
Last season, Leonardo played 29 games for Zhejiang, scoring 21 goals and providing 5 assists, personally creating 26 goals, but such outstanding performance did not impress Shandong Taishan.
Since the end of last season, Shandong Taishan has been trying to sell Leonardo.
At the same time, it has been widely rumored that Zhejiang hopes Leonardo will stay with the team. For this reason, Zhejiang has communicated and negotiated with Shandong Taishan many times.
But in fact, Leonardo's excellent performance has attracted the attention of Japanese team Osaka Sakura, and Osaka Sakura has already made an offer for him.
At this point, Shanghai Port decisively stepped in and joined the competition for Leonardo. According to external reports, Shanghai Port reached an agreement with Leonardo, signing a three-year contract and offering him an annual salary of approximately $1.5 million.
As a result, Leonardo can remain in the Chinese Super League.
It should be noted that the significance of Shanghai Port retaining Leonardo is very important. In the past few days, media reported that Wu Lei is about to undergo surgery. Once Wu Lei has surgery, it will take at least two months to recover, meaning Shanghai Port will not have Wu Lei's assistance at the beginning of the new season.
Leonardo's joining will be the best replacement for Wu Lei.
At the same time, Leonardo is only 27 years old. Since he was previously loaned to Ulsan Hyundai in South Korea, Shanghai Port will need to wait another three years to meet the time requirements for naturalization.
At that time, Leonardo will only be 30 years old, which is considered the prime of his career and just in time for the next World Cup.
For Leonardo, the difficulty of naturalizing him is not too great. Last summer, when the national team defeated Thailand and advanced to the top 18 of the World Cup, Leonardo posted on social media to mock the Thai team and expressed his feelings while wearing the national team's jersey.
As a result, as long as we are patient, in the future, he may become our most powerful naturalized forward player.