Striker Léo Souza, a 26-year-old Brazilian, is experiencing a great phase in Chinese football. Currently on loan from Shandong Taishan to Zhejiang, the scorer comes conquering the supporters of the team and has lived his great moment since he arrived in Asia.
In 12 games for the club in the Super League, Léo scored 10 goals, in addition to four assists. Now in Zhejiang, Léo maintained his good pace of goals and has already scored four goals in five matches just for the club, remaining as the top scorer in the Chinese Super League.
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“It’s very good to score goals, because the center forward lives from that, and it’s better for me and the team I play for. I wanted to adapt to the new system first, I didn’t even expect to arrive scoring so many goals like this, but I’m blessed and that’s why I managed to maintain the level right from the beginning. I want more from here on, not only the artillery, but being able to help my team win games, which is more important than individual statistics”, said the Brazilian.
The scorer arrived in Asia in 2018 to play in Japan. More precisely, at Gainare Tottori, where he played for 33 games and was the team’s top scorer, with 24 goals scored. He stayed with the club for one season, until he transfer to Albirex Niigata, in the country’s second division, where he was top scorer and was elected MVP of the competition — that year, he scored 28 goals in 38 matches.
In 2020 came the chance to play for Urawa Reds, a first-class team shelf of Japanese football. Léo transferred to the team where he played 30 games and scored on 14 occasions. There were three full seasons in Japan, until the attacker headed towards China, where he is to this day.
“It’s been five years having to adapt to the continent’s culture. In the beginning it was a hard, I missed rice and beans (laughs) and my country. Today I’m more I’m used to it and I’m feeling good about the culture here. I see that football of the continent as a whole has been evolving and this helps me to evolve a lot as athlete too”, said Léo.
The player, before shining outside Brazil, went through the youth categories of some traditional clubs in Brazil such as Corinthians and Santos.
“I played in Brazil when I was still young, I was maturing as a player. It was a lot important for me, I certainly learned a lot everywhere I went, it’s these experiences that make me the athlete I’ve become. I’m grateful, but now I want to focus on the present, on continuing to help my teams by scoring goals, which is what I know how to do best”, concluded the Brazilian.
