Leozinho

Before he ever kicked a full-size ball for a living, Leozinho was one of the best futsal players in Brazil. Between 2017 and 2022 he came through Magnus Futsal and picked up a stack of titles with the club, including the Intercontinental Futsal Cup, the Liga Nacional de Futsal and the Brazilian Super Cup. Twice, in 2019 and 2020, he was named the best young player in the world at the Futsal Awards, and he earned 16 caps for Brazil's national futsal side, scoring six goals.

The switch to football came in 2023, a late and unusual entry point for a professional career, when he joined Hercílio Luz and scored three goals in 22 appearances. A move to Ituano in Serie B followed in 2024, where he added two more goals from 32 matches. By January 2025, when Athletico Paranaense signed him on a deal running to the end of 2026, he had built up a modest but genuine record in the sport: 99 games and 13 goals since leaving futsal behind.

At Athletico, wearing number 21, Leozinho has become a regular contributor rather than a fringe figure, playing 45 matches and scoring eight goals as the club worked its way back into Serie A. For a player who spent the first part of his career on a futsal court rather than a football pitch, that transition into a functioning first-team forward at a club aiming for the top flight stands as the more striking part of his story than any single number attached to it.