Rafael Alexandre da Conceição Leão

Rafael Leão left Sporting CP under a cloud: his contract was unilaterally terminated in June 2018, and in March 2020 the Court of Arbitration for Sport ordered him to pay €16.5 million to the Lisbon club for breaching that deal. By then he had already moved on, first to Lille on a free transfer, where he scored eight goals in 26 appearances, and then to AC Milan for €35 million plus a 20% sell-on clause.

It was in Milan that Leão built his reputation. He holds the record for the fastest goal in Serie A history, scored six seconds into a match against Sassuolo in December 2020. He also became the youngest Portuguese player to reach ten league goals in a single Serie A season while still under 23. Over seven seasons at the club he made 227 appearances and scored 64 goals, and his best campaign came in 2021-22, when he was named Serie A's Most Valuable Player and Player of the Season as Milan won the Serie A title. He was picked for the Serie A Team of the Season three times in total and later added the Supercoppa Italiana in 2024. In August 2026 he moved on again, joining Galatasaray on a four-year contract.

At international level, Leão made his Portugal debut in 2021 and has gone on to earn 50 caps and six goals, featuring at the 2022 and 2026 World Cups and at Euro 2024. He was part of the Portugal squad that won the UEFA Nations League in 2025. His run through the youth ranks included the Under-17 European title in 2016, and he was a runner-up with the Under-19s in 2017 and the Under-21s in 2021. His early honours also include the Taça da Liga, won with Sporting in 2017-18.