Leonardo de Matos Cruz

Starting from the academies of Flamengo and having been for a short time in Marseille, Leo Matos did not find his best in this small passage from Europe and fought exclusively in his homeland until 2010, when he moved to Ukraine. In Chornomorets Odesa, he learned to focus in defence and remain faithful to tactics. The Chornomorets coach Roman Hryhorchuk, with whom he worked with, before moved to Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk, was the one who actually helped him to change. "...We watched video every single day, we learned tactics and defense, thinking that in football is not only attack..." has said in an earlier interview. Although he is a full back, he played most of the Chornomorets Odesa matches as a right midfielder, proving he can cover the whole right ring. In summer of 2014, he signed for Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk changing his position to left full back, a quite successful move. He participated in the UEFA Europa League final, where his team lost from Sevilla FC.

PAOK

On 8 May 2016, the 30-year-old solved his contract with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk due to serious economic problems of the club and he joined PAOK. The acquisition of the player is expected to be announced after the end of the Super League play-offs and until then all formalities (medical examinations, duration of contract etc.) with the player will take place. On 18 August 2016, in his third appearance for PAOK, Leo Matos scored a wonderful goal helping the club to escape with a 3–0 away win against FC Dinamo…

There were talks of possible naturalization of him to play for the Ukraine national football team, and eventually succeeded to gain a second citizenship.

Club

As of 15 February 2022

Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk

UEFA Europa League: runner-up 2014–15 PAOK

Super League Greece: 2018–19 Greek Cup: 2016–17, 2017–18, 2018–19 Brazil U-17

FIFA U-17 World Cup: 2003 Individual

Super League Greece Team of the Season: 2016–17 2017–18