Leo Sauer (born 16 December 2005) is a Slovak professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for Dutch club

NAC Breda NAC Breda (), often simply known as NAC, is a Dutch professional football club, based in Breda, Netherlands. NAC Breda play in the Rat Verlegh Stadium, named after their most important player, Antoon 'Rat' Verlegh. They play in the Eredivisi ...

, on loan from

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Netherlands, Dutch professional association football, football club based in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football league system, Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the ...

, and the Slovakia national team.

Early life

Sauer grew up with his parents in

Bratislava Bratislava (German: ''Pressburg'', Hungarian: ''Pozsony'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Slovakia, Slovak Republic and the fourth largest of all List of cities and towns on the river Danube, cities on the river Danube. ...

. He has an older brother called Mário who is also a footballer, both attended the Secondary Sports School in

Žilina Žilina (; ; ; ; Names of European cities in different languages: U-Z#Z, names in other languages) is a city in north-western Slovakia, around from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the List of cities ...

Club career

Sauer started his football career with Slovan Bratislava. In the summer of 2018 he moved to the youth academy

MŠK Žilina MŠK Žilina () is a Slovak football club based in the town of Žilina, that is playing in the Slovak First Football League. Since the league inception in 1993, the club has won 7 titles and comes second in All-time table that makes them one o ...

. Sauer made his debut in the Slovak 2. Liga for Žilina B on 27 February 2022 against

FC Petržalka FC Petržalka is a Slovakia, Slovak association football, football club based in Bratislava. The club was founded in 1898 and it was promoted twice to the top flight Czechoslovak First League, 1. liga in the Czechoslovakia during the 1980s (for ...

. Sauer joined

initially on loan from MŠK Žilina in 2022, but in April 2023 signed a three-year professional contract with the Dutch club. On 20 August 2023, Sauer made his debut for the club in an away match against

Sparta Rotterdam Sparta Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club based in Rotterdam. Established on 1 April 1888, Sparta Rotterdam is the oldest professional football team in the Netherlands. Sparta currently competes in the Eredivisie, the top flig ...

by coming in at half-time, scoring the 2–2 in the added time to secure a point for the club. On 12 August 2024, Sauer moved on a season-long loan to

International career

Sauer played for the Slovakia U-19 side alongside his older brother, Mario Sauer. Both were selected for the Slovakia U-20 side to compete at the

2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2023 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 23rd edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth Association football, football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since i ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. On 5 October 2023, at the age of only 17, coach Francesco Calzona called him to the Slovak senior national team. On 26 March 2024, Sauer became the youngest ever player to play for the national team after coming on as a substitute in a friendly against

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. He was included in the Slovakia squad for the

UEFA Euro 2024 The 2024 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2024 (stylised as UEFA EURO 2024) or simply Euro 2024, was the 17th UEFA European Championship, the quadrennial international Association football, football champ ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

in June 2024. He made his tournament debut 21 June, becoming the youngest ever Slovak player at a final tournament.

Career statistics

Honours

Feyenoord *

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; "Honour Division" or "Premier Division") is a professional association football league in the Netherlands and the highest level of the Dutch football league system. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start o ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

KNVB Cup The KNVB Beker (; ), branded as the TOTO KNVB Beker for sponsorship reasons, is a competition in the Netherlands organised by the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB) since 1898. It was based on the format of the English FA Cup. Outside the N ...

: 2023–24 *

Johan Cruyff Shield The Johan Cruyff Shield (, ) is a football trophy in the Netherlands named after Dutch footballer Johan Cruyff, also often referred to as the Dutch Super Cup. The winner is decided in one match only, played by the winner of the national footbal ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sauer, Leo 2005 births Living people Slovak men's footballers MŠK Žilina players Feyenoord players NAC Breda players 2. Liga (Slovakia) players Slovak First Football League players Eredivisie players Slovakia men's youth international footballers Slovakia men's under-21 international footballers Slovakia men's international footballers Slovak expatriate men's footballers Slovak expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands UEFA Euro 2024 players Footballers from Bratislava 21st-century Slovak sportsmen Men's association football wingers