Leonardo Medeiros da Silva (born 14 January 1988), known as Léo Kanu, is a Brazilian 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 for Internacional de Lages, as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Career

After a series of good performances at the

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho (English: Gaúcho Championship), officially named as Campeonato Gaúcho de Futebol Série A and commonly known as the Gauchão or the Gauchão Ipiranga (company), Ipiranga for sponsorship reasons, is the top-flight profess ...

, he was bought by Benfica for 996 thousand

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s. He was immediately loaned to

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses (), commonly known as Os Belenenses or simply Belenenses, is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 19,856 ...

for one season, and he managed to gain his space at the starting eleven, playing the fifth round of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

against

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. However, with the arrival of new manager,

Marco Paulo Marco Paulo is a masculine Portuguese given name. Notable people with the name include: * Marco Paulo Rebelo Lopes (born 1976), Angolan international footballer of Portuguese descent * Marco Paulo Faria Lemos (born 1973), Portuguese footballer * Ma ...

, he lost his place. Later in the season, he criticized the club on

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and was suspended. On 24 July 2012, he returned to Brazil, to play at Ponte Preta on loan from Benfica, but couldn't break into the first team so on 17 December 2012, he moved to

Grêmio Esportivo Osasco Grêmio Esportivo Osasco, commonly referred to as Grêmio Osasco, is a Brazilian professional association football club based in Osasco, São Paulo. The team competes in the Campeonato Paulista Segunda Divisão, the fourth tier of the São Paul ...

Campeonato Paulista Série A3 Campeonato Paulista Série A3 is the third tier of the professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF). The tournament has been known as Série A3 since the ...

. In 2014, he signed with Náutico in permanent basis, but only managed one appearance before being released. In February 2015, he signed with São José-PA in the

. After eight months with them, he moved to another team in the Campeonato Gáucho,

Passo Fundo Passo Fundo is a Municipalities of Brazil, municipality in the north of the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is named after its river. It's the tenth largest city in the state with an estimated population of 204,722 inhabitants ...

. Kanu changed teams again in April 2016, when he signed with Avenida. In July 2016, he moved to

Aimoré The Aimoré ''(Aymore, Aimboré)'' are one of several Indigenous peoples in Brazil, South American peoples of eastern Brazil called Botocudo in Portuguese (from ''botoque'', a plug), in allusion to the wooden disks or tembetás worn in their li ...

, and in early 2017, to

Treze Treze Futebol Clube is a Brazilian football team from Campina Grande in Paraíba, founded on 7 September 1925. Historically, the club has competed in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A several times. Recently, the club has competed only in low ...

. Kanu continued on his journeyman career at Internacional de Lages.

Honours

Best

from the 2011

Federação Gaúcha de Futebol The Football Association of Rio Grande do Sul (; FGF) was founded by Aurelio Py on May 18, 1918 and manages all the official football tournaments within the state of Rio Grande do Sul, which are the Campeonato Gaúcho, Campeonato Gaúcho Série A2 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kanu, Leo 1988 births Living people Footballers from Porto Alegre Brazilian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Esporte Clube Cruzeiro players Associação Atlética Ponte Preta players Clube Náutico Capibaribe players C.F. Os Belenenses players S.L. Benfica footballers Esporte Clube São José players Treze Futebol Clube players Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen