Matías Rafael Lacava González (born 24 October 2002) is a Venezuelan professional footballer who plays as a winger for

K League 1 The K League 1 () is a professional association football league in South Korea and the highest level of the South Korean football league system. The league is contested by twelve clubs. It is one of the most successful leagues in the Asian Foo ...

club Ulsan HD and the Venezuela national team.

Club career

Early career

Born in Chacao,

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

, Lacava joined

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

La Masia La Masia de Can Planes, usually shortened to La Masia (; ), is FC Barcelona's youth academy. It includes more than 300 young players and has been an instrumental factor in Barcelona's European success, producing several world class players and ...

in 2013, aged ten, from hometown side Fratelsa Sport FC. He left the club in 2015 after having "contractual problems", and moved to

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

. In the 2018 summer, Lacava left Lazio and returned to his home country with

Academia Puerto Cabello Academia Puerto Cabello is a Venezuelan professional football club based in the city of Puerto Cabello, Carabobo state and playing in the Venezuelan Primera División. It plays its home matches at the Complejo Deportivo Socialista, also known a ...

. On 16 January 2019, under the authorization of

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

, he signed a youth contract with

S.L. Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football. Founded on 28 February 1904, as ''Sport Lisboa'', Benfica is one of the " ...

, but returned to Puerto Cabello in July.

Academia Puerto Cabello

Lacava made his first team debut for Academia Puerto Cabello on 28 July 2019, coming on as a half-time substitute for

Joaquín Suárez Joaquín Luis Miguel Suárez de Rondelo (August 18, 1781 in Canelones – December 26, 1868 in Montevideo) was a Uruguayan politician. Head of State of Uruguay In December 1828, Suárez served as the first head of state of the territory t ...

in a 2–1 home loss against

Aragua Aragua State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela. It is located in the north-central region of Venezuela. It has plains, jungles and Caribbean beaches. The most popular beaches are Cata and Choroni. It has Venezuela's first national par ...

. He scored his first professional goals six days later, netting a brace in a 3–2 away win against

Metropolitanos The Metropolitanos of Havana was a baseball team in the Cuban National Series. The Metros, also known as the ''Guerreros'' (Warriors), had historically been a poor team, though they were ostensibly the heir to the Habana teams of the pre-revolut ...

; it was his first start as a senior.

Loan to Santos

On 3 August 2021, Lacava joined

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian" or "Great Brazilian"), the Série A or the Brazilian Série A (to distinguish it from the I ...

side Santos on loan until December 2022, and was initially assigned to the under-23 team. He made his first team debut on 13 November, replacing Marcos Guilherme in a 0–0 away draw against

Atlético Goianiense Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

. On 31 January 2022, Santos announced that Lacava's loan was terminated on a "mutual agreement".

Loan to Tondela

On 31 January 2022, just hours after leaving Santos, Lacava returned to Portugal after agreeing to a six-month loan deal with

Tondela Tondela () is a concelho, municipality in the Centro, Portugal, central Portugal, Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km2. History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carv ...

. On 27 June 2023, Vizela announced that the loan would be extended for another season, until June 2024.

International career

Lacava represented

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

at under-17 and under-23 levels in the 2019 South American U-17 Championship and the

2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament The 2020 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament was the 13th edition of the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted association football, football tournament organised by the CONMEBOL, Confederación Sudamericana ...

, respectively. On 31 May 2021, he was called up to the full side by manager José Peseiro for two

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

matches against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

Personal life

Lacava is the son of

Carabobo Carabobo State (, ) is one of the 23 states of Venezuela, located in the north of the country, about two hours by car from Caracas. The state capital city is Valencia, which is also the country's main industrial center. The state's area is and ...

state governor .

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lacava, Matias 2002 births Living people Footballers from Miranda (state) Venezuelan men's footballers Men's association football wingers Academia Puerto Cabello players Santos FC players C.D. Tondela players F.C. Vizela players Atlético Clube Goianiense players Ulsan HD FC players Venezuelan Primera División players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Primeira Liga players Liga Portugal 2 players Venezuela men's youth international footballers Venezuela men's under-20 international footballers Venezuela men's international footballers 2024 Copa América players Venezuelan expatriate men's footballers Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea