Leo JUNIOR | 1984-1985

[crisfar]

Name: Leovegildo Lins da Gama Júnior



Club: Torino FC



INFO:

Junior, an adaptable defender or defensive midfielder, made his name with Flamengo in the mid-1970s and went on to represent his country on 74 occasions, featuring in the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

An unfussy and functional player, Junior represented the shift in the philosophy of Brazilian football that occurred gradually over the course of the 1980s and early 1990s. He was a combative player who was quick to realise (probably because of the time he spent in Italy with Torino) the importance of European-style defensive organisation, something Brazil eventually adopted and used to good effect during their triumph in the 1994 World Cup, just two years after Junior’s international retirement

[Brezza]

SB needs to added, he was an attacking right-footed left full back for Brazil.

Was he teamwork ability and vision really this good to be level with great playmakers like Riquelme, Xavi, Pirlo..

[renatomm]

WFA:8 and WFF:8,
he works at TV game transmissions making commentaries,
wednesday he said he was born left-footed and became both-footed coz they wanted him to play as left full back

[crisfar]

Thanks guys for the useful notes, I added WFA WFF raise, I didn' t know he was born left-footed, I remember shooting and also perform some penalties with right-footed, as for the SB I added it also, I read it on some sites too but I remember him always playing as midfielder, also in Brazil team...
I think he was even above Riquelme, Xavi and Pirlo, he was more complete than them, just consider he played in Brazil '82-'86 first squad among monsters like Falcao, Socrates, Zico, Cerezo and he was rated at the same level of them...

[renatomm]

oops
he said he was born right-footed,
sorry

[electric_trigger]

Junior defo played left back in 1982 World Cup, he played left midfield in 1986 World Cup

[Fevernova]

Better pic, with Torino's jersey:



Url> http://www.blogdosmanos.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/junior-torino.jpg

[axtraex]

One of the most intelligent player i've ever seen...

Junior played as a midfielder playmaker in italy from '84 to '90 in Torino and Pescara...

after 10 years in Flamengo he decided to change role in the pitch in order to have the possibility to play for a longer time, because as a wing back his phisic shouldn't sustain many other seasons...and so was.. he retired in 1993 at 38 years old.

He was the most skilled player in the midfield of the 2nd in Serie A Torino, along with Zaccarelli and Dossena the best midfield in that Tournament (1984-85) and for 5 season always one of the 3 best foreign players in Serie A (in that season the best foreigner and the best player)....

All along his career Junior received awards.. just in South America earned 5 Bola de Prata ('80,'83,'84,'91,'92) and 1 Bola de Ouro (1992)...the same of Zico...

Remembered in Torino for his complete vision of the game and above all for his dangerous Free kicks and Corner kicks... one of them ( with an unperceivable touch by Serena) enter at '90 minute in the goal of Juventus in a derby...
simply eccellent his capability to launch Dossena or Schachner in "contropiede"

for that i suggest a little rise in FK, LPA and Curling, all of them in a 87-90 gap (maybe FK a little worst than LPA and CURL)

[Classical]

And then he went to beach football, right?

[Sindelar]

Yes, and he won six beach soccer World Championships (1995/2000), and he was four times the best player of the tournament and four times the top scorer!

[beiderbecke]

He was a little agile than that and a better dribbler ( I suggest 85 and 88, respectively) as you can see in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nkagMHi20E

In his times at Flamengo, when he composed the left-back - and other positionings -, in 1981, when the Brazilian team beated Liverpool and along with the Brazilian National Team which enchanted the world with a very showy football. Falcão, Zico, Sócrates and Junior were the finest stars from Brazil in 1982.

I understand, Crisfar, you stated him when he was getting along with Torino, but the peak of his career was not on that time.

[Pirata Almanega]

wrong. very very wrong.