What happened to Baptistao? Saudade at kilometer 0 of the pandemic

Has passed half a life, literally, away from Brazil. And a third of its existence, specifically in Spain. This is how you can divide the vital and footballing trajectory of Leo Baptistao (Santos, Brazil, 08-26-1992), whose presence in LaLiga of the past decade left its mark. For the games he played, the goals he scored and the assists he distributed, and for the number of top-tier teams he played for.

Baptistao needed to take a run until he reached the elite. For it, landed with only 16 years in the youth of Rayo Vallecano –through a contact of his father– coming from the Portuguese Santosthe second club historically in his city, where he had played after playing futsal at Santos, together with his good friend Neymar Júnior, with whom he would coincide again, years later, in Barcelona. But first he would have to finish training, and overcome a broken collarbone and even hepatitis that delayed his maturation and took him on loan to San Fernando de Henares.

The alternative in First would come August 25, 2012, by the hand of Paco Jémez and in a Benito Villamarín who would later become his home. Yes Rayo won 1-2 thanks to the fact that he gave Piti the 0-1 and that he himself scored the winning goal. His promising campaign led him with only 20 years neither more nor less than Simeone’s Atlético de Madridin the summer of 2013, through a historic operation for his home club –attracted by his sports director, Felipe Miñambres, who considers him his “football son”– for his seven million transfer.

Token League Champion

But it did not materialize from the outset in an Atleti with superlative performance, despite the fact that having been in that squad his is also the title of LaLiga 2013-14, so from the Vicente Calderón they sought accommodation for him in the form of a loan. and there it appeared Betis, where he could not avoid relegation. It was the first of his three consecutive loans, which also took him back to Rayo and finally to Villarreal, before Atlético made the decision to sell it.

appeared then Espanyol, who built the first project with Chen Yansheng as owner and president, and with Quique Sánchez Flores on the bench, so it did not hurt him to allocate garments seven million upon acquisition (which they paid in two installments of 3.5 million, the second in June 2017).

Baptistao found his habitat, in a template where he soon became a regular starterand in which they complemented each other wonderfully, first with Gerard Morenoand in his last season with Borja Iglesias and the veteran Sergio Garcia. 18 goals and 12 assists got in 86 matches like parakeet In one of the last ones, on January 4, 2019 against Leganés, he humanely broke down crying on the bench after failing several times.

178 games in the elite at 26 years old

wore 178 games in LaLiga, with 34 goals and 23 assists –and only 26 years old, despite his extensive background–, when an exotic offer rang the doorbell of his house in Barcelona, ​​in January 2019. The same one that seduced a Espanyol that would thus recover a good part of the investment for a striker which had quite amortized. 5.8 million paid the Wuhan Zall on January 31, 2019on the horn of the winter market.

Although he finished sixth in the table, everything was going great for Baptistao at the end of his first Chinese Super League, on December 1, 2019, with a service record of seven goals and two assists in 27 games. The player left for Brazil, where on December 14 he would get married… And on those dates the pandemic arose. Just in Wuhan, kilometer zero of COVID-19. Luckily, he was on another continent when the pathogen jumped to humans. But it would take months for him to return.

Baptistao could not join the team in January, when it was planned, but at the end of February at the concentration they held in Andalusia – when the pandemic sounded like science fiction in Spain –, and finally was able to travel to Asia on March 13. Interestingly, when the Spanish government decreed strict home confinement, some restrictions began to be reopened in China, which allowed them to enter the country. But it wouldn’t be that simple either.

An odyssey to return to China

had to save one three-week quarantine in Shenzhen cityafter which the entire workforce went to train for a few days in Foshanand they were not granted permission until April 18 to take a bullet train, under millimeter security measures, with which they traveled to Wuhan. To laugh, his team was about to descend to the second division at the end of that fateful 2020, in which he was saved at the last moment, through a promotion.

It would not be the pandemic, but the crisis of the main Chinese clubs, which would end his stage in a Wuhan Zall who, due to economic hardship, let him out –to him and other acquaintances from LaLiga such as Daniel Carriço (now in Almería) or Stephane Mbia (which played the first round of this course in Fuenlabrada) – at zero cost.

The “dream” of Santos

“I had other proposals from Europe”, revealed Baptistao last August 21, in his presentation as a Santos playerPelé’s legendary team, one of the historic ones in world football and, perhaps even more importantly, the team of his place in the world. “I was away from home for a long time, so it is a dream to be able to return to Brazil, to my hometown. already one of the biggest clubs in the world”, expressed the attacker, fed up with the saudade.

Paradoxically, the attacker, who has been carrying four appearances in the first phase of the Paulista Championship, which began in January, and 12 games in total with Santos, without having been able to open his scoring locker yet. But, although he has lived through so many experiences and passed through so many reference teamsnot yet 30 years oldso he has football left for a while.