When Leandro Barreiro talks about the beginnings of his career, places come into play that many people might mistakenly associate with Germany. Ettelbruck, Ingeldorf or Erpeldingen. Sounds like a German province, but everything is close together in Luxembourg territory.
On January 3, 2000, today’s international player for the German opponent in the World Cup qualifiers (Friday 8:45 p.m.) was born in Ettelbruck. He lived with his older sisters and his parents in Ingeldorf and then played football for FC 72 Erpeldingen less than four kilometers away.
He then went to the capital city club Racing Luxembourg and back to his hometown club when the talent from the Grand Duchy came to a crucial fork in the road: in November 2015, exactly ten years ago, he was supposed to do a trial training session with Paris St. Germain. Everything was agreed upon when the terrorist attacks on November 13 thwarted the plans. A new appointment with PSG never came about, and the footballer with the multi-faceted CV soon knew that he would hardly have ended up at FSV Mainz 05 otherwise.
At 16 he moved to FSV Mainz 05
Somehow, with the second leg of the World Cup qualification at the Stade de Luxembourg, an imaginary circle closes for the midfielder, especially since the DFB selection was also affected by the atrocities on the Seine. The friendly match between France and Germany in the Stade de France on the same day was actually chosen as the target of the Islamist-motivated attackers.
Barreiro was in Luxembourg on that terrible day and then moved to Germany to join the Rheinhessen youth team at the age of 16. “I wanted to play in the Bundesliga because I followed it more than the French Ligue 1”he explained his decision.
At the Zero Fives, where talent development was already very important back then, head coach Sandro Schwarz still remembered the 2018 summer training camp when he noticed the young hotshot. “It was discussed very early on that he had the potential to make it into the Bundesliga one day.”
The parents come from Angola
Barreiro’s breakthrough only came later under Schwarz’s successor Achim Beierlorzer, but every stadium spectator noticed the wide range of action of this young man, who played a total of 141 Bundesliga games for Mainz before moving to Benfica Lisbon for a free transfer in the summer of 2024. The 25-year-old will now play his 70th international match against Germany. He made his debut at the age of 18 years and three months because he had no doubts about playing for Luxembourg.
“I decided early on to play for the FLF team because I grew up in Luxembourg”said he, who declined an invitation from the Portuguese federation at the age of 15. His parents, who came from Angola, came to Luxembourg via Portugal. His CV also explains why he speaks six languages: Luxembourgish, German, French, English, Portuguese and Spanish. In Mainz, people like to remember the generally good-humored linguistic talent who could (communicate) with almost everyone in the locker room.
Currently no regular place at Benfica
Above all, head coach Bo Svensson, who was responsible from January 2021 to November 2023 and who had known Barreiro since the U17s, thought highly of the snappy running miracle and repeatedly praised him “Leo we value”. But the former star student has to work even harder in Lisbon this season: At Benfica, the competition is so great and the quality is so high that Barreiro only comes from the bench under coach José Mourinho. The star coach installed early in the season usually gives preference to the Ukrainian Heorhiy Sudakov.
Last Sunday, when the traditional club, which is extremely popular in Portugal, couldn’t get past a 2-2 draw at home in the Estadio da Luz against relegation candidate Casa Pia, Barreiro came on as a substitute for Sudakov in the 76th minute. It was unfortunate that his much celebrated goal to make it 3-1 was disallowed due to an offside position after an intervention by the video assistant.
Daniel Sinani is also very popular
However, Barreiro is in the national team under Jeff Strasser; none of his colleagues has such a prominent employer who also regularly plays in the Champions League. Danel Sinani from FC St. Pauli is a regular player in the Bundesliga, while Aiman Dardari mostly plays in the regional league at FC Augsburg. Both German legionnaires will probably form the attack line-up. In the first leg in Sinsheim (0:4), the plan was thwarted early on due to a red card.
In addition, the two goalkeepers Lucas Fox from the regional league team 1. FC Bocholt and Tiago Pereira from Borussia Mönchengladbach as well as the second division professionals Eldin Dzogovic from 1. FC Magdeburg and Mathias Olesen from Greuther Fürth are back in the squad of a national team that almost qualified for the 2024 European Championship in Germany, but will miss the 2026 World Cup – and is still without a point.