Meet Leonel Di Plácido, the winger who arrived in Rio to sign with Botafogo

Botafogo is close to announcing the signing of the fourth signing for the 2023 season. Right-back Leonel Di Plácido, formerly of Lanús, arrived in Rio de Janeiro this Thursday to undergo medical examinations and sign a loan contract until December with the Glorious.

At the age of 29, Di Plácido will play outside Argentina for the first time in his career. The winger was revealed by All Boys, a humble team from Argentina where striker Calleri, from São Paulo, emerged in the world of football in 2014 and debuted professionally at the age of 19.

However, it was only in 2017, at Atlético Tucumán, that Di Plácido began to stand out in national football. The following year, he was hired by Lanús, current vice-champion of the Libertadores, and was even called up by Leonel Scaloni for the national team, but he did not get to play in the friendlies against Guatemala and the United States.

In all, the right-back has 175 career games, with four goals and eleven assists. One of the player’s main characteristics is to pull fast counterattacks when he recovers the ball.

In 2020, Di Plácido provided an assist in the second leg of the round of 16 of the Copa Sudamericana between Lanús and São Paulo. The São Paulo tricolor won by 4 to 3, but ended up being eliminated from the competition. The side accumulated good performances, but the following year he suffered an injury that left him sidelined for a long period. So much so that he only played four games in 2021.

Last season, Di Plácido, who came back physically fit from the injury, but did not show a good level, ended up taking turns starting with the young Braian Aguirre. Defensively, the full-back averaged 2.1 tackles per game, 1.5 interceptions per game and 51% of duels won.

In the offensive part, the player scored a goal and gave an assist last season. In the Argentine Championship, Leonel had an average of 0.5 (20% accuracy) accurate crosses per game, 1.7 (36% accuracy) launches and created two good chances.

As the player’s heat map shows last season, the Argentine appeared more on the defensive than the offensive side. But he did not give up attacking. However, perhaps because he was returning from injury, Di Plácido did not appear as much in the back line, his area of ​​greatest activity was even the risk of the opposing team’s penalty area.

Di Plácido arrives to compete for the vacancy at Botafogo’s right-back with the contested Daniel Borges and Rafael. Since the departure of Renzo Saravia, holder of the position for most of last year and hired by Atlético-MG for this season, the club’s leaders were looking for a new name to take over the title of Luis Castro’s team.