Gerson Rodrigues Correia Leal (born 20 June 1995) is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

-born Luxembourgian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Al-Wehda on loan from

Ukrainian Premier League The Ukrainian Premier League ( uk, "Українська Прем'єр-ліга", ''Ukrayinska Premier Liha'') or UPL is the highest division of Ukrainian annual football championship. As the Vyshcha Liha ( uk, Вища ліга, ''Top League'') ...

club

Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Union, Soviet Dynamo Sports Club, Dynamo Sports Soc ...

, and the Luxembourg national team. A goalscoring midfielder, Rodrigues is the first Luxembourgish footballer to play in the group stage of the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

Club career

Early career

Rodrigues was born in the Portuguese town of

Pragal Pragal is a former civil parish in the municipality of Almada, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Almada, Cova da Piedade, Pragal e Cacilhas. The population in 2011 was 7,156, in an area of 2.27 ...

, near

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. He began his youth career in France with

FC Metz Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...

. He was unable to make a breakthrough into the first-team squad at Metz and went on to play club football in Luxembourg for

FC Swift Hesperange Football Club Swift Hesperange ( lb, Football Club Swift Hesper, german: Football Club Swift Hesperingen) is a football club, based in Hesperange, in southern Luxembourg. History *1916: Club founded as ''FC Swift Hesperange'' *1940: Club rename ...

Racing FC Union Luxembourg Racing Fussball Club Union Luxembourg ( lb, Racing Fussball Club Union Lëtzebuerg), usually abbreviated to Racing-Union, is a football club based in Luxembourg City in southern Luxembourg. The etymology of the name originates from Racing Club ...

CS Fola Esch Sporting Circle Fola Esch (french: Cercle sportif Fola Esch), usually abbreviated to Fola Esch or simply Fola, is a football club, based in Esch-sur-Alzette, in south-western Luxembourg. They play their home games at Stade Émile Mayrisch, in th ...

. From there, he moved to SC Telstar in the Netherlands. On 30 January 2018, Rodrigues signed for

Sheriff Tiraspol Fotbal Club Sheriff (russian: ФК Шериф Тирасполь), commonly known as Sheriff Tiraspol or simply Sheriff, is a Moldovan professional football club based in Tiraspol, a city located in the unrecognised breakaway state of Transnis ...

. On 10 July 2018, he made his debut in the

qualifying round against

Torpedo Kutaisi FC Torpedo Kutaisi is a Georgian professional football club based in Kutaisi, Georgia's third largest city. 'Torpedo Kutaisi' was founded in 1946 and in just three years the club became the winner of the Football Championship of that time. Torp ...

. After winning the league title with Sheriff in Moldova, Rodrigues signed for

Júbilo Iwata is a professional Japanese association football team that currently play in the J2 League. The team name ''Júbilo'' means 'joy' in Spanish and Portuguese. The team's hometown is Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture and they play at Yamaha Stadium. For ...

on 16 January 2019. He quickly became a key player for Júbilo, scoring 7 goals in 18 matches for the club.

Dynamo Kyiv

2019–20 season

On 2 August 2019, Rodrigues signed a contract with

FC Dynamo Kyiv Football Club Dynamo Kyiv (, ) is a Ukrainian professional football club based in Kyiv. Founded in 1927 as a Kyivan football team of republican branch of the bigger Soviet Dynamo Sports Society, the club as a separate business entity was offici ...

. On 31 January 2020, Rodrigues moved on loan to Ankaragücü in the Turkish

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

for the remainder of the season. Rodrigues and teammate

Ante Kulušić Ante Kulušić (born 6 June 1986) is a Croatian retired footballer who last played as a defender for Turkish club Ankaragücü. Early life and career He was born in Šibenik, but pulls roots from the village Miljevci near birth town Šibenik ...

were involved in a training ground dust-up in July 2020. He was removed from the squad for the following match against

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...

and his loan was subsequently ended. In his time with Ankaragücü, Rodrigues scored six goals and notched one assist in 11 league matches as the club finished in last place but were saved from relegation as the league was expanded to 21 clubs for the 2020–21 Süper Lig season because of complications from the

COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey The COVID-19 pandemic in Turkey is part of the ongoing pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The first case in Turkey was recorded on 11 March, when a local returned home ...

2020–21 season: Double winners

In the

Ukrainian Super Cup The Ukrainian Super Cup ( uk , Суперкубок України) is an association football game of the Ukrainian Premier League in traditional super cup format that acts as the grand-opening for every new football (soccer), football competiti ...

on 25 August 2020, Rodrigues scored the winning goal in an eventual 3–1 triumph over

rivals A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant o ...

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

. On 15 September, Rodrigues opened the scoring against Dutch side

AZ Alkmaar Alkmaar Zaanstreek (), better known as AZ Alkmaar or simply AZ (), is a Dutch professional football club from Alkmaar and the Zaan district. The club plays in the Eredivisie, the highest professional football league in the Netherlands, and ho ...

in the

third qualifying round Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (disambiguation) * Third Avenue (disambiguation) * Hig ...

of the

as his side won 2–0. Rodrigues scored from the penalty spot in the play-off round against Belgian side

Gent Gent is a shortened form of the word gentleman. It may also refer to: * Ghent (Dutch language, Dutch: Gent), a Belgian city ** K.A.A. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** K.R.C. Gent, a football club from Ghent ** Gent RFC, a rugby club in Ghen ...

, capping a 5–1 win on aggregate and securing a place in the group stage. Rodrigues featured in the club's first group stage match against

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

giants

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

on 20 October, and in doing so became the first Luxembourgish player to play in the group stage of the Champions League. Rodrigues was an important member of the Dynamo Kyiv squad that won the domestic double of the

and

Ukrainian Cup The Ukrainian Cup ( uk, Кубок України) is an association football national knockout cup competition run by the Ukrainian Association of Football. The competition is conducted almost exclusively among professional clubs. Since the 2003� ...

during the 2020–21 season.

2021–22 season: Loans to Troyes and Eyüpspor

On 31 August 2021, Rodrigues joined newly promoted

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

side

Troyes Troyes () is a commune and the capital of the department of Aube in the Grand Est region of north-central France. It is located on the Seine river about south-east of Paris. Troyes is situated within the Champagne wine region and is near to ...

on a season-long loan. The club held an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. On 7 March 2022,

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

announced that, due to the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

, all the contracts of foreign players in Ukraine are suspended until 30 June 2022 and they are allowed to sign with clubs outside Ukraine until that date. On 30 March 2022, Rodrigues signed with Turkish club

Eyüpspor Eyüpspor is a Turkish professional football club that is located in the Eyüp district of Istanbul. The team colours are lavender and yellow. Their home ground is Eyüp Stadium, which has a capacity of 2,500. History Eyüpspor played in the Ista ...

until 30 June 2022 using the new rule.

International career

Rodrigues made his international debut for

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

in 2017. On 21 March 2019, he scored his first goal for the national team and Luxembourg's second of the match, as they came back from a goal behind against

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

to win 2–1 in

UEFA Euro 2020 qualification The UEFA Euro 2020 qualifying tournament was a football competition that was played from March 2019 to November 2020 to determine the 24 UEFA member men's national teams that advanced to the UEFA Euro 2020 final tournament, played across Europ ...

. On 27 March 2021, Rodrigues scored the only goal in a famous 1–0 victory away to

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification. Three days later, Rodrigues followed this up by scoring the opening goal for Luxembourg against his country of birth, European champions

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, to take a shock lead, but they eventually fell to a 1–3 defeat.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Luxembourg's goal tally first.''

Honours

Sheriff Tiraspol * Divizia Nationala:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Dynamo Kyiv *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Personnal life

Rodrigues became a Luxembourgish citizen in March 2017 after officially requesting it to the authorities. He thus became immediately eligible for the national team. He still retains his Portuguese citizenship as of today.https://www.wort.lu/fr/sport/gerson-rodrigues-est-luxembourgeois-58bda38ea5e74263e13ab92b

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodrigues, Gerson 1995 births Living people Sportspeople from Almada Luxembourg international footballers Portuguese footballers FC Swift Hesperange players Racing FC Union Luxembourg players CS Fola Esch players Luxembourg National Division players SC Telstar players Eerste Divisie players FC Sheriff Tiraspol players Moldovan Super Liga players Júbilo Iwata players J1 League players Ukrainian Premier League players FC Dynamo Kyiv players Süper Lig players MKE Ankaragücü footballers ES Troyes AC players Eyüpspor footballers Ligue 1 players Al-Wehda Club (Mecca) players Saudi Professional League players Luxembourgian people of Portuguese descent Luxembourgian people of Cape Verdean descent Portuguese people of Cape Verdean descent Portuguese emigrants to Luxembourg Association football midfielders Luxembourgian footballers Luxembourgian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Ukraine Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Ukraine Expatriate footballers in Turkey Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Expatriate footballers in Moldova Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Moldova Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Japan Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in Japan Expatriate footballers in France Luxembourgian expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia