Leandro Jones Johan Bacuna (born 21 August 1991) is a professional

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 ...

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, and ...

. Bacuna was capped 20 times at youth levels for the Netherlands and also represented the Netherlands Antilles at youth level. Bacuna represents the Curaçao national team, the successor side to the Netherlands Antilles, and won the

Caribbean Cup The Caribbean Cup was the championship tournament for national association football teams that are members of the Caribbean Football Union. The first competition, established by Shell and run by former England Cricket fast bowler Fred Rumsey, wa ...

with the side in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Club career

Groningen

On 30 October 2009, Bacuna made his first team debut for Groningen in an

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

match against PSV. Bacuna has also played for Groningen's youth teams. On 6 November 2009, he scored his first goal for the first team in a league match against Heracles Almelo, an eventual 4–1 victory for Groningen.

Aston Villa

It was announced on 13 June 2013 that Bacuna had signed a three-year contract with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

club Aston Villa. Handed the number 7 shirt, Bacuna impressed many with his debut season for the Villains, despite constantly playing out of position at right back. Bacuna scored his first Premier League goal on 28 September at home to Manchester City. His second goal came from a free-kick in the claret and blues' 2–0 victory over Cardiff City. He continued his goalscoring run with goals against

West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion Football Club () is an English professional football club based in West Bromwich, West Midlands, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was formed in 1878 and has pl ...

, Everton and

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...

. In the 2014–15 season, however, Bacuna found it harder to break into the starting line-up, starting just one game in the

. On 15 February 2015, he scored the first of two Villa goals in the fifth round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

in a 2–1 win over

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city lies on the River Soar and close to the eastern end of the National ...

, taking the club into the quarter-finals. On 20 August 2015, Bacuna signed a new long-term contract with the club.

Reading

On 13 August 2017, Bacuna moved to

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

, signing a four-year contract. He scored his first goal for Reading in an EFL Cup tie against

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, eas ...

on 22 August 2017.

Cardiff City

On 31 January 2019, Bacuna moved to Championship side Cardiff City, signing a four-and-a-half year deal for a transfer fee believed to be around £3 million. On June 10, 2022, Cardiff announced Bacuna would leave the club when his contract expired on June 30.

Watford

On 14 December 2022, Bacuna signed for Championship club

on a contract until the end of the 2022–23 season.

International career

Born in the Netherlands to parents of Afro-Curaçaoan descent, Bacuna played for the Netherlands Antilles under-20 side, as well as various youth Dutch teams. He received his first Curaçao national team call-up in March 2016, earning his first cap in a 1–0 loss to

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate) ...

Personal life

He is the older brother of

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. Sin ...

player

Juninho Bacuna Juninho Bacuna (born 7 August 1997) is a professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for club Birmingham City. He began his career in his native Netherlands with Groningen before moving to English football with Huddersfield Town. ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''As of match played 6 June 2022. Curaçao score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bacuna goal.''

Honours

Club

Aston Villa *

runner-up: 2014–15

International

Curaçao *

King's Cup __NOTOC__ King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King Cup (sometimes named King's Cup), Saudi Arabian men's football nati ...

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 ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bacuna, Leandro 1991 births Living people Footballers from Groningen (city) Curaçao footballers Curaçao international footballers Dutch footballers Dutch expatriate footballers Dutch people of Curaçao descent Netherlands youth international footballers Netherlands under-21 international footballers Association football midfielders FC Groningen players Aston Villa F.C. players Reading F.C. players Cardiff City F.C. players Watford F.C. players Eredivisie players Premier League players English Football League players Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Wales Dutch expatriate sportspeople in England 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup players FA Cup Final players