José Leonardo Ribeiro da Silva (born February 8, 1988), commonly known as Leonardo, is a Brazilian former

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 lea ...

who played as a defender.

Career

Leonardo was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

and played for the São Paulo youth teams before being promoted into the senior team. He was sent out on loan to

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

team

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

in 2010 along with fellow Brazilians from the club Alex Cazumba and

Juninho Juninho, Portuguese for "little Junior", is a common nickname in Brazil for those whose full name includes Júnior. It is often combined with an epithet, sometimes a demonym (a word derived from their place of origin). The following association foo ...

. He made his debut for the team on March 27, 2010, in Galaxy's opening game of the 2010 MLS season against

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

. Leonardo would deal with injuries in 2010, but made 10 appearances and helped the Galaxy win the 2010 Supporters Shield. He scored his first professional goal on April 2, 2011, a headed goal from a

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

cross, in a 1–0 win over

Philadelphia Union The Philadelphia Union are an American professional soccer club based in the Philadelphia metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Founded on February 28, 2008, the Union began ...

. However he would suffer a torn ACL and a torn LCL on April 17, 2011, forcing him to miss the rest of the 2011 season. On February 7, 2012, Los Angeles announced it had acquired the full rights to Leonardo on a free transfer from São Paulo. Leonardo would miss most of the 2012 season due to injuries, making 0 league appearances and only appearing in 1

US Open Cup The Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup, commonly known as the U.S. Open Cup (USOC), is a knockout cup competition in men's soccer in the United States. It is the country's oldest ongoing national soccer competition. The competition was first held duri ...

match. Leonardo would recover from his injuries for the 2013 season and established himself as a starter for the 2014 season as part of a backline that allowed a league low 35 goals. He would start in 3 of the Galaxy's playoff games, including the final as LA won their 5th

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

. Leonardo enjoyed a good season for 2015, making 29 appearances across all competitions and being named the Galaxy defender of the year. However the team lost 3-2 in the first round of the playoffs to

Sporting Kansas City Sporting Kansas City is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Kansas City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The ad ...

. Leonardo missed some time for a leg injury and also fell out of favor in 2016, only making 7 appearances in all competitions. On December 22, 2016 Leonardo was selected by the

Houston Dynamo Houston Dynamo Football Club is an American professional soccer club based in Houston. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Established on December 15, 2005, the club was founded after their fo ...

in stage 2 of the 2016 Re-Entry Draft. He signed with the Dynamo on January 5, 2017. Leonardo made his Dynamo debut on March 4, 2017 in a 3-2 win over

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders FC is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The club was established on ...

. He scored his first goal for the Dynamo on May 31 against

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake (RSL) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. Fou ...

. He made 30 league appearances on the year and helped the Dynamo qualify for the playoffs for the first time since 2013. He would make 3 appearances in the playoffs as the Dynamo reached the Western Conference Finals, where they would fall to Seattle. In 2018, Leonardo helped the Dynamo win the 2018 US Open Cup, the first in club history, however he missed the final due to injury. Overall he enjoyed a healthy season, only missing 4 games. Leonardo also emerged as a leader of the team, wearing the captain's armband on 4 occasions. On March 12, 2019, he joined

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

side

Orange County SC Orange County Soccer Club is an American soccer team based in the Orange County, California city of Irvine. Founded in 2010 as the Los Angeles Blues, the team currently plays in the Western Conference of the USL Championship, the second tier ...

Career statistics

Honors

;Los Angeles Galaxy *

(3):

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 199 ...

(2):

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

Western Conference Championship (2):

Houston Dynamo *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leonardo 1988 births Living people Brazilian expatriate men's footballers Brazilian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Brazilian men's footballers São Paulo FC players LA Galaxy players Ventura County FC players Houston Dynamo FC players Orange County SC players Men's association football defenders Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Major League Soccer players USL Championship players Footballers from São Paulo 21st-century Brazilian sportsmen