If Red Bull Bragantino wins the Copa Sudamericana title this Saturday (20), Léo Ortiz, 25, will lift the cup. The defender who started late in football became captain early. Last year, he was the youngest in the Series A of the Brazilian Championship.
The team from the interior of São Paulo is playing the most important match in its history against Athletico, at the Estádio Centenário, in Montevideo.
It would be a reward for the player who until the beginning of 2019 was at Sport, with few opportunities. It was a time when Ortiz’s career might even seem to go nowhere. It had been difficult until then. He debuted as a professional in the defense of an Internacional heavily charged by the fans for being in Serie B, in 2017. It was a bonfire for the 21-year-old boy.
The following year, he went to Sport, which was experiencing a technical and financial crisis and ended up being relegated to the second division.
“At any big club the pressure is great. Sometimes things were too much for me. But I learned a lot. I took a lot out of there. My first year at Inter was worth it like three or four of a player who reaches professionals with the team in good shape I needed a place where people could trust me,” he says.
The call from Antonio Carlos Zago, the coach who gave him his first chance at Inter and who headed the then Red Bull Brasil, represented what he wanted. Ortiz entered the defense of the team with the best campaign in the first phase of the 2019 Paulista Championship. Months later, the company closed a partnership with Bragantino, played in the second division of the Brazilian Nationals and gained access.
“When Tiago (Scuro, CEO of Red Bull Bragantino) called me, he said there was the possibility of this partnership and of playing in Serie B”, says the defender.
Two years later, he was called up by Tite for the Brazilian team at Copa América.
It was all fast and not for the first time. Léo Ortiz did not play field football until he was 16 years old. Salon only. He is the son of Ortiz, one of the greatest players in the history of Brazilian futsal.
“I always wanted to play futsal. My whole childhood was like that. It was never my idea to play field. I always accompanied my father.”
He just decided to wear boots because at 16 he no longer had a club to work in Rio Grande do Sul. André Jardine, his coach at the salon and who would later lead the Brazilian gold medal team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, took him to the categories of the International base.
Léo Ortiz started again at the wheel. He changed positions two years later and became a defender. In 2020, he would reinvent himself as captain and squad leader who planned to qualify for the Copa Sudamericana next season.
Not only did it work, Red Bull Bragantino is in the final.
“I learned with different styles of leadership. I played with D’Alessandro at Inter, a very intense player, who spoke and demanded a lot. I was a teammate of Durval and Magrão [no Sport], two people who are different, quieter leaders. Being captain came naturally to me,” he explains.
If not negotiated abroad (the sale is a possibility), Léo Ortiz can continue his story of captain of Bragantino in 2022 in the Copa Libertadores. There are two possible paths: to be champion of the South American Championship or to finish the Brazilian in the top six. It is currently in fourth.
The position in the table could be even better. The defender recognizes that the expectation of disputing the continental decision may have influenced his performance at Nacional. In the last five rounds, Red Bull won one game and lost four.
It’s a learning experience, he believes. Knowing how to compete in these international competitions and reconciling them with a tournament in consecutive points, like the Brazilian, is something that takes time. At the beginning of the Sudamericana, there was the impression that Red Bull Bragantino would not go far. In the first three rounds of the group stage, there were two defeats.
“South American is very different. You face different football schools and you need to learn how to play that. At the beginning, we suffered a little because we thought that only in technique we would win and that’s not how it is. We realized that we had to compete more. That’s when everything started to work out”, he believes.
But it will have been true if Léo Ortiz, as captain, raised the cup in Montevideo on Saturday.
“The anxiety is very high. There’s no denying it. And it’s only increasing.”
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