The visit of Klaas-Jan Huntelaar to South America has not gone unnoticed by the Brazilian media. Gerry Hamstra’s assistant dropped Ajax’s Eredivisie match with Excelsior (7-1) on Sunday evening to board the plane to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil together with youth scouting coordinator Michel Doesburg at Schiphol. On Tuesday he witnessed the game between Bragantino and Santos (0-2).
According to Brazilian media, Huntelaar was present at the game to watch two players: Artur Victor Guimarães and Marcos Leonardo. The latter usually impresses as a basic player at Santos, but was kicked out of the game against Bragantino on the stroke of half-time and had to be replaced. Artur also started in the starting line-up and completed the ninety minutes. There are rumors on social media that Huntelaar would also have looked at the actions of Ângelo Gabriel.
O representante do Ajax aqui em Bragança.. O ex atacante holandês Huntelaar veio ver de perto Marcos Leonardo e Arthur.. #deolhonopeixe pic.twitter.com/U0nJhMJ0td
— De Olho No Peixe (@deolhonopeixe) Oct 18, 2022
Artur is a 24-year-old attacker who mainly acts as a right winger. The Brazilian started his career with Palmeiras, was loaned out three times by that club and has been playing for Bragantino, which is part of the Red Bull group, since 2020. In total he scored 34 goals and 30 assists in Bragantino’s shirt in 147 games. Leonardo is a 19-year-old center striker who is under contract with Santos until December 2026. In 113 official games for the Brazilian top club, he was good for 32 goals and six assists.
Se o ídolo holandês, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, veio ao Estádio Nabi Abi Chedid, pra ver Marcos Leonardo – que teve a infelicidade de sair machucado -, certamente voltará para a Holanda exigindo que o Ajax faça uma proposta pra daeste expoente 2004. Angelo Gabriel: pic.twitter.com/HNsM3X5ydx
— Renan Cesar (@Renancesar94) Oct 18, 2022
Gabriel’s name is also mentioned. The only seventeen-year-old right winger has a transfer value of eleven million euros and already regularly makes his appearance in the main squad of Santos. Gabriel was responsible for the second goal in the duel with Bragantino. The flank player is still fixed until December 2024. He has played 91 times in his early career. In it he was good for three goals and he acted as a principal seven times. It is not known to what extent Huntelaar was also in the stands for him.
Ajax has been successful in Brazil before. David Neres joined from São Paulo in 2017. He left for Shakhtar Donetsk after 180 official duels in January of this year for twelve million euros. The 25-year-old wing attacker now plays for Benfica. At the beginning of 2020, the Amsterdammers also transferred a maximum of 28.8 million euros to São Paulo for Antony’s services. The Brazilian quickly became a crowd favorite in the Johan Cruijff ArenA and earned Ajax a record amount last summer, when he left for Manchester United for at least 95 million euros.