Gerson_Rodrigues_(footballer,_born_1995)

Gerson Rodrigues (footballer, born 1995)

Gerson Rodrigues (footballer, born 1995)

Footballer (born 1995)

In this Portuguese name, the first or maternal family name is Rodrigues and the second or paternal family name is Correia Leal.

Gerson Rodrigues Correia Leal (born 20 June 1995) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Fortuna Liga club Slovan Bratislava, on loan from Ukrainian side Dynamo Kyiv. Born in Portugal, he plays for the Luxembourg national team.

Quick Facts Personal information, Full name ...

A goalscoring midfielder, Rodrigues is the first Luxembourgish footballer to play in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League. He is currently the all-time leading goalscorer for the Luxembourg national team.

Club career

Early career

Rodrigues was born in the Portuguese town of Pragal, near Lisbon.[2] He began his youth career in France with FC Metz.[2] 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, Racing FC Union Luxembourg, and CS Fola Esch.[2][3] From there, he moved to SC Telstar in the Netherlands.

On 30 January 2018, Rodrigues signed for Sheriff Tiraspol.[4] On 10 July 2018, he made his debut in the UEFA Champions League qualifying round against Torpedo Kutaisi.[2] After winning the league title with Sheriff in Moldova, Rodrigues signed for Júbilo Iwata on 16 January 2019.[2][5] He quickly became a key player for Júbilo, scoring 7 goals in 18 matches for the club.[2]

Dynamo Kyiv

2019–20 season

On 2 August 2019, Rodrigues signed a contract with FC Dynamo Kyiv.[6] On 31 January 2020, Rodrigues moved on loan to Ankaragücü in the Turkish Süper Lig for the remainder of the season.[7] Rodrigues and teammate Ante Kulušić were involved in a training ground dust-up in July 2020. He was removed from the squad for the following match against Galatasaray and his loan was subsequently ended.[8] 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.[9][10]

2020–21 season: Double winners

In the Ukrainian Super Cup on 25 August 2020, Rodrigues scored the winning goal in an eventual 3–1 triumph over rivals Shakhtar Donetsk.[11] On 15 September, Rodrigues opened the scoring against Dutch side AZ Alkmaar in the third qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League as his side won 2–0.[12] Rodrigues scored from the penalty spot in the play-off round against Belgian side Gent, capping a 5–1 win on aggregate and securing a place in the group stage.[13] Rodrigues featured in the club's first group stage match against Italian giants Juventus on 20 October, and in doing so became the first Luxembourgish player to play in the group stage of the Champions League.[14]

Rodrigues was an important member of the Dynamo Kyiv squad that won the domestic double of the Ukrainian Premier League and Ukrainian Cup during the 2020–21 season.[15]

2021–22 season: Loans to Troyes and Eyüpspor

On 31 August 2021, Rodrigues joined newly promoted Ligue 1 side Troyes on a season-long loan. The club held an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the season.[16]

On 7 March 2022, FIFA announced that, due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 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.[17] On 30 March 2022, Rodrigues signed with Turkish club Eyüpspor until 30 June 2022 using the new rule.[18] He played on loan in the 2022-2023 season for Al Wehda (Saudi Arabia).

International career

Rodrigues made his international debut for Luxembourg 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 to win 2–1 in UEFA Euro 2020 qualification.[19] On 27 March 2021, Rodrigues scored the only goal in a famous 1–0 victory away to Ireland in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification.[20] Three days later, Rodrigues followed this up by scoring the opening goal for Luxembourg against his country of birth, European champions Portugal, to take a shock lead, but they eventually fell to a 1–3 defeat.[21]

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 18 March 2024[3]
More information Club, Season ...
  1. Includes Luxembourg Cup, KNVB Cup, Moldovan Cup, Emperor's Cup, Ukrainian Cup, King Cup, Slovak Cup
  2. Appearances in UEFA Europa League
  3. Four appearances in UEFA Champions League, three appearances in UEFA Europa League
  4. Two appearances in UEFA Champions League, two appearances in UEFA Europa League
  5. Eight appearances and two goals in UEFA Champions League, four appearances in UEFA Europa League
  6. Appearance in Ukrainian Super Cup

International

As of match played 26 March 2024[22]
More information National team, Year ...
Scores and results list Luxembourg's goal tally first.[23]
More information No., Date ...

Honours

Sheriff Tiraspol

Dynamo Kyiv

Personal 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 of Luxembourg. He still retains his Portuguese citizenship as of today.[26]

References

  1. [1]
    UEFA.com. "Gerson Rodrigues | Luxembourg | European Qualifiers". UEFA.com. Archived from the original on 22 September 2023. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  2. [2]
    "Presenting the newcomer: Gerson RODRIGUES. Portuguese from Luxembourg". FC Dynamo Kiev. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  3. [3]
    Gerson Rodrigues at Soccerway
  4. [4]
    "Добро пожаловать, Жерсон Родригес". fc-sheriff.com (in Russian). FC Sheriff Tiraspol. 31 January 2018. Archived from the original on 6 March 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  5. [5]
    "Спасибо, Жерсон Родригес". fc-sheriff.com (in Russian). FC Sheriff Tiraspol. 16 January 2019. Archived from the original on 17 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
  6. [6]
    "Presenting the newcomer: Gerson RODRIGUES. Portuguese from Luxembourg". fcdynamo.kiev.ua. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  7. [7]
    "Gerson Rodrigues to continue his career in Turkey". FC Dynamo Kiev. 31 January 2020. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  8. [8]
    "Bilgilendirme" (in Turkish). 17 July 2020. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  9. [9]
    "2019-2020 Ankaragücü Player Details". FBref. Archived from the original on 18 February 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  10. [10]
    "No relegations for 2019-20 season in Turkish Super Lig". AA. 29 July 2020. Archived from the original on 12 January 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  11. [11]
    "Шахтар 1:3 Динамо". UPL (in Ukrainian). 25 August 2020. Archived from the original on 18 February 2024. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  12. [12]
    "Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 AZ Alkmaar". UEFA. 15 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  13. [13]
    "Dynamo Kyiv 3-0 Gent". UEFA. 29 September 2020. Archived from the original on 17 September 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  14. [14]
    "Gerson Rodrigues is the first ever Luxembourgish player to appear in the main stage of the Champions League". Twitter. Archived from the original on 23 November 2020. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  15. [15]
    "Gerson Rodrigues: "Die Premier League wäre ideal für mich"". Wort (in German). 1 June 2021. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  16. [16]
    "Troyes sign Luxembourg international Gerson Rodrigues from Dynamo Kyiv". Get Football News France. 31 August 2021. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  17. [17]
    "FIFA adopts temporary employment and registration rules to address several issues in relation to war in Ukraine". FIFA. 7 March 2022. Archived from the original on 7 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  18. [18]
    "Eyüpspor'umuza Hoş Geldiniz Gerson Rodrigues ve Olivier Thill!" (in Turkish). Eyüpspor. 30 March 2022. Archived from the original on 31 March 2022. Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  19. [19]
    "Luxembourg 2-1 Lithuania". UEFA. 21 March 2019. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  20. [20]
    "Republic of Ireland embarrassed by Luxembourg and Gerson Rodrigues". The Guardian. 27 March 2021. Archived from the original on 27 March 2021. Retrieved 28 March 2021.
  21. [21]
    "Diogo Jota and Cristiano Ronaldo scored to help spare Portugal's blushes and deny Luxembourg another major World Cup 2022 qualifying win". BBC. 30 March 2021. Archived from the original on 1 April 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  22. [22]
    "Gerson Rodrigues, international footballer". EU-Football.info. Archived from the original on 9 December 2018. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  23. [23]
    "Gerson Rodrigues". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  24. [24]
    "Wins for Gerson Rodrigues and Oli Thill". RTL. 9 May 2021. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  25. [25]
    "Dynamo Kyiv vs. Zorya". Soccerway. 13 May 2021. Archived from the original on 3 November 2022. Retrieved 2 June 2021.
  26. [26]
    "Gerson Rodrigues est Luxembourgeois". 6 March 2017. Archived from the original on 25 January 2023. Retrieved 25 January 2023.
Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Gerson_Rodrigues_(footballer,_born_1995), and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.