The spectacle of saves by Leandro Brey, the young Boca goalkeeper who was a hero at the highest level in Potosí

Leandro Brey he was the great figure of Mouth in the 0-0 draw against The real Potosiin Xeneize’s debut in South American Cup. With a team full of substitutes and youngsters, at an altitude of 4,000 meters in the Bolivian city and after an exhausting journey, the hands of the boy who emerged in the Andes maintained a draw that could have been a triumph but also a defeat.

In the first half he was quick to come forward to anticipate and cut off the advances of the team led by Claudio Biaggio. And he excelled in a backflip on a ball combed by the Argentine Martín Proust who was asking for a corner. “It was the hardest thing of all”said the boy who also saves in Javier Mascherano’s Argentine Under 23 team.

After the penalty wasted by Darío Benedetto, Boca seemed to collapse physically and in the second half there was a more logical match, with the local team looking for the winning goal with crosses and long-range shots. There Brey grew strong, rejecting and rejecting everything that happened nearby.

He also showed signs of seniority when he delayed the game in some moments of the match where the Bolivians accumulated chances and approached the Argentine team’s goal. This meant earning him a yellow card.

With Sergio Romero injured and Javi García injured, Brey had to come on at the end of the classic against Racing on March 10. Thus, the 21 year old boy was saved again at the Bombonera, two years after his debut, in which he also had to replace the then goalkeeper due to injury. Agostino Rossi. It was against another Bolivian team, Always Ready, a Copa Libertadores match that Xeneize won 2-0.

After the victory against Academia, Brey started in the suspended match against Estudiantes, against Central Norte for the Argentine Cup and last Saturday against San Lorenzo, in which he conceded his first goal, from a penalty kicked by the Paraguayan Adam Bareiro.

Thanks to these good performances, Leandro seemed to prevail over García in the fight to become Boca’s second goalkeeper, behind “Chiquito”, emblem and captain of the Xeneize, who is recovering from a problem in his left foot.

Brey’s journey: the defender turned goalie

In recent times his level in the Reserve has attracted the attention of many European clubs, who have him in their sights even if they have not yet made formal offers. This caused itself Juan Roman Riquelmein February 2023, when he was vice president, he praised him.

“He will become the goalkeeper of our club. Without a doubt he is on the way to becoming the starter in goal. He was lucky enough to learn from Rossi, García, Romero. He likes to train, he is very serious. He seems like a bigger person, not 20 “I have no doubt that he will be Boca’s goalkeeper for many years. He is a great goalkeeper.”Román pitched that day.

The former Los Andes player has been at Boca for two years and at the beginning of 2024 he was goalkeeper for the Under 23 national team, with which they qualified for the Paris Olympics.

As in his time in Potosí, Leandro was also a hero in the last match against Brazil, with a couple of decisive interventions, in addition to the fact that all the flashes went to the striker Luciano Gondou, author of the goal that meant the victory for 1-0.

Brey graduated high school in the middle of a pandemic. He was in the Ejercito de Los Andes school, near the Milrayitas Eduardo Gallardón stadium.

Even if they call him the goalkeeper “of the future”, he wore the gloves more by choice than by conviction. He was tested in the central marker Milrayitas. And it stayed. He arrived at the age of 10 to play in the juniors and then began his journey in the Inferiores.

“Then I was free in Novena – he remembers -. Then it occurred to me to try out as a goalkeeper and the truth is that it went very well”.

Football is made up of peculiarities like these. The rest came thanks to Brey’s talent (he is 1.91 meters tall and weighs 89 kilos) and a little luck in going from fourth goalkeeper to substitute in the First Division at just 17 years old.

In August 2020, while attending the club’s school and training at the Villa Albertina property, he signed his first contract. This market, without relegations and added to the economic problems resulting from the pandemic, has led the promotion clubs to encourage the projection of the club’s boys and to get rid of many contracts, including those of goalkeepers Daniel Monllor and Elías Frets.

Federico Díaz, the owner, and Brey remained. “In some training sessions I played as a midfielder so I know that role too. Then I started as a goalkeeper and stayed there,” he noted in an interview.

Everything happened at an accelerated speed. He made his debut in March 2021 with Los Andes when in the 15th minute of the first match against Argentino de Quilmes he came on following Federico Díaz’s red card. He obeyed and never came out again.

His arrival at Boca came as a bet on the future and to replace Agustín Lastra, who went on loan to Aldosivi, after having renewed his contract until 2026.

The 17 million peso scandal

In April 2023 Leandro Brey’s name once again took center stage. He had nothing to do with sports. But Omar Pianipresident of the club from the south of Greater Buenos Aires, he went to the bank to look for the money for the goalkeeper’s transfer to Boca and when the time came to open the safe that supposedly contained them There was not a single ticket from the transaction.

The director of the institute Lomas de Zamora took a photo with the empty safety deposit box and caused concern among his fans, since this large sum of money is essential for the active life of the club and its operational functioning.

In 2022, Brey’s transfer to Boca closed at just over 450 thousand dollars for 90% of the goalkeeper’s salary. That money for a promotion club – Milrayitas is in First B – is synonymous with a fortune. The buyer had given a check for 17 million pesos to have the player delivered to him and then made another one for the remaining 23 million.

Grosi, head of a construction union parallel to UOCRA, was accused by Plaini of having prevented him from entering the plants during the 2021 elections with the help of barrabravas, who he had transformed into his praetorium and to whom he had entrusted the total business management. the ownership of Villa Albertina, where the lower divisions train.