It has been a surprise to many that Leonardo Da Silva Lopes has only just joined a new club. The midfielder has been a free agent since leaving Cercle Brugge in the summer when his contract expired. At the age of just 26, the midfielder has been one of the best holding players in the Pro League for a number of seasons now. It was expected that he would quickly find a new club, but for one reason or another he remained a free agent until December. In the end, Gent are the side that will benefit from the services of Lopes. He now has a few weeks and the winter break to regain fitness.
This is certainly a coup for Gent given how well the Portuguese midfielder has performed in recent seasons. He began his career with Peterborough, playing 108 games for Posh before a brief stint with Wigan. After just three games for Wigan and a loan spell with Gillingham the midfielder moved to Hull. In one season for the Yorkshire side Lopes made 44 appearances scoring twice. In the summer of 2020 Cercle Brugge signed him, with Lopes going on to make 120 appearances for Cercle and helping them go from relegation candidates to European qualifiers.
Gent lost a key midfielder in the summer when Julien De Sart moved to Qatar to join Al-Rayyan. While Mathias Delorge and Atsuki Ito have performed well in central areas, with Sven Kums advancing in years the side could do with more quality in those areas. Where the 26-year-old excelled was in winning the ball back and helping Cercle transition from defence to attack.
Lopes will certainly bring quality at this level. Gent are clearly confident in Lopes performing at the level he showed in Cercle by handing him a three and a half year contract.
