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24 CAVALIER CORNER BY KRISTIN THURMAN D espite being in only his second year on the Virginia men's soc- cer team, forward Leo Afonso has quickly emerged to become a team captain and leading scorer for the Cavaliers. Afonso appeared in 15 games with six starts during his first year. On a team look- ing for offensive weapons, the hope was he could come in and strike right away. The challenge of stepping into that role as a first-year proved difficult for Afonso, who fin- ished with two goals in 2020-21. "It certainly would have been easier had he been scoring goals," head coach George Gelnovatch said. "It's not easy coming in as a first-year to score goals, to get that con- fidence, to get that rhythm, to be that guy, but he was getting chances. He was a young player. If it were today, he'd close his eyes and bury those." Afonso was coming off an injury in his first year and still trying to recover during the fall, but due to COVID-19, luckily he had the chance to keep training hard with a spring season as well. "I was coming off an injury, and I was still rusty in the fall," Afonso said. "Having the spring season last year was the best part for me, since I don't think I was ready for the fall." During the 2021 preseason, Afonso showed the spark he can provide for Vir- ginia with four goals in just two exhibition matches and then he added two more in a 45-minute team scrimmage. It was clear be- fore the season even started that he would be someone the team leaned on offensively. Shortly after, he and third-year defender Andreas Ueland were voted to be team cap- tains, an honor that Afonso was chosen for not just because of his scoring abilities. "He's such a young pro in terms of taking care of himself, being on time, staying after [practice], working his tail off defensively," Gelnovatch said. "A couple of the goals he's scored are from defensive plays, taking it off the opposition's center backs and going and scoring." Afonso grew up in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where soccer is really the only option for young kids looking to play sports. "I got started in fútbol mainly because of my dad," Afonso said. "In Brazil, soccer is the main sport, so that's what I picked when I was young and stuck with it. "The other sports are not as big in Brazil, so either you play soccer or you don't play soccer," Afonso added with a chuckle. "My earliest memory [of soccer] was just playing with my dad, me and him just passing the ball. With organized soccer, it was my mom driving me to training." Afonso and his family eventually moved to Miami when he was 13 years old. The transition from life in Brazil to the United States was something that he struggled with at first. "Moving in the beginning was really hard," Afonso said. "The first two or three weeks of school the teachers would talk to me, and I had no idea what they were saying. "Then, the different culture, going from something I grew up in 13 years of my life and moving to a different country was really hard in the beginning. After three or four months I started getting used to the lan- guage, and from there it got easier." It wasn't long before the Major League Soccer academies discovered Afonso's tal- ent and he got to choose where he wanted to go after spending his first two years of high school at Somerset Academy. "I got selected for academy after I had a really good season," Afonso recalled. "I had 25 goals in 35 games or something like that. There were a lot of MLS academies that reached out to me and wanted me to go play for them." Afonso first chose to move with his dad up to Philadelphia to play for the Philadel- phia Union. A year later, Miami started its academy, and he was able to move back home for his senior season. It was there that he had a chance encounter with one of the best soccer players of all time. "David Beckham is one of the owners at Miami. I was in preseason with the first team, and one day at training he showed up," Afonso said. "I just couldn't believe it. I looked at him and I was just like, this guy doesn't look real." His experience with the academies helped prepare Afonso for his emergence at Virginia. "Coming from an MLS academy, you are used to being treated like a young pro, and then coming here it was not even a transi- tion, the treatment is the same," Afonso said. "It just caught my attention." There is no doubt that Afonso has caught the attention of the team in just his second year, and this season will have the opportu- nity to continue impressing fans and team- mates while he settles into his leadership role at Virginia. DAZZLING DAZZLING DEVELOPMENT DEVELOPMENT Second-Year Leo Afonso Is Now Ready To Score And Lead The Cavaliers " It's not easy coming in as a first-year to score goals, to get that confidence, to get that rhythm, to be that guy, but he was getting chances. He was a young player. If it were today, he'd close his eyes and bury those." UVA HEAD COACH GEORGE GELNOVATCH ON LEO AFONSO'S DEVELOPMENT