"The Portuguese Wonder", the Leandro Goncalves Biography

[leandrofg 1,210]

"The Portuguese Wonderkid", Leandro Goncalves is now recognized as one of the best players in the VHL, but his path to the top wasn't your usual one.

 

There aren't many Portuguese-born players getting to the VHL, and the reason is somewhat reasonable. Portugal isn't the most attentive country to ice hockey due to the sporting culture itself.

 

First, there's football, then after that, there's football again, not only to be followed again by football.

 

The best way to describe how ice hockey is forgotten in Portugal is regarding how the Portuguese Ice Hockey Federation selects its players - they go to Switzerland.

 

Another way to describe it is as easy as how we're referring to hockey as ice hockey. That's because hockey in Portugal is a different kind of hockey played, rink hockey. Rink hockey doesn't require ice, which is a plus in Portugal, but even better, the same rink can be shared with other disciplines, such as handball or futsal.

 

Portugal is one of the best countries in the roller hockey discipline, having one of the best squads worldwide and the hardware to show. 16 World titles and 21 European, the latter, a record.

 

So how does a country with this record lose a possible superstar to ice hockey?

 

It all started in November 2000, as the PlayStation 2 console was getting its launch in Europe. Leandro's birthday is in December, and his parents decided to surprise him with the best surprise ever, one still fondly remembered to this day.

 

Leandro got his birthday present in advance, a new console. His first game? "This is Football 2". Of course, his first game had to be a football simulator!

 

But his second... was also not related to hockey.

 

We must fast forward a few years to a time when Leandro had already tinkered with the console. The console could now read and play cracked games, and between 2005 and 2006, Leandro downloaded VHL 06, ripped it into the DVD, and found his love for hockey.

 

By now, Leandro was a regular kid, he wasn't introverted, but he always enjoyed his independence. As a kid, he bargained with his parents, so they would let him stay home in the morning instead of leaving for extracurricular activities. Instead of having to wake up early to get ready, he would now organize his morning.

 

Now, he was in charge. Woke up when we wanted, had breakfast, solved his homework, and then it was hockey time. This was part of his youth, and it stuck.

 

During the winter, ice rinks would pop up in town, and Leandro couldn't wait to get on the ice. Braga was and still is a small city, easy to navigate and safe enough that children can go around the center without supervision. This allowed Leandro to spend a lot of time on the ice, just skating, playing his VHL game on his mind, and trying to turn his video game into real life.

 

He decided to try out for rink hockey, as it would allow him to work on some techniques that would crossover into the ice. Thankfully, northern Portugal had some of the best rink hockey teams in Portugal, with the likes of FC Porto, Juventude Viana, and OC Barcelos. Leandro, though, stayed home and chose to start at HC Braga.

 

HC Braga wasn't as well regarded as OC Barcelos. And these teams were situated only 20 kilometers apart. While OC Barcelos was established in 1948, it took HC Braga another 40 years to be founded.

 

Still, he had his mindset. And what happens when you find something you love and are motivated for it, even if you are only grasping at it with a kid's naivety? In this case, you start waking up early... very early. Kids practiced before school, so that meant waking up at 7 AM.

 

That was his life for a while. Wake up early, practice, stay after for a bit,  go home, do homework assignments, and go to school.

 

This was a taste of what Leandro wanted, but still, it lacked what Leandro wanted. While the fundamentals are the same, the result is very different. The area of play isn't the same... it's a physical game, but there's no physicality itself, i.e., no body-checking, and there's less creativity from the players themselves.

 

Leandro wanted more, but ice hockey was more and more in the backdrop of his life. Until he had the opportunity, while already in university, to enter the European Exchange Student Program. This program would take him to the Styrian region of Austria for a semester and, in the end, would change his life.

 

During his semester at the University of Graz, Leandro had the opportunity to practice with the UHT Dukes Graz. While he could not play since he was not enrolled, that semester showed him where he wanted to play hockey... on the ice.

 

As soon as the semester ended and Leandro was back in Portugal, he started working on the transfer papers between the universities. He was going to finish his degree in Austria and play for the Dukes in the European University Hockey League (EUHL).

 

This was where Leandro started to truly shine, and it wasn't long before people in the ICEHL noticed. Even before Leandro graduated, the Graz99ers made him an offer we couldn't refuse.

 

At this point, while the VHL was still a dream, it became closer than ever when the VHLE was announced. The Bratislava Watchmen were now playing less than 3 hours away, and after Leandro and the team made the trip to watch a game, Leandro knew he was good enough to be on the ice.

 

The VHL was no longer a dream but a goal. And so, within a couple of seasons, as his contract with the Austrian team ended, Leandro made the trip to North America and presented himself as a Free Agent in the VHLM.

 

Leandro was referred to as "the Portuguese Wonderkid" but is no longer one. He's "the Portuguese Wonder" now.

 

The rest is history in the making.