Leonino exclusive: Varandas decides Tanlongo’s Sporting future | OneFootball

Frederico Varandas has already decided, and Mateo Tanlongo will be demoted to Sporting's B team in the 2025/26 season. The Argentine midfielder joined the Lions in the summer transfer window of 2022 and played for the main green and white team, which was then managed by Ruben Amorim.

However, this was not the Sporting plan for Tanlongo. Our Journal reveals, in this Exclusive Leonino, that the green and white leaders wanted to sell the Argentine midfielder this summer and end the three-year connection with the player that the Lions acquired from Rosario Central at no cost.

Despite being on the market after a successful season with the Cypriots of Pafos, where he won the national title and played 28 games, the offers for Mateo Tanlongo were not enticing enough for Sporting to let go of the defensive midfielder, so the decision was to keep the player, albeit in Sporting's B team.

João Gião, coach of Sporting's secondary team, thus gains another option for the midfield, in a team that has made a tremendous start in Liga 2, after seven years in the lower divisions. The Lions have, so far, three wins in four matches played in the second division championship.

Remember that after being signed by Sporting, Tanlongo was part of the main team, having played 14 games in the 2022/23 season. The performances did not convince the green and white officials, and the defensive midfielder, originally from Argentina, had three consecutive loans - first to Copenhagen, then to Rio Ave, and lastly, in the past season, to Pafos, Cyprus, where he became the national champion.

Check out some of Tanlongo's best moments at Sporting:

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.