Exclusive: Varandas decides Tanlongo’s future at Sporting | OneFootball

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

However, this was not Sporting’s plan for Tanlongo. Our newspaper reveals, in this Leonino Exclusive, that the green and white management wanted to sell the Argentine midfielder this summer, ending the three-year association with the player whom the Lions had signed from Rosario Central on a free transfer.

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

João Gião, coach of Sporting’s secondary squad, thus gains another option for the midfield, in a team that has had a tremendous start in Liga 2, after seven years in the lower divisions. So far, the Lions have won three out of four matches played in the second division championship.

It is worth recalling that, after being signed by Sporting, Tanlongo was part of the main squad, having played 14 matches in the 2022/23 season. His performances did not convince the green and white management, and the defensive midfielder, a native of Argentina, had three consecutive loan spells – first to Copenhagen, then to Rio Ave, and finally, last season, to Pafos in Cyprus, where he became national champion.

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