Miguel Cardoso credits healthy locker room for Brayan Leon impact | OneFootball

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Healthy dressing room aiding Leon adaptation, says Cardoso

Photo: Alche Greef/BackPagePix

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says Brayan Leon's instant impact in front of goals is down to a healthy dressing room at the club.

The 25-year-old striker recently arrived in a reported deal worth in the region of $3.5 million (R57 million) from Independiente Medellin in his native Colombia.

Leon wasted no time introducing himself to the Masandawana faithful as he struck on his debut against Orbit College, before netting against Sekhukhune United to make it two goals in three games.

With the Colombian having hit the ground running, Cardoso attributed the rich vein of fine form to healthy team dynamics and the environment at Chloorkop, including in the locker room.

“Look, when I came in Sundowns, I felt very easy the adaptation. Sundowns is a very friendly club, the relations between people are very friendly despite the level of professionalism that we need to have - the relations are friendly,” said the Downs mentor.

"The locker room is very healthy, so it's more easy obviously for a player to adapt in this kind of club than others and obviously that sometimes people say you have a group of Portuguese, Spanish, Brazilian players and the other ones, they share together.

"It's normal obviously that when we sit to eat they speak within themselves. Brayan doesn't speak English, Miguel [Reisinho] doesn't speak English, Nuno [Santos] speaks quite well, Arthur [Sales] already understands very well and speaks a little bit, Marcelo [Allende] speaks more so they manage.

"Those players are very important on his adaptation, of course, in terms of helping him to feel at home. He's a very positive player in terms of mindset and I think that positive mindset helps him a lot to succeed in what he did.