Angolan international Lucas Joao, who still plays for Championship side Reading last season, is likely to join Chinese Super League side Shanghai Harbour after four seasons with Reading, Portuguese newspaper El Globo has revealed. If the 1.93-meter-tall Joao signs with Harbour, he will most likely replace Austrian senior winger Pinko, who has been in poor form this season, to complete the replacement of the center forward position.
Earlier this year, Shanghai Seaport signed 32-year-old senior center forward Pinko for 200,000 euros. Unfortunately, the 1.88-meter tall Austrian shot-stopper failed to hit an efficient 16 goals in 22 matches in the O-League last season. He played in the first six rounds consecutively, but only spread to Shenzhen and the rest of the matches were unrewarding. After that, he gradually lost his starting position. The remaining nine rounds of the first half had only one start, four substitutions and four benches, still scoring and assisting double zero data. Pinko didn't have a chance to play in the last three rounds of the league, and Shanghai Harbor won three consecutive matches. With Javier desperate to sign, the center forward position is most likely to be tweaked.
Shanghai Seaport's rumored target is Angolan international Lucas Joao, who has played the last four seasons in the Championship. Lucas Joao, who will turn 30 in September, is 1.93 meters tall and younger than Pinko. Joao and his sister were born in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, and both their parents and sister were born in Luanda, the Angolan capital. For a long time, public information incorrectly indicated that Joao was also born in Luanda, a mistake he has had to tirelessly correct.
Although he has repeatedly emphasized the origin of his blood, ifo initially chose to appear in international matches on behalf of Portugal, where he was born.In 2013, the Portuguese U20 national youth team was recruited by Portuguese national team coach Fernando Santos and played two warm-up matches against Russia and Luxembourg.
However, after being ignored by the Portuguese national team for seven whole years, ifo finally opted to naturalize in Angola last March and was named in the Angolan roster for warm-up matches in Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. This year, he played three qualifiers at the Africa Cup of Nations and broke through to Ghana in March.
As a child, Joao idolized Cristiano Ronaldo and Ibe, and at the age of six began playing soccer on the streets of Lisbon. However, his mother was banned from playing soccer for two or three years because she was too preoccupied with skipping school. However, if O secretly played soccer for the youth ladder of a local club because of his love for the game. At the time, he was playing for Almada FC and was making a name for himself on the south coast of Lisbon. His parents finally agreed to watch him play on the pitch and finally agreed to let him continue playing soccer, but only if he didn't waste his studies. He had trials with Sporting Portugal and Benfica, but finally chose Madeira, an island team far from the Atlantic Ocean.
At the age of 19, he was loaned out to Mirandela in the Portuguese third tier. 12 goals in 28 games saw him make a successful return to Madeira Nacional, making his Portuguese Super debut. he scored six goals in the 2014/15 season before joining Sheffield Wednesday's Championship club for a fee of €2.8 million. Initially, Joao was hesitant, but constant requests for photos and autographs from fans on the streets of Sheffield convinced him that he was being recognized. The Sheffield Wednesday fans even wrote a cheering song which mentioned his name. He broke through to Arsenal in the League Cup and quickly rose through the ranks because of his experience in the Championship.
Joao joined Reading in the summer of 2019 after four years at Shea Wednesday. In his four years at Reading, his best stats came in the 2020/21 season when he nearly gave Reading a chance of a promotion play-off spot with 19 goals and 7 assists in 39 games in the Championship. But last season he struggled, with just seven goals and two assists in 34 games. Reading struggled in the relegation zone all season and eventually dropped to League One. If Oin fails to renew his contract at the end of his contract at £15,000 a week, free agency will help him make a better choice of a new team.
If Lucas Joao manages to join Shanghai Harbour, he will be the second Angolan foreigner to play for the Chinese Super League this season. Just a week ago, Beijing Guoan signed Angolan shot-stopper Abreu from the United Arab Emirates, who was also born in Lisbon. Coincidentally, Abreu was born in derby rivals Madeira Mariners, the Madeira nationals of Joao's home team. Shanghai Harbour's home match against Beijing Guoan could be the "Angola & Madeira Derby" between the two Angolan goalscorers in the Chinese Super League.
