Angolan soccer star Lucas Joao, who played for Reading in England's second division last season, is preparing to join Shanghai Harbour in China's Chinese Super League after four seasons with Reading, Portuguese newspaper Gazeta has exclusively revealed. If the nearly two-meter-tall Joao reaches an agreement with Seaport, he is likely to replace Austrian center forward Pinko, who is currently in a slump, and reshape the team's forward line.
Earlier this year, Shanghai Harbour signed 32-year-old Pinko for 200,000 euros, but the Austrian winger was ineffective in the O-League last season as he collected only 16 goals in 22 matches. Despite making consecutive appearances in the first six rounds of the tournament, he only had one start in the remaining nine rounds and scored and assisted zero goals. In the last three rounds of league matches, Pinko was even left out of the starting lineup, but Shanghai Harbors won three consecutive matches. Against the backdrop of Coach Javier's eagerness to sign strong reinforcements, the adjustment of the center forward position is imperative.
Rumor has it that Shanghai Harbour are looking at none other than Angolan player Lucas Joao, who has played four seasons in England's second division. Joao, who will turn 30 in September, is 1.93 meters tall and younger than Pinko. Although Joao was born in Lisbon, Portugal, his parents and sister were born in Luanda, Angola, and there have been errors in the public information about his place of birth, which Joao has repeatedly come forward to correct.
Despite the fact that Joao has repeatedly emphasized the origin of his blood, if he had initially opted to represent Portugal at international level, he would have already been on the radar of Fernando Santos, the coach of Portugal's U20 national youth team, in 2013, where he took part in warm-up matches against Russia and Luxembourg. However, after seven years of being overlooked by the Portuguese national team, Joao finally chose to naturalize in Angola last March and was included in Angola's roster for warm-up matches in Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. This year, he performed well in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers and scored against Ghana in March.
Joao grew up admiring Ronaldo and Ibe, and started playing soccer at the age of six on the streets of Lisbon. He was banned from playing soccer for two or three years because his mother had skipped school because she was too focused on playing. Despite this, Joao secretly played in the youth ranks of his local club. At the time, he was playing for the Almada FC team, which was making a name for itself on the south coast of Lisbon. Eventually, his parents agreed to watch him play and allowed him to continue playing soccer, but only if he didn't miss out on his studies. He had trials with Sporting Portugal and Benfica, but eventually chose Madeira, an island team far from the Atlantic Ocean.
At the age of 19, Joao was loaned out to Portuguese third division side Mirandela. A 12-goal performance in 28 matches led to a successful return to Madeira Nacional and his debut in the Portuguese Superliga.He scored six goals in the 2014/15 season before joining Championship side Sheffield Wednesday for a fee of €2.8 million. At Sheffield, Joao felt the passion of the fans and even composed a cheering song in his honor. His Championship experience earned him a reputation as he broke through Arsenal in the League Cup.
In the summer of 2019, Joao joined Reading after four years with Sheffield Wednesday. In his four years at Reading, his best performance came in the 2020/21 season, scoring 19 goals and seven assists in 39 games in the Championship, almost earning Reading a promotion play-off spot. However, last season he struggled, scoring just seven goals and two assists in 34 games. Reading struggled in the relegation zone all season and were eventually relegated to League One. Joao failed to renew his contract due to it expiring on a weekly wage of just £15,000, and free agency gave him a better option.
If Lucas Joao manages to join Shanghai Harbour, he will become the second Angolan foreigner to play in the Chinese Super League this season. A week ago, Beijing Guoan signed Angolan shot-stopper Abreu, also born in Lisbon, from the United Arab Emirates. Coincidentally, Abreu was born in Madeira Mariners, which is Joao's parent team, Madeira National. Shanghai Harbor's home match against Beijing Guoan may become the "Angola & Madeira Derby" in the Chinese Super League.
