New Spartan: Angelo Preciado

"We are happy that we have managed to complete the transfer of Angelo. We are pleased that he chose Sparta out of the options he had," says AC Sparta Praha Sports Director Tomáš Rosický. "Angelo is a representative of his country at an ideal age. He has experiences, for example, from the last World Cup, where he played all of Ecuador's matches in the starting line-up. He also played in the Belgian league, which is a quality competition. He can play in different playing systems, he will fit in well with our style of play and will improve our squad. We are all looking forward to him joining the team after his national team duties," Rosický added.

Angelo Preciado was born in Ecuador in February 1998. In the youth he moved to Independiente del Valle's club. He won the 2018 Copa Sudamericana with the club, the second most important international football competition in South America. Subsequently, he also tasted the Recopa Sudamericana. But Brazil's Flamengo, the Copa Libertadores champion, was more successful.

The following season, he played the Copa Libertadores with Independiente del Valle's club. In the group stage, the Ecuadorians played a perfect rematch, winning the group ahead of Flamengo, which even suffered a 5-0 defeat, with Preciado contributing one goal.

At that time, Preciado was already a member in the Ecuador national team squad, for which he made his debut in 2018. He also played matches against Argentina or Brazil in the strongest line-ups in Copa America or World Cup qualifying. Preciado then contributed to the fact that Ecuador managed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar. At the 2022 championship, he played as a member of the starting line-up in all three group matches against Qatar, the Netherlands and Senegal.

By that time, Preciado was already a player of Belgium's Genk, to whom he moved in January 2021 and immediately won the Belgian Cup with the club. He played a total of 59 league games for the club, with a further five games in the Belgian Cup and five in the Europa League, where he played against Rapid Vienna, Dinamo Zagreb and West Ham United. Now Preciado moves to Sparta for a new challenge. He could become the first Ecuadorian to wear a Sparta jersey in the Czech league.