MEXICO
Who is Matheus Reis, the Fluminense starlet who could play for Mexico?
Copa Libertadores winners Fluminense boast an exciting teenage prospect who is eligible to represent Mexico’s national team.
Fluminense, the newly-crowned South American champions, have a Brazil youth-team gem in their squad who can also play for Mexico.
Matheus Reis: the lowdown
Matheus Reis is yet to feature for Fluminense’s first team, but the 16-year-old’s talent has caught the eye of the Brazilian club’s head coach, Fernando Diniz, who has named him on the bench for domestic league games.
At international level, the forward has made nine appearances for Brazil’s Under-17s, helping the team to lift the 2023 South American Under-17 title in April.
According to the Brazilian media outlet O Globo, Reis is so highly rated at Fluminense that the Rio de Janeiro outfit have included a €50 million ($53 million) release clause in the youngster’s contract.
Why is Matheus Reis eligible for Mexico?
Although Reis’s international career has so far been spent in Brazil’s age-group set-up, he is also eligible to play for Mexico because he was born in Mexico City, the North American country’s capital.
The starlet’s father Elías Luiz dos Reis, who was also a professional footballer, was a player for the now-defunct Mexican club Pumas Morelos at the time of his son’s birth in April 2007.
Reis Sr arrived in Mexico when he signed for Necaxa in 2005, but after struggling for game time with Los Rayos he joined Pumas Morelos, who were affiliated to seven-time Liga MX champions Pumas UNAM.
As Matheus Reis is yet to be capped by Brazil’s senior national team, he is still in time to switch his allegiance to Mexico if he wishes.
He has previously spoken of his desire to play at a World Cup, but has not specified which country he would like to represent at the tournament.
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