Soccer is a first language of sorts for 19-year-old Leal twins Matthew and Patrick, whose unlikely joint journey as brothers who grew up in Massachusetts now sees them taking significant steps toward establishing professional playing careers in separate European countries.
Never was the unifying power of the sport, so evident as it was when the twins were in Africa with their mother.
“Soccer is universal. One of my favorite soccer experiences happened when Patrick and I spent time in Kenya with our mom,” said Matthew, talking about their early years when Dr. Lisa Ganley-Leal, a research scientist, was working on a project in Nairobi. “She would take us along. Of course, we brought cleats and a soccer ball. We would be playing by ourselves, and in a few minutes we would have about 20 kids playing with us. Somehow, we all understood each other.”
“It was awesome,” said Patrick, looking back on that experience. “After that, we brought bags of deflated balls and collected jerseys and cleats for our new friends. We would spend the entire summer playing pick-up games in Nairobi.”
Today, Matthew Leal lives in Lisbon, Portugal, and is pursuing his dreams of breaking into professional soccer. His twin brother Patrick lives in Venice, Italy, and is pursuing the same dream. The brothers are young American players with the common goal of making it big in Europe. They are both well on their way to realizing their dreams.
In May, Patrick made his debut with Venezia FC in Italy’s Serie A during the last game of the season. He explains that he was called up to play with the first team a couple of times previously but never made it into a game.
“The first time I got on the plane with the team, it was unbelievable, and when I got to the locker room there was a jersey with my name on it. It felt great, but I have to admit I was nervous,” said Patrick. “I was happy that my first actual game was in our home stadium in Venice. As soon as I got on the field, I wasn’t nervous at all.”
Matthew also had an eventful season. He played his second year on the junior squad for Casa Pia AC in Lisbon, Portugal. As a team captain, he led his 2nd Division junior team to secure a spot in the 1st Division and emerged as a top goal scorer from their battle for the Division II national championship. Matthew was promoted to Casa Pia’s first team for the upcoming season in Portugal’s 1st Division.
Born in New Bedford in 2003 to Domingos Leal and Lisa Ganley-Leal, Matthew and Patrick are only recent Mattapoisett residents but with much in the way of extended family in the area.
“I love spending time here in Mattapoisett. I wish I had a longer break, but with the national championship, I was only able to be home for about a month,” said Matthew.
The Leal twins credit their father Domingos with instilling and nurturing their love of the game. “Dom” was a standout soccer player in the semipro LASA league and still holds records at his alma mater, Bridgewater State College. His family moved to New Bedford from the northern Portuguese town of Montalegre in the 1970s.
When Matthew and Patrick were toddlers, the Leal family moved to Newton where the twins’ soccer journey began.
Their parents enrolled them in baseball, basketball, lacrosse and track and field early on, but soccer was their sport from the beginning. “They both loved the constant action,” said Lisa.
“I tried other sports, but soccer was it for me from the beginning. I love everything about it, the speed, the technique and the precision,” said Matthew.
Dom and Lisa started Newton United youth soccer when their boys started showing a real interest and promise in the sport. Dom built teams that would nurture young players like his sons. “My boys are still friends with some of those players today, and several of those kids are playing Division I college soccer or forging their own path to the pros,” he says.
After Dom forged a relationship with Emelio “Mookie” Williams of Valeo Futbol Club, he realized his work with Newton United was finished, and the two programs merged. Valeo is a renowned, elite soccer training organization focused on developing highly competitive athletes, outstanding citizens and strong leaders. Dom explains that Valeo had the infrastructure in place to take his sons to the next level.
“We were really just this fledgling organization, but we were winning tournaments against established and much bigger organizations,” said Dom. “Merging with Valeo was a no-brainer for us at the time. Valeo has more than 3,000 soccer players, and both Lisa and I were working full-time jobs so we didn’t have the commitment necessary to grow the (Newton United) program.”
Both boys tried out for the New England Revolution Academy and played two seasons on the 13U team. At the age of 14, they attended a tournament in Estoril, where they attracted some attention from the Lisbon-based Os Belenenses team. A couple of weeks later, their mother was offered a job abroad.
OS Belenenses and Valeo formed an alliance that would soon bring Matthew and Patrick to Portugal full time.
“It happened so fast,” Lisa said. “I got a great job offer, and I would have to be based in Europe for a couple of years so we made the decision to just do it. Everything just lined out at the right time. Dom spent a lot of time on an airplane, but he was able to work remotely from Portugal at least some of the time,” explains Lisa.
Dom explained that it was difficult to pull the boys out of school, but Portugal seemed like the right decision to make at the time.
“The move would allow my sons to pursue their dreams, and if nothing else, it would be a great cultural experience,” he said. “I was born in northern Portugal, and my family immigrated to the U.S. when I was three years old. The boys are dual citizens but had never had formal Portuguese instruction. The Portuguese they spoke they learned from their grandparents. Now they both speak fluent Portuguese.”
Matthew grew up in Newton studying Mandarin Chinese but wished he had an option to learn Portuguese the old-country way.
“When we moved to Portugal, it was very hard,” he said. “Our teammates spoke mainly Portuguese and so did our coaches. Our mom and dad got us Portuguese tutors and even a Chinese tutor for a while so we could continue our classes.”
Both boys were enrolled in online high school, supplemented by instruction from tutors and their mother.
“It’s tough having your mother as your teacher,” admits Patrick. “She was a professor at medical schools so sometimes Matthew and I felt like she was expecting us to know a lot, but we learned a lot from her.”
Matthew echoes his brother’s sentiments. “Our friends would say things like, ‘You’re so lucky that you don’t have to be in school all day,’ and Patrick and I would say, ‘Are you kidding? We are in school 24 hours a day.’”
Both boys received their high school diplomas in the spring of 2021.
The youth-soccer development systems in the United States have come a long way in recent years, but it is still widely understood that they do not compare to Europe’s. Critics say that the U.S. needs to have more rivalries, relegations and promotions. Both Matthew and Patrick agree that Major League Soccer (MLS) is displaying some excellent soccer these days.
At age 15, Patrick was signed to a contract by Sporting, one of the top clubs in Portugal, while Matthew found a home with Casa Pia.
“We were lucky that we got to spend the Covid lockdowns together,” said Matthew.
Patrick says that having his brother nearby kept him grounded. “We’re very competitive in everything, but Matthew is really easy going so he can always calm me down,” he said.
Matthew says that since his brother transferred to Venice, it has been an adjustment. “It’s weird not having him in the next room. I know that if I am having a bad day at practice or I have had a bad game, I have someone that really understands everything I am going through, said Matthew.
In 2021, the family moved their home base from Newton to Mattapoisett.
“We’ve always spend time in this area. We spend a lot of time with my grandparents in Acushnet and our cousins in Rochester,” says Patrick. “The last few weeks I practiced my driving by picking up our cousin Ryan at (Old Rochester Regional High School) every afternoon or driving to his baseball games.”
“Our grandparents live five minutes away; my aunt, uncle and my cousins are in the next town over, and our other grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins are only a state away instead of an entire continent,” explains Matthew.
As their offseason break drew to a close, both boys were sorry to leave the U.S., but they’re both returning to Europe with their driver’s licenses.
“In some ways, they are your typical teenage boys, but in others they’re mature beyond their years,” said Dom. “They are twins, but their personalities and their style of play are very different, but their commitment to the sport is the same for both of them. They love what they do.”
By Ryan Arruda