The 2023 season was shaping up to be another memorable campaign for the Tampa Bay Rowdies with Leo Fernandes helping lead the way. Tampa Bay had fallen one win short of claiming a third straight Eastern Conference title the year before, and Fernandes was coming off a career-best season that saw him named USL Championship Player of the Year. However, the trajectory of Tampa Bay’s season and Fernandes’ career was dramatically altered during one of the club’s preseason contests.
Fernandes was lining up to take a penalty, just as he had hundreds of times before as a player, when he heard a pop and felt agonizing pain. His Achilles had ruptured. After a relatively injury-free career, the veteran was left wondering if the door was closing on his time as a player.
“That injury really made me start to think about what was next for me after my playing days were done,” recalled Fernandes. “I always tried to stay positive, and my family and teammates were very supportive in my rehab, but in the back of my mind I’m thinking there’s a chance I don’t come back from this injury, so I have to find out what I’m doing really quickly. It was a blessing in disguise that just made me focus and end up find something that I really enjoy.”
While Fernandes was originally expected to miss the entire 2023 season, he managed to return for the final few matches of the year. However, nagging injuries over the next two seasons kept him sidelined and eventually led to his decision to officially retire at the end of the 2025 season.
The wheels were already in motion for the next phase of Fernandes’ career long before he finally chose to hang up his boots. He had used his time away from the field in 2023 to take up scouting, becoming a local scout for U.S. Soccer.
“There are so many talented local players here in Tampa Bay,” said Fernandes. “The last few years I’ve been going to Tampa Bay United, Florida Premier, IMG, and Orlando City games, all the academy games in the area. A lot of that involved writing our reports on players U.S. Soccer needed help monitoring, some of it was me identifying players that are worth taking a look at and possibly getting into the youth system.”
It’s no surprise that Fernandes had a desire to remain in soccer following his playing career. His father Carlos played professionally in Brazil and still coaches youth soccer in New York today. All three of his brothers also played soccer, and two of them have now gone into coaching.
Unlike the rest of his family, Fernandes elected to not move straight into coaching and instead pitched the Rowdies on building out a scouting network for the club. Fortunately, Rowdies Head Coach Dominic Casciato and Head of Socer Operations Nico Castillo were receptive to his vision.
“It’s a scary time when you retire,” said Fernandes. “You just keep asking yourself what’s next. I presented what I thought a scouting department could look like, how I would scout, how I would help the team, and they were all very receptive to the idea. I was just so thankful they were willing to listen to my idea. I know a lot of clubs in the USL would probably dismiss the idea before even meeting about it and just say it’s not in the budget. For them to listen and ultimatey buy into the idea, I’m so grateful.”
In his new role as Rowdies Head Scout, Fernandes will oversee a network of scouts who will cover the lower divisions of American soccer and a select number of leagues overseas. In addition to his scouting duties, Fernandes will also help with management and recruitment for the club’s development team, Rowdies 2, that was launched last year.
“The USL is obviously massive, with a lot of talented players in our league and USL League One,” said Fernandes. “MLS Next Pro is a young league with a lot of young, hungry players that are trying to break into MLS, but some of them just don’t happen to make it. It’s always good to have eyeballs over there. Soccer is played all over the world; we need to do our best to keep an eye on as many potential players as we can. We also have to be smart in how we use our resources and make sure that the leagues we do scout match our league and find players that can translate well here.”
Coaching could still be in Fernandes’ future down the road. He started earning his coaching badges even before his Achilles injury and this week it was announced that he would participate in this year’s USL Pro Residency Program, the league’s coaching development program. Fernandes won’t have to go far to do his residency, as he remains in market to learn from and work closely with the Rowdies technical staff.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Fernandes said. “I’m learning from Dom and his staff and getting to see what it really looks like day to day behind the scenes. It’s been so rewarding to see the process that he goes through and the details he focuses on. I’ve learned more through our preseason than I’ve learned in any coaching course.”
For now, Fernandes is happy to focus on building out the Rowdies scouting department and working toward finding the club’s next stars.
“We want players that want to be here, that are hungry to be here, that want to prove themselves and make it to the next level eventually,” he said. “Those are the type of player we want to pursue. Establishing that process of how we scout, recruit, and sign players is so important. We’re putting in the work now so we’re in a good place when it’s time to look toward the future.”
