Luis Otávio: All About the Young Brazilian Target
A New Central Midfielder on His Way?
If you’ve been able to look at the transfer rumors over the last few days/weeks (there have been a lot of them) you may have seen the name Luis Otávio pop up. My point with this article is to introduce you to the player, go over some stats, and to talk about where he fits in.
Transfer Rumor
Before covering the player, let’s chat about the rumors first. On November 3rd, there was a rumor saying that Orlando City sent a scout to Brazil to closely monitor Luis Otávio. When the club went down there the player didn’t play with the first team but it was rumored that Orlando City scouts stayed a bit longer to watch him practice and play in a scrimmage. The next day, there was a report that came out from Brazil that talked about Internacional, Luis Otávio's current club, saying that it was not only going through a relegation battle but was also coming on financial hard times. Due to the issues with their finances, the club was looking at certain players to sell so they could stay at a good level with their books. This was the first tid bit that opened the door for Orlando City.
We went about a week or so before the next news broke that came on 11/14/25, when there were multiple reports that Orlando City had officially put in a bid for Otávio; around $5 million dollars for 90% of the player. It was stated in the same articles that Internacional were considering the bid and some journalists went as far as saying they should take the deal, while others said they should hold out since they believe he could be worth more money. The latest update on X is that Internacional will wait for their current season to end (early December) before making any decisions since the window is closed anyway.
So with nothing for certain as of yet, I still think it would be a fun exercise to break down Luis Otávio's background and stats so fans can get to know the young player.
Background
Luis Otávio Costa de Aquino (Luis Otávio for short) was born in Beberibe, Ceará, Brazil in April of 2007. In 2020 Otávio joined a local youth side, Juazeiro EE, where he played for about two years. He played so well that he got noticed by Internacional's youth directors.
Luis Otávio playing for Juazeiro
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| 09/20/21-Credit to Pedro Chaves (p3sport) |
After watching the young player a few times during his second season with Juazeiro, the club (Internacional) decided to bring Otávio into their own academy where he made the jump and immediately made an impact. At 15 years old, he played one season with the U17 team and then the next season he played with the U20 team. After two years in the academy, he was signed to a first team contract with Internacional in April of 2024 but didn't see his first game until October 19, 2024. That game was against Grêmio where he came on as a sub. So far on the season he has had 1269 minutes between the first team and U20 with 686 minutes being with the first team.
Stats/Skill Set
Now that we have a good foundation on Luis Otávio's background, we can look at his stats and break down his play to understand his on-the-field impact. I want to start by saying that since he doesn’t have a ton of first team minutes, we need to take the stats with a grain of salt. I will do my best to also add any of his second-team stats if they exist. However, it should still give a decent idea of his play.
First, it’s important to talk about the position he plays. According to various sources and stat pages, Otávio plays central defensive midfield (CDM/#6) and at rare times, central midfield (CM/#8) but he’s almost predominantly at #6. He comes in at 5' 10" - 5' 11", so he's a good size for a central midfielder. He has brilliant moments where the ball appears to be a magnet on his feet but when he does not have the ball, he can make great tackles to win it back. Slide tackles and shielding tackles appear to be his bread and butter. It makes a lot of sense as to why Orlando City would be targeting him but we can cover that a bit later. To provide a bit of media before starting, be sure to check out this quick highlight video to give you an idea of how he plays.
Stats
With every post I write, I tend to use FB Ref and this post won't be any different. I am going to attempt to use different visuals to help folks understand what Otávio can provide without bogging folks down in numbers. So let's start with defense since he is a CDM.
Defense
There are some stats in here that fans should really like when it comes to the defensive side of the game. As the chart describes below, these percentiles are ranked amongst all midfielders in the top division of Brazilian soccer. Let's start with tackles, since it's a pretty common stat to look at. For total tackles, Otávio ranked in the 87th percentile averaging just over 3 tackles per 90. Out of those tackles, he currently sits in the 88th percentile for tackles won with his per 90 number at 2 tackles. If we go a bit deeper we can see where those tackles occur on the field, but considering his position one could imagine where those tackles take place. In the defensive 3rd and middle 3rd, he ranks in the 92nd and 87th percentile respectively. In the attacking 3rd he ranks much lower in the 25th percentile but this shouldn't be concerning, considering his position. He most likely doesn't find himself in the attacking third so he wouldn't have much of an opportunity to complete tackles there. The rest of those numbers are very good and should be a pleasant sign for the young Brazilian.
Possession
Moving on to possession stats, there’s a mixed bag of statistics for the young midfielder. I’ll briefly hit on touches mostly because the numbers aren’t great but also not a huge deal-breaker for a CDM. He ranks a lowly 24th percentile in total touches, averaging 52 touches per 90. This could also have to do with the fact that he just broke into the first team and has slowly begun to have starts/more playing time. In comparison, César Araújo ranked in the 71st percentile and averaged 66 touches per game. There isn’t a huge difference between the two players and if Otávio gets more time/put in a new system, he could naturally see more touches.
When you look at take-ons, the numbers get better and are notable. He ranks in the 82nd percentile in take-ons attempted and the 85th percentile in successful take-ons with about 1 successful per 90. He also was rarely tackled during his take-ons as his tackled during take-on percentage is in the 85th percentile.
We can quickly look at carries as well. A "carry" is defined as any movement of the ball by a player which is greater than 5 meters from where they received the ball. All the stats are in the 38th percentile or lower for total carries (38th), total carrying distance (11th), and progressive carrying distance (13th). Progressive carries, carries into the final third, and carries into the penalty area are also fairly low. Carries into final third was the highest ranked at the 44th percentile. There is some additional credit to give Otávio when it comes to miscontrols and dispossessions. For miscontrols (error where a player fails to properly control or trap the ball after receiving a pass, a deflection, or while dribbling, resulting in the loss of possession to the opposing team or the ball going out of play) Otávio is in the 84th percentile, having .78 per 90. For dispossessions (when a player loses control of the ball after being tackled by an opposing player) Luis does well there ranking in the 80th percentile and has .52 dispossessions per 90.
Passing
The third part of a defensive midfielder's game is passing. Luis Otávio has a mixed bag in this area but it's still worth talking about and discussing. I will disclose that I won't be covering every passing stat because there are a lot but also there are a fair amount that aren't above the 35th percentile so it isn't "noteworthy". Remember just because the percentile is bad doesn't mean the player is, it just shows a different style of defensive midfielder.
I want to look at pass completion percentage for short (passes below 15 yards), medium (passes between 15 and 30 yards), and long passes (passes longer than 30 yards) as there is some interesting information there. For short passes, he ranked in the 37th percentile with a 89.9% completion percentage, with about 16 passes per 90. For medium passes, he ranked in the 64th percentile with a 90.8% completion percentage, with about 15 passes per 90. For long passes, he ranked in the 71st percentile with a 75.7% completion percentage, with about 4 passes per 90. So normally for defensive midfielders, in this role, you would want a player that has higher percentile ranks for short passes and even medium passes. But for Otávio he has better percentiles with long passes and medium then short. This would be something interesting to watch because if he continues to grow his game but still has the long pass in his bag, it could be a nice addition to any team. The switches (passes that travel more than 40 yards of the width of the pitch) stat also talks to that point. He ranks in the 83rd percentile for switches averaging more than half a switch per 90. 
Luis Otávio ranks in the 86th percentile for yellow cards collecting only .13 per 90. He has yet to pick up a red card this season but his percentile, 57th percentile, is lower due to a fair amount of players not having a red card in the league. He ranks in the 94th percentile in fouls committed with only .78 fouls committed per 90. Finally, with fouls drawn he ranks in the 78th percentile drawing about 2 fouls per 90.
To begin we will look at the basic defensive stats between the 3. Wilder Cartagena had the best and most well rounded with these tackle stats. Luis Otávio is pretty close to Cartagena on % of dribblers tackled, tackles, tackles won, tackles in the defensive 3rd, and tackles in the middle 3rd. When looking at dribbles challenged and tackles in the attacking 3rd, Otávio is well behind both Araújo and Cartagena. He does get a bit closer when looking at dribblers tackled but he does have some ground to make up there.
Discipline
Now we move our attention to discipline. For strikers, wingers, and other positions discipline isn't normally something we need to touch on but seeing as he's a defensive midfielder/defender it's important to chat about.
Let's Compare
To really get a good idea of how Luis Otávio could fit in with Orlando City, I'm going to offer two comparison players that have recently played for the club. César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena will be the two players used for this and we will use the same stats above to provide a 1 for 1 for 1 comp. If there is an outlier on either side, I will point it out below. Each player with have a different color with: Luis Otávio being in red, César Araújo in teal, and Wilder Cartagena in purple. I used Araújo and Cartagena's 2024 season as the comparison season since that was Cartagena's last full season and Araújo was deemed with having a good season that year as well.
Defensive Comp
When it comes to the tackling stats, Luis Otávio is pretty much on pace with where the other two defensive midfielders for Orlando City come in, statistically. He does seem to need to improve on his dribbles challenged stat, but with more game time, that could easily improve.
When looking at the next round of defensive stats, the picture gets a little murkier between the three midfielders. The young Brazilian midfielder dominates in two specific statistics. With interceptions, he runs away from the field, racking up almost 1 to 2 more interceptions per 90. Then when you combine his interceptions with his tackles, he continues to have excellent performance at that level. When looking at errors, he matches César Araújo's numbers displaying more of an error free game compared to Wilder Cartagena. The part where Otavio's numbers don't match the other two are when you look at blocks. Both César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena did a much better job at overall blocks and shots blocked with César Araújo doing a better job with passes blocked as well. This could come down to the fact that Luis Otávio does not have a ton of playing time compared to the other two players. Blocks are something that only happens when you have more playing time or your teams play style is different. If I had to make an assumption, I would assume that the system in which Luis Otávio plays in right now, doesn't afford him the opportunity to create many blocks. This is something I would naturally see increase if he were to join Orlando City.
Possession Comp
Now, as we turn our attention to possession, things remain to be a little bit all over the place. Both César and Wilder have a common theme through the 2024 seasons touch stats. Both players were above the 60th percentile in touches, touches in the defensive 3rd, touches in the middle 3rd, and touches in the attacking 3rd. Unfortunately, for all of those statistics, Luis Octavio is a fair way off. Touches, like blocks, can be indicative of play style or other players on the roster. Internacional are most likely not having play run through Otavio, which is why his touch numbers are most likely lower. This shouldn't be a surprise for a player that just began to get first team minutes this past season. When you look at the take-on stats, Otávio is much more competitive and even exceeds the two players he's compared to. For take-ons attempted and successful takeoffs, he runs away from Cartagena and Araújo, having some pretty impressive numbers when you compare the three. When evaluating successful take-on percentage and tackled during take-on percentage, all three players get pretty close with Cartagena being a bit far off on tackled during take-on percentage. The take-on statistics are pretty interesting considering how far apart Otavio is compared to the other two players. Considering his league and his position, I would expect those numbers to translate to MLS and in a pretty positive way. You don't necessarily want your defensive midfielder to have many take-ons, but when they do, you would hope they could win those and progress the ball.
Passing Comp
Let's turn our attention to passing for the three midfielders. There are some statistics that are pretty close together, but there's some work to be done by Otávio. When it comes to switches, long pass completion percentage, and medium pass completion percentage, Otávio is competitive between the three players. He doesn't lead in any of those stats, but he's just marginally behind the other two. His short pass completion percentage and his total pass completion percentage are a fair amount behind his comparisons but they aren't leagues behind. I imagine his passes completed will certainly go up based purely on the system change, and that his overall pass completion percentage will naturally go up when his passes completed go up. I also believe that his short passing completion percentage should go up over time as we tend to see an Orlando City midfield with a lot of short passing between the back line, midfield, and wingers.
Discipline Comp
Our last category is about discipline and Luis Otávio appears to run away in all the statistical areas. We have to be careful about evaluation on this category, however, due to the fact that his game minutes are much less than the other two players. A reminder that both César Araújo and Wilder Cartagena had 2400 or more minutes in the 2024 season. So far Otávio only has about 700 to 800 minutes. Items such as yellow cards, fouls committed, and fouls drawn will all naturally go up as he gets more playing time. The question becomes does his play style lend towards him getting more cards or committing more fouls, or is he just a player that has a bit of a cleaner game.
Conclusion: Is he a fit for Orlando City?
So with all of these statistics, broken down and the player compared to current/past Orlando City defensive midfielders how do we feel about Luis Otávio?
The one thing I will say is that Orlando City clearly has a need for more central midfield help. With César Araújo not signing a new deal with the club and going on to a different team, there is a starter shaped hole in the lineup that needs to be filled. As we know Wilder Cartagena is coming back from an Achilles injury and appears to be fit, but it's still going to take some time for him to work his way up to match fitness. We know Eduard Atuesta will most likely occupy one of those two midfielder spots, but he's clearly not the type of #6 that the team needs to be successful for the entire season (I'd also argue he's more of a ball playing #6 or even a #8). So the question becomes: is this a competition between Cartagena and Otávio for the spot next to Atuesta, or is there a scenario where both Otávio and Cartagena could start next to each other? Either way, Otávio seems like the type of player that's a slam dunk to come in and replace César Araújo based on the statistics. He's not going to get forward as much as Araújo or Cartagena might, but the team doesn't need him to do that. Though he's only 18 years old, Brazilian media have been very high on the young midfielder with many of them saying that Internacional should hold onto him for a bit longer and get a bigger sale.
I will say $5 million is not a small amount of money but I do want to give the club credit for its due diligence in the past. When it comes to defensive midfielders, this club appears to know what it's doing whether it's from the draft or whether it's bringing players in internationally. With the U22 mechanism being available, this would be very easy for the club to make a move on a player of this caliber. It is no fluke that the Brazilian giants in that league are taking a look at this young player and to me, it shows that the scouting department is on the right track in terms of bringing him in. The one thing that we have to hope for is that we don't get into a bidding war with any of the clubs in Brazil or elsewhere. If we can swoop in and grab Otávio, it could be one of the better deals the club has made in a young player in quite some time.
I know this is gonna be a hard comparison for some people to wrap their head around, but I could very much see this being as good or better, than both the César Araújo signing and the Facundo Torres signing. The César Araújo signing is pretty close to being identical players, though I would argue that Otávio is a bit more decorated by pundits than Araújo was, but the Facundo Torres comparison might confuse a few. Just remember when Torres came to Orlando City he was viewed as the next big Uruguayan attacker in that part of the world. If you look at reports for Otávio, you see a similar level of plaudits. Sure, they play different positions, but one could argue that Otávio's impact will be very important for Orlando City in his first year just like Torres was expected to be when he came in. We can't forget that the club will be without Joran Gerbet for most/all of the season next year due to his injury at the end of the year and Colin Guske hasn't taken the full step to being a starter for the first team.
If Orlando City is able to close the deal for the young Brazilian, be sure to temper your expectations to a certain degree. With him being 18 years old, there's certainly going to be an adjustment period when he moves stateside. As many know, Óscar Pareja tends to wait a while before playing someone right away, so he may need to earn some of that playing time before he sees the field. If I had to guess, I would imagine Cartagena would start the season next to Atuesta with Otávio featuring until he gets up to speed. But there are reasons to be excited by this player, but only time will tell if Orlando are able to get it over the line.
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