Montenegro, Brian Guillermo Martinez (Brian)

2014-2015 (Leeds Player Details)(Player Details)

Striker/Winger

Born: Asuncion, Paraguay: 18-06-1993

Debut: Wolverhampton Wanderers (h) (Substitute): 25th October 2014

Height & Weight: 5ft 10ins 12st 6lb

Born in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, he joined the Junior team of Tacuary, an Asuncion based second division side, in 2004 and progressed through their Junior and Youth teams before signing professional forms in 2009. By the time has was eighteen he had already established himself in the first team and had scored seven times in twenty-six starts ans twenty-five games from the bench. He had also been included in Paraguay's Under-Twenty team and had come to the attention of Uraguayian club second division side Club Deportivo Maldonado, who he signed for in July 2011. He did not make any appearances for them as he was loaned to West Ham United for the season on 29th August 2011. Still only eighteen, he understandably saw virtually no first team action in his time at Upton Park and his only League association was as an unused substitute in a 1-0 home win over Barnsley on 17th December 2011 but he did take to the field in the F.A. Cup, when in a Third Round tie he came on as a seventy-eighth minute substitute for the injured Gary O'Neil on the 8th January 2012 in a 1-0 defeat at Hillsborough by Sheffield Wednesday and those twelve minutes were to be his only exposure to football in England. He did however have spectacular success in the West Ham Reserve team scoring twelve times in twelve appearances. At the end of the season West Ham chose not to take up any further options and he returned to South America and his former team, Tacuary, in Paraguay on 1st July 2012. He made his return debut as a seventy-seventh minute substitute for Edgar Fernandez on 4th August 2012 in a 1-1 home draw with Libertad. His starting debut came on 29th September 2012, after four games from the bench, in a 1-3 defeat at Rubio Nu and his first goal came on 31st October 2012, when he opened the scoring in the thirty-fourth minute in a 1-2 home defeat by Sportivo Luqueño. He went on to register two goals in ten starts and seven games from the bench in the second part of the Paraguayan League. In January 2013 he joined Club Rubio Nu and was with them for the "Liga Paraguaia Apertura" season in the first half of 2013. He had a scoring debut, playing a full game at Libertad in a 1-2 away defeat on 15th February 2013 and scored four minutes before the interval to reduce the arrears. He took part in fourteen fixtures, starting five and coming off the bench nine times and scored three goals, as his team came ninth of twelve with twenty-five points. In the second half of the year there is a second competition named "Liga Paraguaia Clausura" and in July 2013 he moved to Club Libertad Asuncion and it was with them that he played in that competition. However, his debut for them was in the Copa Sudamericana, as the Paraguay top seed, against Montevideo Wanderers of Uraguay coming on as a half-time substitute for Nelson Romero, and it was he that equalised in the fiftieth minute before the Paraguayans went on to win 2-1. He started the reverse fixture in Paraguay eight days later and played eighty-two minutes before being replaced by Blas Diaz, but as neither side could score it was Libertad that progressed. He had already made his debut in starting against Olimpia in a 1-0 home win on 6th August 2013 but had been substituted in favour of Angel Orue after seventy-three minutes but he continued to be mostly in the starting eleven and scored his first League goal for his new club when he scored the only goal of the game after eighteen minutes against Sportivo Luqueno on 11th August and went on to score eight League goals in fifteen starts and two games from the bench. In the Copa Sudamericana Libertad carried on to have a good run with Montenegro scoring three goals in eight starts and two games from the bench as Libertad beat Venezuela Mineros 2-1 away and 2-0 at home, with Montenegro scoring in each leg, then Brazil Sport 2-0 at home and 2-1 away as they fought their way into the quarter finals. There Colombian side Águilas Doradas were disposed of 2-0 at home and while Libertad lost the away leg by a single goal it did not stop their progress to the semi-finals. Unfortunately, there they met their match with 1-2 defeats at home and away to Argentinian side Lanus, who beat Brazilian side Ponte Preta 3-1 on aggregate to lift the Cup. On the International front Montenegro had been playing at Under -Twenty level since 2011, scoring his first goal on debut in a 2-4 defeat by Brazil on 18th January 2011 when he scored the final goal in the eighty-fourth minute after coming on as a sixty-eighth minute substitute for Ivan Torres. His second came with a much publicised overhead kick in the seventy-third minute to score the equaliser in a 1-1 draw in Greece on 29th June 2013 in the Under 20 World Cup Final Qualifiers. It was in the 2-1 away win in Argentina that he received his first start and lasted the full ninety minutes on 12th January 2013. He had started five games and come off the bench on nine occasions. He also was an unused substitute on four occasions which included his final selection at the Under -Twenty level on 7th September 2013 in a 4-0 win over Bolivia. Libertad had finished the Liga Paraguaia Clausura of 2013 in second place with thirty-nine points and started the 2014 Liga Paraguaia Apertura with high hopes but after coming on as a substitute in five of the first six games he was sent off in the final minute of their 2-1 win on 22nd March at 12 de Octubre. He continued to come off the bench after serving his suspension and it was not until 15th May 2014 in a 1-0 away win at Rubio Nu that he started a game. He played the full game and started to become a first choice. By the end of the season he had started eight and come off the bench eleven times. However he only one goal, scored in a 1-2 defeat at Olimpia in the sixty-eighth minute, just five minutes after taking the field in place of Jorge Recalde. This goal brought his tally with Libertad to nine from twenty-three starts and thirteen games as a substitute. Libertad won the 2014 Apertura League with fifty points, but he was not around to assist them in their title defence nor in their quest for the 2015 Copa Libertadores as he joined a further Asuncion club, Nacional, in July 2014. He was off to a promising start with his new club as he started the Copa Libertadores Semi-Final against Defensor Sporting of Uraguay, scoring the first goal in the thirty-fifth minute as his new team won the home leg 2-0 on 23rd July 2014. He played all but two minutes of the tie before being substituted by Hugo Lazardi. A week later he was a starter in the return leg and this time he played sixty-one minutes before giving way for Fredy Bareiro as Nacional went through to the final despite losing 0-1. He missed the first leg on 6th August 2014, which was drawn 1-1, through an ankle injury sustained in the semi-final but came on for Derlis Orue in the fifty-seventh minute of the Buenos Aires leg as the home side hung on to their one goal lead to win the final on aggregate. In the Clausura League he made his debut as a nineteenth minute substitute for Enrique Araujo in a 1-0 win at Olimpia on 18th August 2014 and then made a scoring starting debut with the only goal of the game in the sixty-ninth minute of a home win over 3 de Febrero five days later. On the closing day of the English transfer window he became Leeds United's fifteenth signing of the summer, when, on 1st September 2014, he joined them on a one year loan. "The deal to bring Montenegro to Elland Road also includes the option to make his move permanent should he have a successful loan spell." was the comment by the club. While he had not been called into the first team squad, he had featured regularly for the Under Twenty-One squad, along with Adryan and Dario Del Fabro, and had found the net regularly. He was given his debut, as an eighy-eigth minute replacement for Tommaso Bianchi at Wolverhampton Wanderers on 25th October 2015. He was an unused substitute on 1st November at Cardiff City before again replacing Tommaso Bianci in the final minute of the home game with Charlton Athletic three days later. He had three games on the bench without being used prior to making his starting first team debut in the F.A. Cup defeat by Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, where he was given almost a full game , being replaced by Soulymane Doukara with six minutes left on the clock. He was again unused on the bench in the next game at Bolton Wanderers and there was a further repeat in the game at Huddersfield Town on 31st January 2015. He came back to the first team squad in the final five games of the season, being unused at home to Cardiff City, before being given five minutes in place of Sam Byram in the home game with Norwich City and six minutes in place of Billy Sharp four days later at Charlton Athletic. He was unused in the "Yorkshire Derby" at Sheffield Wednesday a week later and in the final game on 2nd May 2015 he replaced Steve Morison for the final nine minutes. Apart for his games with the first team he also scored fourteen times in eighteen games for the Under-Twenty-One team. He returned to Asuncion after the end of the season.