Former Mamelodi Sundowns star Lucas Ribeiro Costa was relegated from LaLiga 2 with Cultural Leonesa on the same day his former club became African champions.
Ribeiro joined the LaLiga 2 side after terminating his contract with Masandawana, with his case still in front of the FIFA tribunal.
However, he has received a clearance by FIFA and started playing for his new club in Spain – initially starting off well, even earning the club’s Player of the Month award in November after scoring two goals and setting up one more.
But the club’s fortunes have heavily changed since, as Leonassa have fallen down the log and were officially relegated after losing 2-0 to Burgos on Sunday.
Costa featured for the whole 90 minutes but wasn’t able to prevent his side’s 23rd defeat of the season.
As a consequence, Leonesa are second from bottom with 36 points from 41 games in LaLiga 2 and cannot prevent relegation with one match to spare.
It now remains to be seen whether Ribeiro will stay with the side and play in Primera Federación – the third tier of Spanish football – or attempt to find a new club.
The Brazilian’s low point came on the same day as his former teammates celebrated their biggest success, lifting the CAF Champions League trophy for a second time after 2016.