Leonardo Balerdi leaves Dortmund for U-20 South American Championship | OneFootball

On Wednesday, Borussia Dortmund announced that their new signing, centre-back Leonardo Balerdi, would be allowed to leave the club in order to participate with Argentina in the 2019 U-20 South American Championship, which is being held in Chile.

The 19-year-old signed from Boca Juniors in a €15.5m deal on Monday, putting pen-to-paper on a contract that will keep him at the club until summer 2024.

Balerdi has made three previous appearances with Argentina’s youth national sides, all coming in the 2018 calendar year.

Argentina will face Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, and Uruguay in the group stage, with the top three teams from each of the two five-team groups advancing to play in a six-team round-robin style tournament.

The top four teams from the final stage will advance to the 2019 FIFA U-20 World Cup, while the top three teams (in addition to hosts Peru) will also qualify for the 2019 Pan-American Games.

Uruguay are the defending champions.