Lucas Ariel Ocampos (; born 11 July 1994) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for La Liga club Sevilla and the Argentina national team.
Ocampos began his senior career in Argentina with River Plate before joining Monaco for a Ligue 2 record fee of €11 million in 2012. He spent two-and-a-half seasons in the principality and was nominated for the European Golden Boy award before joining Marseille. There, he spent four seasons, either side of loan spells in Italy with Genoa and Milan, before joining Sevilla in 2019.
Club career
Early career
Ocampos started playing football at the academy of Quilmes at the age of six where he first played as a striker. It was with Quilmes that Ocampos was spotted by River Plate. In a youth match against the Buenos Aires-based club Ocampos scored twice, prompting the management at River to follow his progression. They completed his signing after the U15 Sudamericano in which Ocampos excelled for Argentina, signing him on a 50% co-ownership deal with Quilmes.
River Plate
Ocampos' first opportunity with River Plate's senior side came in 2011 following the club's relegation to the Nacional B for the first time in their history. He was awarded his first-team debut by manager Matías Almeyda on 16 August 2011, aged 17, against Chacarita Juniors and scored his first goal for the club in the following match, netting River's opener in a 3–1 win over Independiente Rivadavia. Ocampos and Almeyda's paths had previously crossed at Quilmes where Almeyda had been a player at the time of the Ocampos' arrival at the academy. Ocampos soon established himself as a regular in the starting eleven and was instrumental in River securing the club's promotion back to the Primera División, ending the season with 7 goals to his name in 38 appearances. His form throughout the season had also seen him named by FIFA as one of the Players to Watch in 2012. He made his Primera División debut on the opening day of the following season against Belgrano. It would be his final appearance for the club, however, as on 6 August 2012 he completed a transfer to French club Monaco.
Monaco
On 6 August 2012, Ligue 2 side AS Monaco, owned by Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev and managed by Claudio Ranieri, completed the signing of Ocampos for a reported fee of €11 million, with the fee split between Quilmes, River and a group of investors. The completion of the deal saw Ocampos become the most expensive Ligue 2 signing of all-time. He made his debut for the club on 31 August 2012, coming on as a second-half substitute for Emir Bajrami in a 2–1 loss against Le Havre. Ocampos then scored his first goal for the club in his second appearance in the third round of the Coupe de la Ligue as Monaco beat Valenciennes 4–2. The goal, a spectacular bicycle kick in extra-time, was later chosen by Monaco supporters as the club's Goal of the Season. His first league goal for the club came on 18 January 2013 when he scored one and recorded an assist for Gary Kagelmacher in a 2–0 win over Istres. Ocampos ultimately featured in 29 appearances across the league campaign, scoring four goals as Monaco secured their return to Ligue 1.
Monaco's promotion to Ligue 1 was accompanied by a spate of free-spending by Rybolovlev. The Russian owner completed the big-money signings of James Rodríguez, Radamel Falcao and João Moutinho, amongst others, with the effect that Ocampos found his influence within the Monaco squad diminishing. Despite featuring more from the bench than from the start, Ocampos still managed a return of 5 goals in 34 appearances as Monaco ended the season as runners-up to mega-money rivals PSG. Monaco's failure to secure the league title despite heavy investment saw Ranieri sacked at the end of the season and replaced by Leonardo Jardim. Despite seeing his game time reduced further under Jardim, Ocampos was nominated for the European Golden Boy award in October 2014, though the award was eventually won by Liverpool's Raheem Sterling. On 26 November, Ocampos scored his first Champions League goal in a 1–0 away win against Bayer Leverkusen. Having started only seven matches by the end of January 2015, Ocampos requested a move away from the principality and was granted his wish with a transfer to Ligue 1 rivals Marseille.
