BIOGRAPHY AND CAREER
Cristian Daniel Ledesma born 24 September 1982 in Moron, Buenos Aires is a footballer who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club Lazio. A dual citizen of Argentina and Italy, he represents the latter at international level since November 2010.
Ledesma is a deep lying central midfielder with a powerful shot with either foot, and occasionally scores goals from long range.
He spent his childhood in Puerto Madryn, in the province of Chubut, Argentina. He joined the youth system of top Argentine club Boca Juniors.
In 2001 he was noticed by Lecce, whose sports director Pantaleo Corvino decided to bring Ledesma to Salento, where he immediately became a regular in the team. At Lecce, despite being young, he was captain until November 2005.
In July 2006, Roman club Lazio signed Ledesma, after Lecce were relegated to Serie B. With Lazio, Ledesma signed a contract that worth 450,000 euro per season until 2011.
Ledesma's first year in the capital, the 2006–07 season, saw him establish himself as a key player despite a difficult start. His first moment of magic, came in the December 2006 Derby della Capitale against historical rivals AS Roma, when he scored a rocket of a strike from 25 metres out. He continued this good form until the end of the season, by which time Lazio had qualified for the UEFA Champions League. He successively served as vice-captain, and was a protagonist in Lazio's winning Coppa Italia 2008–09 campaign.
On July 2009, with his contract set to expire on June 2010, Ledesma was excluded from the first team due to disagreements with club chairman Claudio Lotito and did not play any competitive games during the whole first half of the 2009–10 season. This led the player to formally ask the Lega Calcio arbitration committee for a contract termination due to violation of its terms, only a few weeks after teammate Goran Pandev had taken the same exact action. This was however turned down on January 26, 2010 on the grounds that Ledesma was occasionally involved in first team activities. After being linked with a move to Inter, he ultimately stayed at Lazio and, immediately after the replacement of head coach Davide Ballardini with veteran manager Edoardo Reja, he made his 2009–10 season debut on February 14, being featured in the starting lineup in a 2–0 win at Parma. Since his return on the pitch, Ledesma immediately established himself back into being a key player for the biancazzurri.
On August 23, Ledesma signed a new contract with Lazio, tying him to the club for another five years (until 2015). In his 2010–11 campaign, he was the one of the protagonist of Lazio's surprising start that led the Rome club to even top the Serie A table for a few weeks between October and November.
Argentine-born Ledesma acquired Italian citizenship in 2008 through marriage to an Italian woman he met during his spell at Lecce; this made him eligible at international level for both Argentina and the Azzurri, as he had never been capped with the Selección before.
On 14 November 2010 Ledesma accepted a call-up by Italy manager Cesare Prandelli for a friendly match against Romania, thus becoming the third oriundo to become part of the Azzurri senior squad in the last ten years, the other two being Mauro Camoranesi and Amauri.
CRISTIAN LEDESMA PROFILE
Full name: Cristian Daniel Ledesma
Date of birth: September 24, 1982
Place of birth: Moron, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height: 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Playing position: Central Midfielder
Club information
Current club: Lazio
Number: 24
Youth career
1997-2001 Boca Juniors
Senior career
2001-2006 Lecce 126 (4)
2006– Lazio 128 (8)
National team
2010– Italy 1 (0)