Emmanuel Jorge Ledesma (born 24 May 1988) is a former Argentine

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

Career

Early years as a journeyman

After moving through the youth ranks of

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

side

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

, Ledesma joined

Queens Park Rangers Queens Park Rangers Football Club, commonly abbreviated to QPR, is a professional association football club based in Shepherd's Bush, West London, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English f ...

on a season-long loan in June 2008. Ledesma made a bright start to his career in English football, highlighted by a hat-trick at home to Carlisle in the second round of the League Cup, this coming days after his first and what turned out to be only league goal for QPR in a 2–0 win over Doncaster Rovers. After only a few games at Loftus Road, he had made a good impression on many Queens Park Rangers fans and a limited edition T-shirt was made in his honour. On 2 February 2009 he left QPR by mutual consent to join

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

side

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

in a half-season loan move. In July 2009 he went to Novara Calcio, on loan from Genoa, with option to sign him in a co-ownership deal. Although he won promotion to Serie B with

Novara Novara (; Novarese Lombard, Novarese: ) is the capital city of the province of Novara in the Piedmont (Italy), Piedmont region in northwest Italy, to the west of Milan. With 101,916 inhabitants (on 1 January 2021), it is the second most populous ...

, in June 2010, the club decided to send him back to Genoa. Ledesma subsequently signed for newly promoted

club,

F.C. Crotone Football Club Crotone S.r.l., commonly referred to as Crotone, is an Italian football club based in Crotone, Calabria. They play in the third division of Italian football, the Serie C. Founded on 20 September 1910, it holds its home games at St ...

, in a co-ownership deal, however, after only half of the season, he returned to Genoa and was released in January 2011. Following his release by Genoa, Ledesma was offered a trial with

Brighton and Hove Albion Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club, commonly referred to as Brighton, is a professional football club based in Brighton and Hove, East Sussex, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. Their home gro ...

where, despite scoring on his debut for the reserves, he was not offered a permanent deal. While playing for Brighton reserves, Ledesma was spotted by

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

, where he successfully completed a trial, and contracted himself to Walsall until the end of the 2010–11 season. Ledesma scored one goal in aiding Walsall's successful survival against relegation, before returning to Argentina to re-join boyhood club Defensa y Justicia. Ledesma returned to England in 2012 and, in March, again signed a contract with Walsall for the remainder of the 2011–12 season.

Signing with Middlesbrough

Ledesma signed a three-year contract with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

in July 2012. On 11 August 2012, Ledesma scored on his first competitive game for Middlesbrough, scoring in a 2–1 victory over Bury in the first round of the League Cup. After struggling to establish himself in the first team squad, he added a second goal scored directly from a corner in a 3–1 victory over

Preston North End Preston North End Football Club, commonly referred to as Preston, North End or PNE, is a professional association football club in Preston, Lancashire, England. They currently play in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English footbal ...

in the third round. Ledesma scored his first league goal for Middlesbrough in a 4–1 win against

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Charlton, south-east London, England. The team compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Their home ground is ...

. Ledesma was named in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

team of the week after the Charlton match and followed up this strong performance with a man of the match effort against

Sheffield Wednesday Sheffield Wednesday Football Club is a professional association football club based in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. They compete in the EFL Championship, the second level of the English football league system. Formed in 1867 as an off ...

a week later. He also scored a free kick in a 3–0 home win over Huddersfield Town. After struggling to get amongst the first team again in the 2013/2014 season, Ledesma earned a place in the lineup in December under new manager

Aitor Karanka Aitor Karanka de la Hoz (Basque and ; born 18 September 1973) is a Spanish football manager and former player. Save for a brief spell in the United States at age 32, Karanka played solely in Spain for Athletic Bilbao and Real Madrid, appearing ...

and scored two goals in two games. He scored another long range effort a month later against

. On 22 November 2014, it was announced that Ledesma had been recruited on an emergency loan deal to

Rotherham United Rotherham United Football Club, nicknamed The Millers, is a professional association football club based in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. The team plays in EFL League One, the third tier of English football, after suffering relegation fr ...

until January 2015. He made his debut as a half-time substitute the same day in a 1–0 loss to

Birmingham City Birmingham City Football Club is a professional football club based in Birmingham, England. Formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, it was renamed Small Heath in 1888, Birmingham in 1905, and Birmingham City in 1943. The team compete in the ...

International journeyman

Following his release by Middlesbrough, on 2 July 2015 Ledesma signed a one-year deal with Championship side Rotherham United. On 9 August 2016, Ledesma joined Championship club

Brentford Brentford is a suburban town in West (London sub region), West London, England and part of the London Borough of Hounslow. It lies at the confluence of the River Brent and the River Thames, Thames, west of Charing Cross. Its economy has dive ...

on non-contract terms, but after just two appearances, he departed for

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 (), or Stoiximan Super League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Greece and the highest level of the Greek football league system. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and repl ...

club

Panetolikos Panetolikos Football Club (), or with its full name officially romanized as Panaitolikós Gymnastikós Filekpaideftikós Sýllogos (''; Pan- Aetolian Gymnastic and Educational Club''), is a Greek professional football club. It is based in Agrini ...

. On 24 December 2016, Panetolikos and Ledesma parted ways. On 23 March 2017, Ledesma joined

North American Soccer League The North American Soccer League (NASL) was the top-level major professional soccer league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1968 to 1984. It is considered the first soccer league to be successful on a national scale in the ...

side

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Indepen ...

FC Cincinnati

Ledesma signed with

United Soccer League The United Soccer League (USL) is an organizer of various professional and amateur soccer leagues in the United States league system. It currently organizes its Championship, League One, and League Two for men, its Super League and W Leag ...

side

FC Cincinnati Football Club Cincinnati is an American professional soccer club based in Cincinnati. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team was first announced on August 12, 2015 as a United Soccer Leag ...

on 4 January 2018. He was a key player for Cincinnati in the 2018 season, earning 16 goals and a new league record of 16 assists. He was named USL Player of the Month twice (June and September) and appeared on the USL Team of the Week ten times. Following the end of the season, he was named the USL Most Valuable Player of 2018, chosen by a vote of media members and team management. In May 2018,

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

announced that

would be joining the league in 2019, meaning a new roster would be formed. A journalist for

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

first reported that Ledesma had signed to the new MLS roster in October 2018, but this was not confirmed until the league officially announced his signing on 26 November 2018. Ledesma was the fourth of ten players from the 2018 roster to be named to the MLS roster.

SJK

Ledesma signed with

Veikkausliiga Veikkausliiga () is a professional association football league in Finland and the highest level of the Finnish football league system. The league comprises the top 12 clubs of the country. Its main sponsor is the Finnish national betting agenc ...

side SJK on 19 August 2020. The contract was terminated on 24 June 2021.

Indy Eleven

In September 2021, Ledesma returned to the

USL Championship The USL Championship (USLC) is a men's professional association football, soccer league in the second tier of the United States soccer league system#Men's leagues, United States league system. It is organized by the United Soccer League (USL) a ...

by signing with

Indy Eleven Indy Eleven is an American professional association football, soccer team based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 2013, the team made its debut in the North American Soccer League (2011–2017), North American Soccer League (NASL) in 2014, b ...

. Following the 2021 season, it was announced that Ledesma's contract option was declined by Indy Eleven.

Barnechea

In July 2022, he moved to Chile and joined Barnechea in the

Primera B Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledesma, Emmanuel 1988 births Living people Footballers from Quilmes Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Genoa CFC players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players US Salernitana 1919 players Novara FC players FC Crotone players Walsall F.C. players Defensa y Justicia footballers Middlesbrough F.C. players Rotherham United F.C. players Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. players Brentford F.C. players Panetolikos F.C. players New York Cosmos (2010) players FC Cincinnati players Seinäjoen Jalkapallokerho players Indy Eleven players Las Vegas Lights FC players A.C. Barnechea footballers Serie A players English Football League players Serie B players Serie C players Primera Nacional players Super League Greece players North American Soccer League (2011–2017) players USL Championship players Major League Soccer players Veikkausliiga players Primera B de Chile players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Finland Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in England Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Greece Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Finland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile 21st-century Argentine sportsmen