Leandro Sebastián Velázquez (born 10 May 1989) is an Argentine professional

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 last play 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. ...

for

Malaysia Super League The Malaysia Super League (), known simply as the Super League (), is the men's top professional Football in Malaysia, football division of the Malaysian football league system. Administered by the Football Malaysia Limited Liability Partnersh ...

club

Johor Darul Ta'zim Johor, also spelled Johore,'' is a state of Malaysia in the south of the Malay Peninsula. It borders with Pahang, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan to the north. Johor has maritime borders with Singapore to the south and Indonesia to the east and w ...

in 2023.

Club career

Vélez Sársfield

Leandro made his league debut for Vélez Sársfield in the week before his 19th birthday. He played in a 1–1 draw with

Racing In sports, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific g ...

on 4 April 2008. He scored his first goal against

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

in the Torneo Apertura 2008 and was part of the winning team in the Torneo Clausura 2009. Leandro entered the field during the last game against

Huracán Huracán (; ; , "one legged"), often referred to as ''U Kʼux Kaj'', the "Heart of Sky", is a Kʼicheʼ Maya god of wind, storm, fire and one of the creator deities who participated in all three attempts at creating humanity. He also caused th ...

when Vélez needed a victory to become champion, and was replaced by Leandro Coronel immediately after the team scored the winning goal.

Loan to Newell's Old Boys

Leandro was loaned for the 2009–10 season to

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

Johor Darul Ta'zim

In October 2015, Leandro was called up in the starting eleven in the 2015 AFC Cup Final squad for

, where he scored the winning goal in a 1–0 victory against Istiklol.

Deportivo Pasto

On 17 January 2016, Leandro left Johor Darul Ta'zim and joined

Deportivo Pasto Asociación Deportivo Pasto, also known as Deportivo Pasto, is a Colombian professional football team based in the city of Pasto, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Estadio Departamental Libertad ...

with free transfer fee.

Return to Johor Darul Ta;zim

On 21 February 2019, Johor Darul Ta'zim confirm the return signing of Velazquez in the Johor Darul Ta'zim squad. On 30 April 2022, during the last fixture of the

2022 AFC Champions League The 2022 AFC Champions League was the 41st edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 20th under the current AFC Champions League title. This edition was the last in an all-y ...

group stage, he scored a free kick against

2021 K League 1 The 2021 K League 1, also known as the Hana Bank, Hana 1Q K League 1 for sponsorship reasons, was the 39th season of the top division of professional association football, football in South Korea, and the ninth season of the K League 1. Jeonbuk ...

runners-up,

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan HD FC (), formerly Ulsan Hyundai FC, is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in 198 ...

which ended up with Johor progressing as group winners to the

Round of 16 A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

International career

In January 2009, Leandro was selected to join the Argentina U20 squad for the

2009 South American Youth Championship The 2009 South American Youth Championship (Sudamericano sub-20) was a football competition for national teams U-20 who are associated with the football federation CONMEBOL. It was the 24th time the tournament was held and took place in Venezuela ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. However, His team failed to qualify for the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

. Having played in Malaysia since 2019, there is a possibility of Velázquez being naturalized as a Malaysian citizen in the future, thus enabling him to play for the Malaysia national team.

Honours

Club

Vélez Sársfield *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

: 2009 Clausura Johor Darul Ta'zim *

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Malaysia Cup The Malaysia Cup (), formerly known as Malaya Cup, is an annual football tournament in Malaysia, held at the end of the calendar year. The cup was first held in 1921. Despite its prestige and popularity as the country's oldest cup tournament, i ...

Piala Sumbangsih The Malaysian Charity Shield (English: Charity Cup), also known as Piala Sultan Haji Ahmad Shah () or Piala Sumbangsih, is a Malaysian football super cup competition. It is the curtain raiser match to the new Malaysian football season, pittin ...

Malaysia FA Cup The Malaysia FA Cup () is an annual association football, football competition in Malaysia, established in 1990. It was previously managed by the Football Association of Malaysia, before being transferred to the Football Malaysia LLP, Malaysian ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Velazquez, Leandro 1989 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Newell's Old Boys footballers San Martín de San Juan footballers Independiente Rivadavia footballers Johor Darul Ta'zim II F.C. players Johor Darul Ta'zim F.C. players Deportivo Pasto footballers C.D. Veracruz footballers Águilas Doradas players Argentine Primera División players Malaysia Premier League players Malaysia Super League players Categoría Primera A players Liga MX players Expatriate men's footballers in Malaysia Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Malaysia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico 21st-century Argentine sportsmen