Personal Information
Full Name | Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez Ledesma |
Date of Birth | July 28, 1987 |
Nationality | Spanish |
Height | 1.69m |
Role | Winger |
Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma: A Brief Biography
Pedro Biography
Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez Ledesma, popularly known as Pedro, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for the Premier League club Chelsea and the Spain national team. He was born on 28th July 1987 and plays the role of a left winger. He can play with both feet and also plays the role as a striker occasionally.
He won the La Liga's Breakthrough Player while playing for Barcelona in the 2009-10 season and has won the Premier League Goal of the Month on a couple occasions.
Background
Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Pedro joined the local side CD San Isidro in 2003. He then moved to Catalan giants FC Barcelona’s youth side a year later. He played for the youth side for a year before being promoted to Barcelona C in the 2005 season.
He played there for a couple of seasons, featuring in 71 league matches and scoring 11 times. He then moved to the Barcelona B in the 2007 season where he played 50 matches and finding the net on 16 occasions.
Debut
After helping FC Barcelona B, Pedro made his debut for the first team in the 2008 season. He made his professional debut in the top tier on 12th January 2008 against Real Murcia.
He got his first national duty when he was called up for Spain U21 for a couple of matches. Pedro was a part of Spain's 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup which went on to win the tournament that year.
Rise to glory
After impressing in the Barcelona B club till 2009, Pedro then moved to play in the top tier Spanish league. He made 16 appearances in the next two seasons before having his breakthrough season where he played in 52 matches for the Blaugrana, scoring 23 goals.
His performances throughout the season won him the La Liga's Breakthrough Player as Barcelona won the UEFA Super Cup, FIFA Club World Cup, Supercopa de España and the La Liga.
He played 53 matches the next season scoring on 22 occasions. He saw his market value sore from £22.5 million from £24.2 million that season and signed a contract extension that saw his buyout clause was raised from £80 million to £134 million.
On 22nd December 2013, he scored a hat-trick in just nine minutes to help Barcelona come from 0–2 behind to eventually win 5–2 over Getafe.
Pedro scored the winning goal as Barcelona won the 2015 UEFA Super Cup 5–4 against Sevilla deep in the extra time.
On 20th August 2015, Pedro joined Premier League champions Chelsea for £19 million and made his debut 3 days later. He scored a goal and assisted one to help the blues win 3–2.
Club career
He started playing for Barcelona in the 2008 season and played with them for 9 seasons where he won five La-Liga titles, three Copa del Rey, three Supercopa de España, UEFA Champions League, three UEFA Super Cup and two FIFA Club World Cup.
After losing his place to Neymar in the starting line-up, he made a move to Chelsea in 2015 season. He has won the Premier League title in the 2016 season and has become one of the important players in the squad.