Ezequiel Lavezzi Biography

Ezequiel Lavezzi, born 3 May 1985 in Villa Gobernador Gálvez, Santa Fe Province, is a retired Argentine professional football player. His latest club was Hebei China Fortune in the Chinese Super League. He began to play football in the youth teams of CA Boca Juniors. He transferred to the youth team of Estudiantes de Buenos Aires in 2002. During the following year, he joined the third division of Argentina with the Caseros-based club in the Partido Tres de Febrero.

Lavezzi was then hired by Italian club CFC Genoa in 2004 and promptly loaned out to CA San Lorenzo de Almagro to further his playing career in Argentina. After one season, Lavezzi was expected to move back to Italy. In 2005, however, CFC Genoa was forced to be relegated to the third-tier Serie C1 due to match-fixing and the Italian club ended up selling the striker to San Lorenzo. Until 2007, he played for San Lorenzo and won the 2007 Clausura title with the club.

Finally, in July 2007, he was recruited by SSC Napoli for five years and moved to the Italian Serie A. In January 2010, his contract was prematurely extended until 2015. France's Paris Saint-Germain signed him on 2 July 2012. He played 107 league matches for PSG during his four years at the Parisian club. He won many awards, titles and trophies during his time in France.

He signed a four-year contract and received shirt number 11. Lavezzi moved to Chinese Premier League club Hebei China Fortune F.C. on 19 February 2016. There he played a total of 74 league matches in three seasons.

All You Need to Know About Ezequiel Lavezzi Biography

It was on 18 April 2007 that Lavezzi debuted for the Argentina national team. He won the Olympic Football Tournament in Beijing with the Argentina U-23 team in August 2008. In total, he has played 51 matches for the Argentine national team.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Information

Now that you know the Argentine striker better, in this section of

Ezequiel Lavezzi biography

, we will share the same general information about him such as

Ezequiel Lavezzi nationality

to let you know him even more. Stay tuned.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Bio

• Full Name: Ezequiel Iván Lavezzi

• Nickname: The Beast

• Profession: Professional Footballer

Ezequiel Lavezzi Physical Stats

• Weight: 75 Kg

• Height: 1.73 m

• Eye Color: Dark Brown

• Hair Color: Dark Brown

Ezequiel Lavezzi Football Information

• Position: Striker

• Jersey Number: 22

• Professional Debut: 2003

Ezequiel Lavezzi Date of Birth and Personal Info

• Date of Birth: 3 May 1985

• Birth Place: Villa Gobernador Gálvez, Argentina

• Zodiac Sign: Taurus

• Nationality: Argentine

Stay tuned to this section of

Ezequiel Lavezzi biography

as we will share some information about

Ezequiel Lavezzi childhood

and more.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Early Life

At an early age, Lavezzi began playing football in the youth academy of Boca Juniors, before quitting as a teenager after a dispute with the club and going to work as an electrician, as did his brother.

Nevertheless, he came to

in Italy under chairman Battaglioni for a trial but failed to get a contract because of bureaucratic problems with his foreign passport. For this reason, he returned to football at Estudiantes de Buenos Aires in the third division, scoring seventeen goals in thirty-nine matches in 2004.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Profile

By the end of the season, he was recruited by Genoa, at that moment playing in Serie B, which then decided to lend him for a year to

de Almagro in Argentina, where he played 19 games and scored nine goals. Later on, in the summer of 2005, Genoa recalled him for the upcoming season in Serie A, for which Genoa had just qualified again.

He played for the first time in the red and blue shirt on 23 July 2005, where he made his debut with the number ten, during a friendly match against Val Stubai. After that, he played two more matches (against Olympiakos and Carrarese), until the club from Liguria was forced back into Serie C1 because of a corruption scandal in the 2004-2005 season.

After spending just one month with Genoa, he went back to Argentina where he was permanently bought by CA San Lorenzo de Almagro. Wearing the shirt of the club from this district of Buenos Aires, he then went on to perform at a high level, winning the 2007 Primera División championship in Argentina, and guiding San Lorenzo to the quarterfinals of the Copa Sudamericana acting as the star of the game. During his two years, Lavezzi scored sixteen goals for San Lorenzo in fifty-five games.

Stay tuned to this section of

Ezequiel Lavezzi biography

as we will share some information about his

career.

SSC Napoli

He joined SSC Napoli on 1 July 2007 and signed a five-year contract before the 2007/08 season. Lavezzi played his first match in the blue shirt on 15 August 2007 against AC Cesena, competing in the Coppa Italia. Only three days later, on 18 August, he played his second official game in the Coppa Italia against Pisa and was able to score three goals.

That was the first time in fourteen years that a Napoli player had scored three goals in one match. His first league goal was scored on 2 September 2007 in the away match against Udinese, while he scored his first goal at the Napoli stadium (San Paolo) on 4 November against Reggina.

In the home game against Udinese on 2 February 2008, he netted two goals in one

match for the first time; and on 19 March he repeated the feat, this time against Fiorentina, again at the San Paolo stadium. His first season in Serie A ended with eight goals in thirty-five games, which contributed to Napoli's qualification for the UEFA Intertoto Cup.

In the next season, he netted his first European goal on 28 August against Albanian side KS Vllaznia Shkodër in the UEFA Cup qualifiers. In Serie A, he scored his first goal against Genoa on 5 October 2008. In the following match at San Paolo, against

, he netted the deciding goal for the Neapolitans.

In the home match against Cagliari on 23 November 2008, he scored a goal from a penalty kick for Napoli for the first time. As a result of his performance, his name was placed 14th in the list of the 50 most promising young players in the world published by the British newspaper The Times.

After that, he scored goals against Inter, Chievo, Udinese and Reggina, and finished his second season in the Seria A with seven goals in thirty games.

The 2009-2010 season started with a goal against Salernitana in the Coppa Italia. He scored his first goal of the season in the away game against Inter and a further goal in the away game against

. His third goal of the season came in the away match against Cagliari, at the end of which he was shown a red card after kicking the ball to Cagliari coach

.

It marked his first direct red card in his Italian career. While playing against

on 10 January 2010, he was sidelined for 40 days with a tear in his left thigh muscle.

Having signed an extension to his contract until 2015, he then scored a goal again on 13 March in the home game against Fiorentina; which was the first goal in a home game for more than a year. He also managed to score during the home game against Juventus on 25 March and on 10 April he played for Napoli for the 100th time, on this occasion against

. He scored two goals against Bari on 18 April.

Stay tuned to this section of Ezequiel Lavezzi biography as we will share some information about his career at PSG.

Paris Saint-Germain

In 2012, Lavezzi switched from SSC Napoli to

. The club had fallen into the hands of Qatar Sports Investments a year earlier. As a result, Paris Saint-Germain became the richest club in France and one of the richest in the world.

As a result, the club bought a team in a few years for hundreds of millions of euros, which included Thiago Motta, Javier Pastore, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti, Lucas Moura,

and Edinson Cavani. Lavezzi, along with them, spent the next few years dominating the French league, winning consecutive league titles and Super Cups, and victories in both French cup competitions.

Similarly, PSG started to establish itself as a real force in the

, where Lavezzi and his teammates made it to the quarter-finals three times in a row in 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15.

Hebei China Fortune

Lavezzi signed a contract with Hebei China Fortune in February 2016. It was here that he retired from playing football three years later.

Argentina National Team

He debuted in the senior national team on 18 April 2007, entering the pitch in the second half of the friendly match against Chile, but was not selected for the 2007 Copa América by coach Basile. He came back to the national team under the leadership of the new coach Diego Armando Maradona. He was included among the 30 footballers on the pre-World Cup list for the 2010 South Africa, however, on 18 May 2010 he was dropped from the final list of the 23 summoned players.

However, the next year, he was selected for the 2011 Copa América and he netted his first goal with the national team on 20 June 2011 in the 4-0 win against Albania, the last friendly ahead of the South American continental event.

He was initially a regular starter in the first matches, but because of a disqualification for a number of yellow cards, he was forced to miss the quarter-finals against Uruguay, where the team was knocked out on penalty kicks.

He was summoned for the 2014 World Cup by Alejandro Sabella. The

reached the finals and Lavezzi played almost every game as a starter, however, the team was beaten 1-0 by Germany.

He was included in the list of 23 players called up for the Copa América to be played in Chile by CT Gerardo Martino on 28 May 2015. There, he played only two matches, one in the quarterfinals against Columbia and another in the final match, in which they lost 4-1 on penalties to Chile.

He got called up for the Copa América Centenario in the United States. He scored his first goal in the group stage against Bolivia (3-0) on 14 June 2016, and later repeated this in the semifinals in the 4-0 win over the United States with a header goal on an assist from Leo Messi. However, in the same match, he broke his elbow as a result of a fall.

Stay tuned to this section of Ezequiel Lavezzi biography as we will share some information about his playing style.

Style of Play

Ezequiel Lavezzi is a strong identity player defined as altruistic, aggressive and explosive. He could be defined as a 9 and a half, a position in which he excelled at Napoli, because of his ability to score but also to provide assists to his partners.

He could also play on one side and overrun. His playing style is distinctive: with his particular head-down movement, more effective than elegant, he prefers wide spaces thanks to his good technique and above all his excellent speed, his main offensive quality.

Extremely versatile and often available, he is always on the move in the attacking third and is often at the service of the team, as he is able to create openings and provide decisive passes. In addition, he does not hesitate to defend and to press constantly during the whole match.

However, when he is not playing at his best, he can be nervous, messy in his transmissions and dribbling, and sloppy in front of goal, especially as he is not a pure finisher.

Reception

According to many football critics and also numerous fans, Lavezzi is undoubtedly one of the finest Argentine footballers of his generation who was able to establish himself amongst the best with his fine football skills. In China, he also had a great career and is very popular with Chinese football fans.

Ezequiel Lavezzi outside Football

During his time in China, he was one of the highest-paid footballers in the world and thanks to that, from time to time he did some extraordinary stuff. On one occasion, while he was in Spain with his team for the preseason, he was visiting the city of Granada with some friends, where he went to La Alhambra, a well-known place in the region.

There he bought a Vega Sicilia Único, 1960 vintage, worth 3,500 dollars plus VAT, which is one of the most expensive wines in the world, according to the Diario Ideal de Granada.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Personal Life

In this section of Ezequiel Lavezzi biography, we will take a look into his personal life, sharing some information about things like

Ezequiel Lavezzi religion

and

Ezequiel Lavezzi life story

.

Family, Children and Relationships

Ezequiel Lavezzi and Yanina Screpante, the beautiful Argentine model were together for 8 years and in mid-2018 they finally decided to put an end to it, amid rumours of unfaithfulness on his part. Since then, nothing was the same and a legal battle began in which she asked him for financial compensation for having left aside her career in modelling and as an interior designer to accompany him.

Philanthropy

Lavezzi is the founder of the charity Ansur, which is based in his hometown, Villa Gobernador Gálvez, and provides support for children and teenagers living in poverty. Founded in 2009, the charity organisation is involved in education and social inclusion and hosts around 40 children.

Legal Issues

While already under investigation in Argentina for international tax evasion, he was investigated by the Naples Public Prosecutor's Office on 10 July 2013 for receiving stolen works of art for attempting to take a statue of Pompeii to Paris before his move to Paris Saint-Germain, which, he claimed, was a gift from a Neapolitan from Posillipo.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Career Statistics

In this section of Ezequiel Lavezzi biography, we will take a look into the player’s career on the international and club level. Stay tuned.

Club

After beginning his professional football career in 2003 with Estudiantes and as of 27 November 2019 that he participated in his last match while playing for Hebei China Fortune, Lavezzi has made a total of 560 appearances for many clubs in Europe, South America and Asia, scoring 161 goals.

International

Lavezzi has played a total of 51 international matches for the Argentina national team between 2007 and 2016, scoring 9 goals. His last international was scored against the USA in the Copa America Centenario on 21 June 2016.

Ezequiel Lavezzi Honors

Other than Argentine Primera División and the Coppa Italia that he had won with San Lorenzo and Napoli respectively, he has won all of his other trophies while playing for PSG, including the

, Coupe de la Ligue, Coupe de France and Trophée des Champions.

He has also won the Summer Olympics Gold Medal in 2008 with Argentina and was runner-up in 2015 and 2016 Copa America with his country.

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