Leandro Greco
Encyclopedia
Leandro Greco is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
) is an Italian
Italian people
The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...
footballer
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
who plays for A.S. Roma
A.S. Roma
Associazione Sportiva Roma, commonly referred to as simply Roma, is a professional Italian football club based in Rome. Founded by a merger in 1927, Roma have participated in the top-tier of Italian football for all of their existence but one season in the early 50s...
of the Italian Serie A
Serie A
Serie A , now called Serie A TIM due to sponsorship by Telecom Italia, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and has been operating for over eighty years since 1929. It had been organized by Lega Calcio until 2010, but a new...
.
Career
A midfielder, Greco was a regular in the Roma youth squad. He made his Serie A debut for AS Roma in 2004–05. In 2005–06, Greco managed to make only a handful of appearances, all as a substitute player. He was loaned to Hellas VeronaHellas Verona F.C.
Hellas Verona Football Club is a professional Italian association football team, based in Verona, Veneto. The team's colours are yellow and blue and gialloblu is the team's most widely used nickname...
for the following two seasons, playing a total of 40 games (26 in his first season, 14 in his second). He played the second half of 2008–09 on loan to Pisa
Pisa Calcio
Associazione Calcio Pisa 1909 is an Italian association football club, based in Pisa, Tuscany. The club was founded in 1909 as Pisa Sporting Club and refounded in 1994 as A.C. Pisa , after the cancellation of the old one because of economical troubles...
of Serie B
Serie B
Serie B, currently named Serie bwin due to sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It is contested by 22 teams and organized by the Lega Serie B since July 2010, after the split of Lega Calcio that previously took care of both the...
. His loan stint was cut short on January 2010, and Greco was successively sent to another Serie B club, Piacenza
Piacenza Calcio
Piacenza Calcio is an Italian association football club based in Piacenza. The club was formed in 1919 and currently plays in Italian Lega Pro Prima Divisione B. The team's colors are red and white, prompting one of the team's nicknames, the Biancorossi. They are also known as the Papaveri , and...
, for the remainder of the season.
Greco returned to Roma for the 2010–11 season and was immediately put on transfer list, but no club showed interest in signing him, so he was placed on the first team instead. An injury crisis head coach Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri
Claudio Ranieri, is an Italian football manager, currently in charge as head coach of Internazionale.He has also managed many other well-known clubs in Europe, including Cagliari, Napoli, Fiorentina, Valencia, Atlético Madrid, Chelsea, Parma, Juventus and Roma.-Early life:Ranieri attended St...
to bring him on the bench for a UEFA Champions League
UEFA Champions League
The UEFA Champions League, known simply the Champions League and originally known as the European Champion Clubs' Cup or European Cup, is an annual international club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations since 1955 for the top football clubs in Europe. It...
game against FC Basel
FC Basel
Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel is a Swiss football club based in Basel. They are one of the most successful clubs in Swiss football, having won the Swiss Super League 14 times, the third most for any Swiss club. They were most successful in the late 1960s and 1970s, winning the...
, during which Greco entered as a substitute for the final 15 minutes and scored a goal only one minute after entering; the game ended in a 3–2 win for Roma. Greco's good performances led Ranieri to call him up for the Rome derby, during which he came on for injured Jérémy Menez
Jérémy Menez
Jérémy Ménez is a French international footballer who currently plays for French club Paris Saint-Germain in Ligue 1. He plays many positions in the attacking midfield, usually as a winger and a playmaker...
during the first half and provided a solid performance in a 2–0 win for his side. He was been promoted to the starting lineup for subsequent games against Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina
ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as simply Fiorentina, is a professional Italian football club from Florence, Tuscany. Founded by a merger in 1926, Fiorentina have played at the top level of Italian football for the majority of their existence; only four clubs have played in more Serie A...
and Juventus
Juventus F.C.
Juventus Football Club S.p.A. , commonly referred to as Juventus and colloquially as Juve , are a professional Italian association football club based in Turin, Piedmont...
.