Cristian Franco Lema (born 24 March 1990) 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 le ...

who plays for Club Atlético Lanús as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Club career

Born in Puerto Madryn, Lema started his football career aged 8 at hometown club

Guillermo Brown William Brown (also known in Spanish as Guillermo Brown or ''Almirante'' Brown) (22 June 1777 – 3 March 1857) was an Irish-born Argentine admiral. Brown's successes in the Argentine War of Independence, the Cisplatine War and the Anglo-Frenc ...

. He debuted for their senior team in 2007 and left the club in 2009. A year later, Lema joined Newell's Old Boys and made his

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

debut in a 0–0 home draw to Godoy Cruz in November. After playing 12 matches with the former side, he moved on loan to Tigre in June 2011, and there he played 11 matches, scoring one goal. In July 2012, aged 22, he was loaned out to Quilmes, with whom he would play 40 matches and score 2 goals before moving to

Belgrano Belgrano may refer to: People * Joaquín Belgrano (1773–1848), an Argentine patriot * José Denis Belgrano (1844–1917), Spanish painter * Joseph Belgrano (1762–1823), Argentine military officer and politician, brother of Manuel * Manuel Belg ...

in 2014. In his four-year spell with the latter, he became the club's defender with the most league goals ever, 16 in 123 matches. Moreover, he debuted in

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. In June 2018, Lema moved to Portugal and signed a five-year contract with S.L. Benfica. In February 2019, after playing only two matches for the

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

side in October, he was loaned to Uruguayan club Peñarol until June 2019, with option to buy. Afterwards, he was loaned out to Newell's Old Boys for 2019–20. He left Benfica on 1 October 2020 to join Saudi Arabian club

Damac FC Damac Football Club ( ar, ضمك, Ḍamak) is a Saudi Arabian professional sports club based in Khamis Mushait, that currently competes in the Saudi Professional League, the top division of Saudi Arabian football. Founded in 1972, their home v ...

. On 18 February 2021, Lema returned to Newell's Old Boys, and signed a contract until December 2021.

Honours

Benfica *

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

: 2018–19

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lema, Cristian 1990 births Living people People from Puerto Madryn Argentine footballers Association football defenders Newell's Old Boys footballers Club Atlético Tigre footballers Quilmes Atlético Club footballers Club Atlético Belgrano footballers S.L. Benfica footballers Peñarol players Damac FC players Argentine Primera División players Primeira Liga players Uruguayan Primera División players Saudi Professional League players Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Uruguay Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Uruguay Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia