Damián Ariel Escudero (born 20 April 1987) 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, rugb ...

who plays as a

left midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was a well-travelled professional, playing for a number of clubs in Argentina, Spain, Mexico and Brazil after starting out at Vélez Sarsfield. Escudero was an

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

youth international.

Club career

Escudero was born in

Rosario, Santa Fe Rosario () is the largest city in the central Argentine province of Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous city in the country, and is also the most p ...

. A product of

Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield () is an Argentine sports club based in Liniers, Buenos Aires. Its football team plays in Primera División, the highest level of the Argentine league system. Founded in 1910, the club has spent most of its hist ...

's youth system, he made his first-team debut in a 0–1 away defeat against

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 ...

on 4 March 2006. He found himself at the centre of a controversy at the end of the year, when the club refused to release him and

Mauro Zárate Mauro Matías Zárate (; born 13 March 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward Argentine Primera División club Club Atlético Platense Zárate started his career with Vélez Sarsfield in his native country, play ...

for the 2007 South American Youth Championship. When the 2007 edition of the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

started, Escudero was already a dynamic part in the team's attacking movements. He helped Vélez reach the round-of-16 in the tournament, scoring four goals. Escudero had an irregular 2007–08 season, during which his team failed to qualify for the

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 ...

. However, he did net three times in the Clausura, including once against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in th ...

. For 2008–09, Escudero was bought by Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Banco Santander, Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaL ...

side

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, ...

in a

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

12,000,000 move. He was quickly loaned to

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

because his club's non- EU quota was already full, appearing rarely throughout the campaign due to injury. Escudero returned to Villarreal for 2009–10, but continued to be barred by the likes of

Robert Pires Robert Emmanuel Pires (born 29 October 1973) is a French football coach and former professional player. Pires played for French clubs Metz and Marseille prior to his time with Arsenal, where he won two FA Cups and two Premier League titles inclu ...

and

Santi Cazorla Santiago "Santi" Cazorla González (; born 13 December 1984) is a Spanish professional footballer. A former Spanish international, Cazorla operated primarily as an attacking midfielder, but also played as a winger, central midfielder or as a ...

. Most of his appearances were due to injury problems to the latter, and he scored against

Xerez CD Xerez Club Deportivo, known simply as Xerez, is a Spanish football team based in Jerez de la Frontera, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Xerez currently plays in Tercera División RFEF, the fifth tier of Spanish football. Founded on 24 ...

on 14 March 2010 (2–0 home win) after only playing six minutes in the game. In June 2010, Escudero was sold to

, with Villarreal retaining 50% of the player's rights. The following year he was loaned to

Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense (), commonly known as Grêmio, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre, capital city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. The club plays in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, ...

and performed solidly but, after the two clubs could not agree on a transfer fee for another loan, he returned to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

. In January 2012, Escudero returned to Brazil signing a one-year contract with Clube Atlético Mineiro, who paid Boca US$700.000. Apart from a one-year spell in the Mexican Liga MX with Puebla F.C. he continued to play in the country in the following years, with Esporte Clube Vitória,

CR Vasco da Gama Club de Regatas Vasco da Gama (), commonly referred as Vasco da Gama or simply Vasco, is a professional sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Originally a rowing club, Vasco is mostly known for its football team, who it currently compet ...

and

Cuiabá Esporte Clube Cuiabá Esporte Clube, commonly referred to as Cuiabá, is a Brazilian professional club based in Cuiabá, Mato Grosso founded on 12 December 2001. It competes in the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top flight of Brazilian football, as wel ...

International career

In 2007, Escudero was selected in the Argentina under-20 squad to compete in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in Canada, but hardly played due to injury. The following year, he first played for the Olympic side against Guatemala in preparation for the 2008 Summer Olympics, appearing as a left back in the 5–0 rout.

Personal life

Escudero was often nicknamed ''Pichi'', the same used by his father

Osvaldo Osvaldo may refer to the following people: Given name *Osvaldo Alonso, Cuban football player *Osvaldo Ardiles (born 1952), an Argentine football player and coach *Osvaldo Bagnoli, an Italian football coach *Osvaldo Brandão, a Brazilian football c ...

who was also a football player.

Honours

Club

Atlético Mineiro * Campeonato Mineiro:

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Vitória *

Campeonato Baiano The Campeonato Baiano is the football league of the state of Bahia, Brazil. The championship has been played since 1905 without interruption. 2020 format First stage: 10 teams are included in one group, playing once only against all teams i ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...

Cuiabá *

Copa Verde The Copa Verde ( en, Green Cup) is an annual regional knockout football competition in Brazil that started in 2014, and played by 24 teams from the North and Central-West regions, plus Espírito Santo (Espírito Santo state was included because ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

International

Argentina *

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 whe ...

: 2007

References

External links

Argentine League statistics
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escudero, Damian 1987 births Living people Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Argentine men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Boca Juniors footballers La Liga players Villarreal CF players Real Valladolid players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Clube Atlético Mineiro players Esporte Clube Vitória players CR Vasco da Gama players Cuiabá Esporte Clube players Liga MX players Club Puebla players Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico