Leandro Romagnoli · Biography

Leandro Atilio Romagnoli was born on 17 March 1981 in Buenos Aires and came through the neighbourhood club Franja de Oro and the youth ranks of San Lorenzo de Almagro. Nicknamed “Pipi”, he was an attacking midfielder, a classic number ten who in the later years of his career also played wide in midfield. He had two spells at San Lorenzo, from 1998 to 2004 and from 2009 to 2018, with stints at Veracruz in Mexico and Sporting CP in between. After retiring he moved into club management and coaching.

Youth and debut at San Lorenzo

As a boy he split his weekends between two shirts: Saturdays with Franja de Oro, Sundays with the San Lorenzo youth teams. He developed there until Oscar Ruggeri, then in charge of the first team, gave him his top-flight debut on 13 December 1998, against Racing Club, at 17. His game was built on close control, passes between the lines and the patience to wait for a teammate to get free.

The trophies of the first spell (2001-2004)

His breakthrough year was 2001. San Lorenzo won the 2001 Clausura title and the Copa Mercosur in the same year, with Romagnoli established in the starting eleven. In 2002 a second international trophy followed, the Copa Sudamericana, in the competition’s first edition. During that first spell he made 196 competitive appearances and scored 27 goals. He stayed with the club until 2004.

Mexico and Portugal

In 2005 he left Argentine football for the first time, joining Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz in the Mexican league, where he made 29 appearances and scored once before leaving in 2006. That year he moved to Sporting CP in Lisbon, first on loan and then on a permanent deal. In Portugal he won the Taça de Portugal twice (2006-07 and 2007-08) and the Portuguese Super Cup in 2007 and 2008, and was named Primeira Liga Player of the Month for May 2007. Sporting also reached the League Cup finals of 2008 and 2009 but lost both. He played 98 matches and scored 12 goals for the Lisbon club before returning to Argentina in 2009.

Return to San Lorenzo and the Copa Libertadores

His second spell at San Lorenzo lasted almost nine years. Contributing more to the build-up than to the scoring, he was part of the side that won the 2013 Torneo Inicial and, a year later, the 2014 Copa Libertadores, the first in the club’s history. At the end of 2014 he played at the FIFA Club World Cup, where San Lorenzo finished runners-up. The 2015 Supercopa Argentina followed. In this second spell he made 203 appearances and scored 9 goals. He retired on 6 June 2018 with 526 matches and 49 goals over his professional career.

Argentina national team

With the under-20 side coached by José Pékerman he won the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship, played in Argentina, scoring twice during the tournament. For the senior team he made a single appearance, in a friendly against the United States that Argentina won 1-0.

Executive and coach

On 19 June 2018, days after hanging up his boots, San Lorenzo confirmed him as the club’s manager in an executive role, and in June 2019 the club set up a technical secretariat. In May 2021 he took charge of the first team on an interim basis after Diego Dabove resigned, and in January 2022 he took over the reserve side. In April 2024 he replaced Rubén Darío Insúa as first-team coach, initially as caretaker before being confirmed in the post, and he resigned on 13 October 2024. On 18 March 2025 he was unveiled as head coach of San Martín de San Juan, and he left on 17 November 2025 after the team was relegated to the Primera Nacional, the Argentine second tier. In March 2026 he took over Club Guaraní in Paraguay, and he left the club in July 2026 for personal reasons.