So little was known of Barcelona’s Pedro at the start of his breakthrough 2009-10 season that one respected British website listed him as four different people.
The son of a petrol station worker from Tenerife’s capital Santa Cruz, Pedro Rodriguez Ledesma’s 23 goals from 52 games were shared between ‘Pedro’, ‘Pedrito’, ‘Rodriguez’ and ‘Ledesma’.
Those goals were often crucial and when Pedro scored in the Fifa Club World Cup in 2009, he became the first to score in six different club competitions in one season. Seven months later, he was a World Cup winner with Spain.
“I can’t believe what’s happened,” he said at the end of the 2009-10 season. He was a character – as was noted during Barca’s title celebrations. As the victors took to the microphone and shouted “Forever Barca, Forever Catalunya”, Pedro stepped up and hollered “Forever Barca, Forever Tenerife!” Even the most earnest Catalans laughed.
“In 12 months I established myself a regular for Barca,” he says. “I’d only played eight first team league games before last season – though I did come on in the 2009 Champions League final against Manchester [United]. In 2009-10, we won the league with Barca again and I was selected for Spain. Then Spain won the World Cup. Incredible – it was beyond a dream.”
Pedro became a World Cup winner just six weeks after making his Spain debut. “I played against Saudi Arabia in May,” he explains, “then scored my first goal a week later. I played in five World Cup games.”
Being one of seven Barca men in the Spain squad, most of whom were regular starters in South Africa, also helped.
Sixteen years on and there’s no confusion about who Pedro is. After 776 first-team matches for Barcelona, Chelsea, Roma and then their deadly rivals Lazio, plus another 65 for Spain, he’s calling it a day. Along the way he won 25 trophies including one World Cup, one European Championship, three Uefa Champions Leagues, five La Liga titles and one Premier League.
On Thursday, he visited Camp Nou, scene of most of those triumphs. On Friday, he held a press conference to announce his retirement. It was met with lavish praise for a fine career.
Early on he put much of his success down to Barça’s youth academy, which included a season under Luis Enrique for Barca B. “The club have a very clear idea of how we should play football,” he said. “Receive, pass, move. Learn to do this very quickly and you have an advantage.
“We also have role models in front of us. I could see players like Xavi and [Andres] Iniesta, they could see players like El Mister [Pep Guardiola]. Youth gets a chance here.”
Opinion was long divided on the best position for the two-footed winger. “I can play on both sides, but I play more on the left so I’d have to say that,” he said. “As for my feet, I use my right more. I tend to score twice as many goals with my right as my left.”
Pedro was fortunate in that he entered the best team in the world and played alongside its greatest player, Lionel Messi. “Messi is the best player in the world, we all know that,” he said.
“The skills he has, his pace and vision, they make it impossible for defenders. But the best thing about Barca is that we’re a team. We work for each other, not for ourselves and we have great players in every position”.
Pedro’s footballing education allowed him to thrive wherever he went. Manchester United wanted to sign him but he went instead to Chelsea in 2015 after 321 games for the Catalans.
At Stamford Bridge, he learnt English and celebrated the League title and FA Cup. He also averaged 45 games per season in his first four years in London, the mark of a player seldom injured. He played more than 50 club games in four different seasons at Barcelona.
After 206 Chelsea games he moved to Rome, first for 40 games in a season at Roma, then five full seasons at Lazio where he again averaged more than 40 club games per season. As recently as 2024-25, when he was 37, he still scored 14 goals, including Lazio’s goal of the year.
Pedro is 39 but the stats don’t tell the full story since his games for Barca B aren’t counted, yet in more than 100 games for Barcelona’s junior sides he was playing against the first teams of clubs such as Real Betis and Zaragoza as a full professional.
In total, Pedro played an astonishing 902 club games and scored 215 goals, plus another 65 goals and 17 games for Spain. He played his last game for Spain almost a decade ago and courted rare controversy when he said his role as a substitute during Euro 2016 was not worth his time, a rare, outspoken comment for this always loyal and unselfish servant.
“I feel that the time has come,” he said as he retired. “The time to take a step forward and begin a new stage in my life. I leave proud of having lived my dream and of all the people who were by my side to make it come true. Thank you, football, for making me so happy”.
