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The club that dropped to the second strongest division in Italy, "Serie B", said goodbye to two players who moved to the country's capital - defender Marco Cassetti moved to the team, while midfielder from Argentina Cristian Ledesma transferred to Rome.
23-year-old C. Ledesma, born in Buenos Aires, has long been linked with "Lazio" as the team's coach Delio Rossi, who coached the player when he was at the "Lecce" club, was particularly interested in him. Although negotiations took more than a month, "Lazio" despite allegations of the "Calciopoli" corruption scandal and impending relegation to a lower league, agreed to pay the player, as it is believed, about 5 million euros and signed a five-year contract with him.
On Wednesday, "Lazio" also acquired a 28-year-old midfielder, whose contract with the club "Palermo" expired. He also signed a contract valid until 2011 and, together with C. Ledesma, will replace Fabio Liverani and Ousmane Dabo who moved to "Fiorentina" and "Man City" respectively.
Recently, the Rome club also acquired full rights to four players, of which 50% belonged to "Udinese". The full-fledged team members are defenders Manuel Belleri and Brazilian Emilson Cribari, full-back Stefano Mauri and striker from Macedonia Goran Pandev.
Meanwhile, another team from the Italian capital, "Roma", was reinforced by a defender from "Lecce". The 29-year-old defender was acquired for 3 million euros and signed a four-year contract. He became the third purchase of the club this summer - previously the team was joined by the young full-back Ricardo Faty from the French club "Strasbourg" and the veteran full-back Max Tonetto from Genoa's "Sampdoria".
Last season in the "Serie A" championship, "Roma" and "Lazio" respectively shared the 5th and 6th positions, and unless the sports court deciding on penalties for scandal participants decides otherwise, both clubs will participate in the UEFA Cup next season.
