Julio Ricardo Cruz

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Julio Cruz
Personal information
Full name Julio Ricardo Cruz
Date of birth (1974-10-10) 10 October 1974 (age 49)
Place of birth Santiago del Estero, Argentina
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Position(s) Striker
Youth career
1992–1993 Banfield
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1993–1996 Banfield 65 (16)
1996–1997 River Plate 29 (17)
1997–2000 Feyenoord 86 (45)
2000–2003 Bologna 88 (27)
2003–2009 Internazionale 125 (49)
2009–2010 Lazio 25 (4)
Total 417 (153)
International career
1997–2008 Argentina 22 (4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Julio Ricardo Cruz (born 10 October 1974) is an Argentine former footballer. He played for clubs in Argentina, the Netherlands and Italy before retiring in 2010.The longest spell of his career was spent with Inter Milan, with whom he won four consecutive Serie A titles, among other honours.He usually has played as a striker but he has even played as a winger , attacking midfielder and a center forward.In 2015 he opened his own charity foundation named "Julio Cruz foundation".

Cruz earned 22 caps for the Argentina national football team from his debut in 1997, scoring three goals. He played for them at the 1997 Copa America and the 2006 FIFA World Cup.

Club career

Early career

A tall, physical striker at Lua error in Module:Convert at line 1851: attempt to index local 'en_value' (a nil value)., Cruz started his career with Banfield in 1993. He moved to River Plate in 1996.

Feyenoord

In 1997, he moved to Europe, being signed by Feyenoord, and showing a great potential in terms of scoring proficiency. He then moved in 2000 to Bologna.

Bologna

At Bologna, under the management of Francesco Guidolin, Cruz was mainly used as a lone striker. While he was often derided by fans and the media alike for his lack of goalscoring proficiency, he did prove to be extremely apt at holding the ball up in order to bring the other attackers into the game. In 2001–02, he played an integral part in Bologna's 7th-placed finish in Serie A, and while he only netted ten goals in the league, he earnt back the respect of his critics for his intelligent and passionate football.[1]

Internazionale

In 2003, Cruz left Bologna and signed for Internazionale.[2]

With the Nerazzurri, Cruz rarely played regularly in the first team, finding some playing time usually just when the leading strikers were unavailable, and often being used as a substitute, thus scoring 12 league goals in his first two seasons with Internazionale. He scored his first goal for Internazionale in the 3–0 victory over Arsenal at Highbury Stadium on 17 September 2003 in the Champions League. In a Champions League match against Porto on 1 November 2005, he scored twice in thirty minutes after being sent in to replace striker Adriano, turning a 0–1 into a 2–1 victory.

In the winter of 2005, Cruz was linked with rumours to Roma and other clubs because his contract was running out, but in February 2006, he extended his contract to the summer of 2008.[3] He ended the season as the top scorer for Internazionale with 21 goals, including fifteen league goals, and the second goal in the return match for the final of the 2006 Coppa Italia Final that Inter won 3–1 against Roma. He signed a new contract in September 2007.[4]

Lazio

On 31 July 2009, Cruz left Inter and signed with Lazio on a two-year contract as free agent, but also paid €2.15 million sign-on fees to Van Dijk B.V.(which later Lazio was fined by FIGC due to third parties ownership and unlicensed agent Dennis Anthonius Johannes Maria Sickman).[5][6] At the end of 2009–10 season, Lazio mutually terminated the contract, as Cruz was suffering from injury. Lazio was his last club.

International career

Cruz has twenty two caps and four goals for Argentina. He participated in the 2006 World Cup, coming on as a late substitute in the matches against the Netherlands and Germany. He scored the opening penalty in the penalty shoot-outs against Germany, but Argentina lost 4–2 on penalties.

International goals

Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first.[7]

# Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition
1. 9 June 1999 Soldier Field, Chicago, United States  Mexico 2–1 2–2 Friendly match
2. 13 February 2002 Cardiff City Stadium, Cardiff, Wales  Wales 1–1 1–1 Friendly match
3. 16 November 2005 Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium, Doha, Qatar  Qatar 0–2 0–3 Friendly match

Nickname

Cruz's nickname, El Jardinero (Spanish for "the gardener"), was given to him at an early age as he was working as a groundskeeper for local team Banfield in 1993 when he was summoned by Oscar López to fill in for a missing player one day for a practice match. Upon noticing his talent, Banfield signed Cruz, and the nickname was born.

He was also nicknamed Poncherello by Inter Channel commentator Roberto Scarpini due to his similar appearance with the character from the 80's TV show CHiPs .

Career statistics

Club Performance[8][9]
Club Season League Cup Europe[10] Total
App Goals App Goals App Goals App Goals
Banfield 1993–94 5 0 5 0
1994–95 26 6 26 6
1995–96 32 10 32 10
1996–97 1 0 1 0
Total 64 16 64 16
River Plate 1996–97 29 17 29 17
Total 29 17 29 17
Feyenoord 1997–98 27 14 6 3 33 17
1998–99 29 15 2 0 31 15
1999–2000 30 15 8 3 38 18
2000–01 1 0 1 0
Total 86 44 17 6 103 50
Bologna 2000–01 27 7 1 0 28 7
2001–02 33 10 2 2 35 12
2002–03 28 10 1 0 33 1 35 11
Total 88 27 3 2 7 1 98 30
Internazionale 2003–04 21 7 4 3 2 1 35 11
2004–05 18 5 6 2 8 2 32 9
2005–06 31 15 8 2 6 4 45 21
2006–07 14 7 4 2 3 3 22 12
2007–08 28 13 3 4 6 2 38 19
2008–09 17 2 1 0 5 1 23 3
Total 125 49 26 13 30 13 192 75
Lazio 2009–10 25 4 4 0 29 4
Total 25 4 0 0 4 0 29 4
Career Totals 417 153 29 15 62 20 513 189
Updated 23 May 2010

National team statistics

[11]

Argentina national team
Year Apps Goals
1997 5 1
1998 0 0
1999 2 1
2000 1 0
2001 4 0
2002 1 1
2003 0 0
2004 0 0
2005 2 1
2006 2 0
2007 0 0
2008 5 0
Total 22 4

Honours

Club

River Plate
1996, 1997
Feyenoord
1999
1999
Internazionale
2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
2005, 2006
2005, 2006, 2008
Lazio
2009

Individual

References

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  5. http://www.figc.it/Assets/contentresources_2/ContenutoGenerico/97.$plit/C_2_ContenutoGenerico_31892_StrilloComunicatoUfficiale_lstAllegati_Allegato_0_upfAllegato.pdf
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  10. Counts for appearances and goals at the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup.
  11. Julio Ricardo Cruz at National-Football-Teams.comLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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External links

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