Juan Román Riquelme

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Riquelme
Personal information
Full name Juan Román Riquelme
Date of birth June 24, 1978 (age 28)
Place of birth Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height 6'0" (1.82 cm)
Nickname Romy
Topo Gigio
Position Attacking midfielder
Club information
Current club Villarreal CF
Youth clubs
 ?
1995		 Argentinos Juniors
Boca Juniors
Professional clubs*
Years Club Apps (goals)
1996-2002
2002-2005
2003-2005
2005-present		 Boca Juniors
FC Barcelona
Villarreal CF (Loan)
Villarreal CF[1]		 151 (38)
41 (5)
126 (44)
National team**
1997-2006 Argentina 38 (8)

* Professional club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only and
correct as of 2006.
** National team caps and goals correct
as of October 29, 2006.

Juan Román Riquelme (born June 24, 1978 in San Fernando, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina) is a football player, who currently plays for Villarreal CF of Spain.

Growing up in Don Torcuato, Riquelme grew up in a family of ten in strict poverty. Argentine giants Boca Juniors and River Plate spotted him when he was a youth player for Argentinos Juniors. He chose to move to Boca in 1995 as he had grown up supporting them. The club paid US$800,000 for his signature. A year later, on November 10, 1996, Romy played his first professional match (Boca Juniors 2 - 0 Unión de Santa Fe) and two weeks later he scored his first senior goal (Boca Juniors 6 - 0 Huracán).

With the Argentine national football team, Romy has played 35 matches, scoring 8 goals. He also won the South American Youth Championship, and the Football World Youth Championship, both in 1997 with coach José Pekerman.

In 2002, after seven successful seasons with Boca Juniors, the central midfielder was transferred to FC Barcelona for a reported £10 million. This new stage of his life proved to be a difficult and troubling time. Shortly after his departure from Boca, his brother, Cristian, was kidnapped. Riquelme negotiated for his brother's release and eventually paid the ransom. He has stated before this was one of the reasons why he chose to leave Boca although it has also been noted Riquelme was in dispute with Boca over his contract at the time. His arrival at Barcelona was seen as a failure. Due to the club's struggling fortunes, there was intense pressure on Riquelme to perform well. However, Barca's current coach at the time, Louis van Gaal described Riquelme as a "political signing" [2]and treated him with indifference. When Van Gaal did play him on rare occasions, Riquelme was deployed on the flanks. He was unable to find his form during a period of largly subsitute appearances, losing his place in the first team as well as his confidence. Van Gaal instead chose to use him as a B-Team player, standing in during Spanish Cup and Champions League Group stages matches. Here, Riquelme was able to play as a playmaker, and produced some excellent moments, including an almost solo 1-0 win over Anderlecht. However, his general playing form made him redundant, and was loaned to Villarreal a year later. [1]

At Villareal he was surrounded by fellow Latin and South American players, including fellow Argentine international and captain Juan Pablo Sorín. Expectations were also much lower at Villareal and Riquelme began to display the talents that now make him so sought after.

Riquelme is often regarded as a talented playmaker with excellent creative vision and close ball control. He has taken a conspicuous lack of pace often decreasing the tempo of the game in his team's favour while still retaining possession through his skill and ingenuity on the ball. Of the midfielder's abilities, Arsenal coach Arsène Wenger has said, "He's always able to slow the game down, and wait for a weak moment to kill you". [3] Riquelme is often cited as the main factor in Villarreal's ascendance in La Liga and the UEFA Champions League through the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons. At the end of the 2004-05 campaign, Spanish sports newspaper Marca awarded him the title of Most Artistic Player. As a result of his influential play, he earned a nomination for the 2005 FIFA World Player of the Year award. In an effort to keep hold of him, Villarreal bought up 75% of Riquelme's rights from Barcelona for 5 million euros, and gave the player a 4-year contract.

A peculiar contract situation arose when, on December 7, 2005, Villarreal beat French club Lille OSC 1-0 to win its UEFA Champions League group, knocking out English giants Manchester United F.C., and Lille and advancing to the lucrative knockout stages in the club's debut season in the Champions League. Because of a clause in the transfer contract with Barcelona, Villarreal had to pay one million euros to the Catalan club. The contract includes another two one-million Euro clauses; one if Villarreal finishes in one of the top 4 positions of the Spanish Primera Liga in the 2005-06 season, and an identical clause for the 2006-07 season.

On April 2006 the English newspaper The Daily Mirror published a rumour about a possible interest of Manchester United's boss Sir Alex Ferguson in signing the Argentine international in the summer transfer window, whose club would have made an offer of £10 million, which was declined by the Villarreal.

Some people think that Riquelme is not a normal or a traditional player by the standards of this generation. Argentina legend Jorge Valdano describes Riquelme saying: "If we have to travel from point A to point B most of us would take the six-lane highway and get there as quickly as possible. Riquelme would choose the winding mountain road, the beautiful scenic route which takes him six hours instead of two." [4]

During the second leg of the Champions League semi-final match between Villareal and Arsenal, at the 89th minute, Jose Mari won his club a penalty after a foul committed by Gaël Clichy, but Jens Lehmann saved the penalty by Riquelme that would have taken the match to extra time.

Riquelme was an integral part of the Argentina side which notably dispatched Serbia and Montenegro six-nil. They entered the second round in top form. However, they were defeated in the quarter-final by Germany on penalties, after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. Germany equalised moments after Riquelme was substituted off the pitch. Riquelme had delivered the corner from which Roberto Ayala scored Argentina's goal.

Following the loss of Argentina and Pekerman's resignation as head coach, Riquelme has been tipped by many to take over the reins of skipper for the Albicelestes in place of the outgoing Juan Sorin. However, after captaining the team for the first friendly match under new coach Alfio Basile, he announced on September 13, 2006 his decision to retire from the "Selección". Even though praised by some, he claimed that the frequent critics from sectors of the press and public have negativelly affected his mother's health, who has been hospitalized twice in two months since the 2006 World Cup.[5] [6]

[edit] Achievements

Preceded by:
Romário		 South American Footballer of the Year
2001		 Succeeded by:
José Cardozo

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b "Riquelme to make way for Ronaldinho at Barcelona", CHINAdaily, 2003-07-22. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  2. ^ Cowley, Jason. "Lonesome Riquelme is the go-to man", Guardian Unlimited, 2006-06-18. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  3. ^ English, Tom. "Judgment days for Riquelme", Sport.Scotsman.com, 2006-06-04. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  4. ^ "Juan to remember", sundayherald.com, 2006-04-16. Retrieved on 2006-08-12.
  5. ^ Homewood, Brian. "Riquelme says he is quitting Argentina", yahoo.sports, 2006-09-13. Retrieved on 2006-09-14.
  6. ^ "Riquelme renunció a la Selección: "Antes que nada está mi familia"", Clarín (newspaper), 2006-09-13. Retrieved on 2006-09-13. (in Spanish)

[edit] External links


Argentina Argentina squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists Argentina

1 Abbondanzieri | 2 Ayala | 3 Sorín | 4 Coloccini | 5 Cambiasso | 6 Heinze | 7 Saviola | 8 Mascherano | 9 Crespo | 10 Riquelme | 11 Tévez | 12 Franco | 13 Scaloni | 14 Palacio | 15 Milito | 16 Aimar | 17 Cufré | 18 Rodríguez | 19 Messi | 20 Cruz | 21 Burdisso | 22 González | 23 Ustari | Coach: Pekerman
Villarreal CF - Current Squad

1 Viera | 2 Gonzalo | 3 Arruabarrena | 4 José Enrique | 5 Forlán | 6 Josico | 7 Pirès | 8 Riquelme | 9 Franco | 10 Cani | 12 Cygan | 14 Tacchinardi | 15 Nihat | 16 Quique Álvarez | 17 Javi Venta | 18 Somoza | 19 Senna | 20 Fuentes | 22 Peña | 23 José Mari | 24 Josemi | 25 Barbosa | 29 Jonathan | 31 Juan Carlos | 32 José Rubio | 36 Oscar | 44 Marcos | 46 David Fuster | Manager: Pellegrini
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