| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Darío Leonardo Conca | ||
| Date of birth | 11 May 1983 | ||
| Place of birth | General Pacheco, Argentina | ||
| Height | 1.67 m (5 ft 5 1⁄2 in) | ||
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Guangzhou Evergrande | ||
| Number | 15 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1999–2000 | Tigre | ||
| 2000–2002 | River Plate | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 2002–2008 | River Plate | 3 | (0) |
| 2004–2006 | → Universidad Católica (loan) | 85 | (16) |
| 2006 | → Rosario Central (loan) | 14 | (0) |
| 2007 | → Vasco da Gama (loan)[1] | 30 | (6) |
| 2008 | → Fluminense (loan)[1] | 30 | (4) |
| 2009–2011 | Fluminense | 81 | (17) |
| 2011– | Guangzhou Evergrande | 15 | (9) |
| National team | |||
| 2002 | Argentina U20 | 9 | (1) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 2 November 2011. † Appearances (Goals). |
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Darío Leonardo Conca or simply Darío Conca (born 11 May 1983 in General Pacheco) is an Argentine professional football attacking midfielder. Conca was elected for two consecutive years as the best player of Campeonato Brasileiro Série A in 2009 and 2010.[2][3]
Conca started his career in Argentina's Second Division, (Primera B Nacional), and made his debut for Tigre at the age of just 15 years old. River Plate took him just a year later and Conca made the steady rise to River's first team. On 23 November 2003, under then Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini, who later managed Real Madrid, Conca made his first team debut in a 1–0 defeat to Chacarita Juniors.
However in 2004 Conca was loaned to Chilean club Universidad Católica by new River manager Leonardo Astrada and in 2005 won his first title. In 2006 River loaned him out again, this time to Rosario Central where after some impressive displays, Vasco da Gama made a successful bid to bring him to Brazil on 5 January 2007, signing an initial one year loan deal from River Plate. He made his Vasco debut and scored in friendly 4-0 win over Villa Rio on 14 January 2007.
In 2008, Conca signed a loan deal with Fluminense, and was a key player in the squad under coach Renato Gaúcho. Conca played an important role in the team's brilliant 2008 Copa Libertadores campaign, along with others such as Thiago Neves, Thiago Silva, Washington, and Cícero. In 2009, he signed a three-year deal with Fluminense. He was voted the best player in Brazil in a poll organized annually by Globo, and was ranked as the fifteenth best player in Latin America and the best player in Brazil by Uruguayan newspaper El País. After a successful season where Fluminense won the Brazilian league, Conca renewed his contract with Fluminense for another five years.
On 2 July 2011, it was reported that Conca would join Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande for an annual salary of $10.4 million, putting him among the highest paid players in the world.[4] He scored his first goal for the club in a 5–0 win against Nanchang Hengyuan on 14 July 2011. Conca scored 9 goals in 15 appearances as Guangzhou successfully achieved Super League champion for the first time in the club's history.
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