Julio Ricardo Cruz
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Julio Ricardo Cruz | ||
| Date of birth | 10 October 1974 | ||
| Place of birth | Santiago del Estero, Argentina | ||
| Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||
| Playing position | Striker | ||
| Youth career | |||
| Banfield | |||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1993–1996 | Banfield | 65 | (16) |
| 1996–1997 | River Plate | 29 | (17) |
| 1997–2000 | Feyenoord | 86 | (44) |
| 2000–2003 | Bologna | 88 | (27) |
| 2003–2009 | Internazionale | 192 | (75) |
| 2009–2010 | Lazio | 25 | (4) |
| Total | 423 | (157) | |
| National team | |||
| 1997–2008 | Argentina | 22 | (3) |
| * Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (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.
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 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in), 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 Internazionale 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.
Nickname
Cruz's nickname, El Jardinero (Spanish for "the gardener"), was given to him at an early age. 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 | Season | Domestic League | Domestic Cups | European games[9] | 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 | ||||
| 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 | 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 | 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 | 5 | 13 | 30 | 13 | 192 | 75 | |||
| Lazio | 2009–10 | 25 | 4 | — | — | 4 | — | 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
| Argentina national team | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Apps | Goals |
| 1997 | 5 | 0 |
| 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 | 3 |
Honours
- River Plate
- Argentine Primera: 2
- 1996, 1997
- Feyenoord
- Eredivisie: 1
- Johan Cruijff-schaal: 1
- 1999
- Internazionale
- Serie A: 4
- Coppa Italia: 2
- 2005, 2006
- Lazio
References
- ↑ "BOLOGNA TEAM OF THE DECADE".
- ↑ "JULIO CRUZ JOINS INTER". Internazionale. 30 August 2003.
- ↑ "CRUZ EXTENDS INTER STAY UNTIL 2008". Inter. 20 February 2006.
- ↑ "Cruz: "Very happy with contract extension"". inter.it. 7 September 2007. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
- ↑ http://www.figc.it/Assets/contentresources_2/ContenutoGenerico/97.$plit/C_2_ContenutoGenerico_31892_StrilloComunicatoUfficiale_lstAllegati_Allegato_0_upfAllegato.pdf
- ↑ "relazione semestrale consolidata S.S. Lazio s.p.a. al 31–12–09". SS Lazio (in Italian). 3 March 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2010. .
- ↑ "Julio Cruz". ESPNsoccernet. Retrieved 3 December 2007.
- ↑ "Julio Ricardo Cruz profile". F.C. Internazionale Milano. Retrieved 16 December 2007.
- ↑ Counts for appearances and goals at the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Cup and UEFA Intertoto Cup.
- ↑ Julio Ricardo Cruz at National-Football-Teams.com
External links
- FootballDatabase provides Julio Cruz's profile and stats
- Statistics at Guardian Stats Centre
- Julio Ricardo Cruz at National-Football-Teams.com
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