22.4.10

CLAUDIO CANIGGIA

Once able of running 100 metres in less than 11 seconds, striker Argentina Claudio Caniggia deserves his nickname EL HJO DEL VIENTO (Son of the wind). Yet it was on the football pitch rather than the runner track that the blond winger put his waving speed to use, making a different jumping in his rise. Nurtured in  the once prolific River Plate youth academy, Caniggia burst into the Millonario first team as a clean faced 18 year old in 1985With his bombing running and intricate dribbling skills, EL PAJARO (The Birds), as he was also known back then, was an important player associate of the squads that made history in 1986, by winning the league, the Copa Libertadores, the Copa interamericana and the club's maiden International Cup title. After returning home and pulling on the boca juniors shirt alongside one Diego Maradona, a move for which River fans would never forgive him, he followed his most awfull years in the match. However, it was his performances in the national side that would raise Caniggia's biography and make him one of the country's leading players. As well as making the goal  that forced the match into extra time and a penalty shootout that Argentina would go on to win, he also picked up a yellow card for a handball, a caution that would rule him out of the final against Germany. It was an unhappy tournament for Caniggia, who failed to make single action and was sent off from the sub's bench during the 1-1 draw with Sweden, a result that sealed Argentina's surprise first round elimination. Currently considering a move into management with an Italian club, he also working on the long-eterm development of the match, in the Marbella region.  There are kids there.

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