Roque Santa Cruz is a footballer striker who plays for Premier League Club Manchester City and is part of the Paraguay national team.
He made his debut for Paraguayan club Olimpia at the tender age of 16. Led them to a championship in 1998 and 1999, winning the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year award. He was included in the Paraguayan national team and earned a big money move to Bundesliga giants Bayern Munchen in ’99. All this by the time he was 17.
The whole world awaited as Santa Cruz geared up for the big league, for Paraguay he was a symbol of great hope, a prodigy who’d almost certainly lead his nation to glory in the coming years.
In his eight seasons with the German giants he won five Bundesliga championship medals, four German cup wins, a UEFA Champions League title and an intercontinental championship and despite all this glittery metal in his trophy cabinet, Roque Santa Cruz was yet to show the massive potential he displayed as a 17 year old.
Often prone to injuries, he averaged one goal in five matches, not the most flattering ration for any striker and while the injuries were to blame for a lot of his discrepancies, Beckenbauer and co. had enough of the under-performances.
Despite his compromised reputation, Santa Cruz was seen as a jewel waiting to be given the right chance and atmosphere and being unattached to any contract made him hot property to many European clubs which lined up to secure his signature.
Blackburn Rovers emerged the surprise winners in this race and in his first season in the Premier League, Santa Cruz would go on to have his best season till date.
His tall six foot plus frame made him a very effective target-man and his team used this well as he’d go on to score 19 in his first season including his first hat-trick for Blackburn in a 5–3 loss to Wigan Athletic on 15 December 2007, becoming the first player in over ten years in English football to score a hat-trick for the losing side.
He was their star striker for Blackburn and bigger clubs eyed him with interest but Santa Cruz stayed put for another year and eventually earned a big money move to Abu Dhabi funded Man City in 2009 in a summer transfer worth £17.5 million.
He grabbed his first league goal for City against Sunderland, scoring a brace in a thrilling 4–3 win which proved to be Mark Hughes last game at the club.
However, injuries once again proved his folly and with the increased strike force in the blue end of Manchester, the Paraguayan has found it hard to be included in the first team.
For the Paraguayan national team, he has been a mainstay for over a decade. Santa Cruz recovered from tendinitis in his right knee in time to start all three games at the 2006 World Cup, though he failed to score. He also began all four games at the 2002 World Cup but limped off half an hour into the second-round defeat to Germany.
After the initial splurge of three goals in the preliminaries, he played no further part in the next ten matches for the team in 2009 and can be counted lucky to be a part of the squad in South Africa given his lack of playing time in Manchester and the tragic shooting of teammate Salvatore Cabanas.
Despite all that he is very popular back home and will be looking forward to World Cup 2010 as perhaps one of his last chances to finally prove himself in the biggest stage of football.