Lucas Barrios

Lucas Ramón Barrios is a Paraguayan striker, mainly known for his performance in Borussia Dortmund. The footballer was born in San Fernando, Argentina, but he has Paraguayan citizenship and plays for the Paraguay national football team.

Barrios’ mother is a Paraguayan that’s why when the future footballer was 16, he chose that very nationality rejecting the Argentine one. Lucas rose to prominence in South America thanks to his performance for Chilean club Cobreloa where he played from 2006 to 2007 scoring 26 goals in 39 matches. Before that Barrios played only in the Argentine second division. The footballer’s solid performance for Cobreloa earned him a contract with Mexican club Atlas which he joined in July 2007.

At the beginning of 2008 another Chilean club Colo-Colo loaned Barrios for half a year to reinforce its squad for the forthcoming Copa Libertadores. In June 2008, when the loan contract was due to expire, Colo-Colo expressed a wish to retain its leading goal scorer and offered Atlas, which still owned the player’s rights, a sum of $1.5 million. However the Mexican club rejected that offer because it valued Lucas at $2 million. Colo-Colo finally agreed to pay the necessary sum for the Paraguayan; however the club could cover only 80 percent of his cost. The footballer had to pay the rest of the money himself. Thus, Barrios officially joined Colo-Colo. His salary in the Chilean club was about $1 million per year.

Afterwards the striker was about to join French side Nancy, but Colo-Colo’s president Gabriel Ruiz-Tagle rejected that offer at the beginning of 2009. However the club’s management announced that they were ready to discuss further offers from Europe concerning the striker.

In July 2009 Barrios eventually moved to Europe. Borussia Dortmund purchased him for a fee of €4.2 million. In his first season for the Black Yellows Lucas became the best goal scorer of his new team notching 23 goals in all tournaments and winning the Bundesliga title together with his club-mates.

The next season was not a success for Lucas Barrios. His performance in the 2011 Copa América with the Paraguay national team wasn’t so successful, and his place in Borussia was occupied by Polish forward Robert Lewandowski whose excellent performance didn’t give the Paraguayan a chance to return to the first team.

On 2 May 2012 it was announced that Barrios will continue his career in Chinese club Guangzhou Evergrande. The footballer signed an agreement with the Asian team that tied him to the club until 2016. The transfer fee was priced at €8.5 million. The Paraguayan officially joined Guangzhou Evergrande on 1 July 2012.

However, only one season later Barrios completed a move to the Russian outfit Spartak Moscow.