Roque Santa Cruz
Roque Santa Cruz. Biography
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero was born in 1981 in Asunción, Paraguay.
When Santa Cruz was 9 he joined Olimpia’s youth academy and having graduated he stayed with the team during two seasons. At the age of 16 he made his first Primera División appearance. In 1999, Santa Cruz was named the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year.
In 1999, the Paraguayan footballer moved to Germany to join Bayern Munich. He made his Bundesliga debut in August 1999, in a 2-0 loss against Bayer Leverkusen. All in all he scored five goals in 28 league appearances during this season and Bayern Munich won the 1999/00 Bundesliga season. He played for the club up to 2007 though had mixed success.
At the end of July 2007, Santa Cruz signed a four-year contract with Blackburn Rovers for a fee of £3.5m. He made his Premier League debut in a 2-1 win against Middlesbrough, when he substituted Benni McCarthy and scored a goal. Blackburn finished the 2007/08 Premier League on the seventh position and Santa Cruz was named Blackburn Rovers F.C. Player of the Season.
In summer 2009, he moved to Manchester City, where in September he made his first appearance in a 3-1 victory against West Ham United, substituting Shaun Wright-Phillips in the 81st minute. When Roberto Mancini became City’s manager Santa Cruz began to appear more rarely because of the injuries and a lack of form. He fell out of favor during the following season and in mid-January 2011 he was loaned to Blackburn Rovers, where he spent the remainder of the 2010/11 season. There he appeared in 9 matches and Blackburn finished the season on the 15th position of the league table.
The 2011/12 season he spent on loan to Real Betis. After that there was a lot of speculation around his further transfer and at the very closing of the transfer window Santa Cruz joined Málaga CF, where he played on loan for one season. Upon the the end of a loan spell the Spanish club offered a permanent deal to the Paraguayan.
The footballer represented Paraguay at U-20 level and since 1999 he plays for the main team and in 2011 he helped Paraguay to finish Copa América runner-up.
