Luciano Figueroa

Luciano Figueroa (born 19 May 1981 in Santa Fe) is an Argentine footballer of Italian descent.

Career

The striker began his professional career at Rosario Central in Argentina's Primera División, where he played together with César Delgado in attack. In the Clausura 2002/ 03 he was top scorer with 17 goals. In the last game of the season, the 7-2 win over Boca Juniors, he scored five goals.

Then moved Figueroa for £ 2.5 million to Birmingham City in the English Premier League. In Birmingham, however, he was unable to repeat his previous performance. On the recommendation of his former strike partner Delgado he was hired by the Mexican first division team Cruz Azul then. There he found his way back to his old form, scoring 21 goals in 34 games in 2004.

Its high yield results meant that he was taken in November 2004 for 2.1 million pounds from Villarreal under contract. In August 2005, in a 2-1 victory over Everton, Lucho scored the first Champions League goal in history Villarreal. In January 2006, he moved on loan to River Plate, where he however injured himself after only a few games.

He was eventually sold surprisingly in the summer of the same year at the Genoa in the Italian second division. Due to an injury Figueroa was in his first season no match for Genoa contest. The club rose in 2007 in third place in the Serie A. After 21 games for Genoa Figueroa was loaned in 2008 to CA Boca Juniors. After the loan he returned to Genoa. There, he will now go along with Hernán Crespo and Rodrigo Palacio hunting for goals.

National

With the Argentina national team, he participated in the Copa America 2004 and Confederations Cup 2005. Lucho was part of the team that won the 2004 Olympic gold. In so far 15 appearances for Argentina, he scored nine goals.

Beginning of March 2006 Figueroa suffered a torn ACL in the knee. He was thus made ​​for a long time and could not be used at the Soccer World Cup 2006 in Germany.

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