Iván Hurtado

Iván Jacinto Hurtado Angulo (born August 16, 1974 in Esmeraldas, Ecuador) is a professional Football (soccer) defender (football). He has been captain for the Ecuador national football team since 2000.

Club career

He started his career with the small club of his hometown, Club Deportivo Esmeraldas Petrolero, at the age of 16. A year later he moved on to one of Ecuador's biggest clubs in Guayaquil, Club Sport Emelec, and had two stellar seasons, including a championship with the club with a free kick goal he executed.

His excellent play warranted a switch to the Mexican leagues where he even further developed his defending techniques and his intelligent read of the game. Ivan made a big impact in his first club, Atletico Celaya, where he led them to the Mexican league finals. He then moved to UANL Tigres. He then moved on to the La Liga in Spain playing for Real Murcia.
After a mostly successful spell with CF Pachuca in Primera División de México, he moved on to Al Arabi in the Qatari League, impressing many over there.

After the FIFA World Cup in Germany, where Hurtado shone, it was reported that high profile clubs such as English Premier League's Wigan Athletic, and Spain La Liga's Recreativo Huelva and Villarreal CF were highly interested in him. However none of these rumors were accurate, and after spending six more months with Al Arabi, Hurtado moved to Colombia where he played for Atletico Nacional. In 2008, he finally returned to his home country where he currently plays for Barcelona SC, Ecuador's most popular team, He is now playing for the 2008 season next to Millonarios of Colombia

Playing Style

Once a top class defender, he is known in Spanish by his fans as "Bamm-Bamm Rubble" for ramming the football with his feet like the Hanna-Barbera character does with his club. Ivan's playing style differs from his national partner, Giovanny Espinoza. While Espinoza is a very large player who uses his size, power and speed to overwhelm his adversary, Hurtado is considered to be very classy and often needs no contact at all to dispossess his adversary. Ivan also makes very clean tackles, organizes his back line as well as the best of them, and can even display confidence with the ball at his feet, and he can occasionally make surprising dashes forward.

A notable long and short passer, Hurtado has also taken free kicks well. Although not able to the bend the ball as well as other notable free kick takers, he has been known to strike the ball with such force that goalkeepers find it hard to judge and time his shots.

International career

Hurtado holds the record as the youngest Ecuadorian to play for his country at just 17 years and 285 days. He has appeared in more CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup qualifiers than any other player, and has more overall international caps than any other South American player. Hurtado was one of the key players who played a major role in securing a first ever Football World Cup berth for Ecuador in Football World Cup 2002. He had such an impressive tournament, that he was appointed to succeed former Ecuadorian star Alex Aguinaga to be the captain of a new generation of an ever-improving Ecuador side.

His best performances came in Ecuador national football team's dream tournament in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. His defence left stars such as Poland forward Jacek Krzynowek, Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope, and England players Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole, and Steven Gerrard desperate for goals.

However, his form declined in a space of just six months. Nevertheless, he played for Ecuador national football team in Copa América 2007, where his performance was very low and criticized by many of his countrymen as the main reason for Ecuador national football team's early elimination. Hurtado started the first two games against Chile national football team and Mexico national football team but was on the bench the whole game against Brasil national football team.

Hurtado was called up for the first two 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) against Venezuela national football team and Brazil national football team, miserably losing both matches. As a consequence, he along with teammate Ulises de la Cruz, was excluded from the squad for the next round against Paraguay national football team.