Juan Arango

Juan Fernando Arango Sáenz, Arango (born May 16, 1980 in Maracay), is a Venezuela Football (soccer) who plays as an attacking midfielder for RCD Mallorca in La Liga, and for the Venezuela national football team. Arango has played more than 70 times for Venezuela, making him the fifth most capped player in the history of Venezuelan international football.He is known as "Arangol" in Venezuela, and has been nicknamed the "Caribbean Hurricane" by Luis Omar Tapia in ESPN's telecasts.

Arango is one of the few Venezuelan players ever to play for a first division team in any of the major European leagues, and is widely regarded as the best player Venezuela has ever produced.

Football career

Arango started playing as a professional footballer at the age of sixteen with Nueva Cádiz FC, ascended to the Venezuelan first division the following season under the name of Zulianos FC.

In January 1999, Arango played for the first time with the Venezuela national football team, a friendly against Denmark national football team.

From Zulianos, Arango came to Caracas FC. After six months playing with the team, he was bought by Mexico's Club de Fútbol Monterrey. He played for two other Mexican clubs, CF Pachuca and CF Puebla, until 2004, when he joined La Liga's Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, in Spain.

On March 20, 2005, Arango suffered a serious injury, after a brutal collision with Sevilla FC's defender Javi Navarro. He fell unconscious, broke his cheekbone, swallowed his tongue and got serious cuts in his face.He returned to play a month later and, in La Liga 2005-06, was the team's top scorer with 11 league goals.

In 2006, EFE chose him as the third best Latin American player in the Spanish league, with the first place taken by Pablo Aimar.

In 2007, new national coach Cesar Farias named Arango captain (football), and he also obtained a Spain passport, in March. His parents are Colombian, having emigrated to Venezuela before he was born.