Hernán Crespo

Hernán Jorge Crespo (born July 5, 1975 in Florida, Buenos Aires) is an Argentina national football team Football (soccer) player currently playing in the Serie A for Internazionale, having signed from FA Premier League champions Chelsea F.C. on a 2 year loan deal on 7 August 2006. He was born in the Florida neighborhood of the Vicente López Partido, Greater Buenos Aires, next to Buenos Aires. He is famed for his powerful aerial ability, which allows him to score goals from considerable distances. He is also renowned for being one of the most effective goal poachers in the game, due to his anticipatory off-the-ball movement.

Crespo was included in the FIFA 100 list, compiled by Pele, which featured 125 players whom he identified as the best in the world.

Club career

River Plate

He made his debut with Club Atlético River Plate during the 1993/94 season, scoring 13 goals in 25 league appearances. He helped River Plate win the Apertura league title, the second of two championships held in Argentina in that year. He helped River win the Apertura title again in 1994. In 1996, Crespo helped River win the Copa Libertadores de América, the South American club championship, scoring twice in the home leg of the final in Buenos Aires.

Parma

He left River Plate for Parma A.C. in Italy in August 1996 after he Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics with Argentina at the Atlanta 1996 Summer Olympics, finishing the tournament as the top scorer with six goals. In May 1997, coached by Carlo Ancelotti (current manager of A.C. Milan), Crespo helped Parma finish runners-up in Serie A, scoring 12 goals in 27 matches. In 1999, with Parma he won both the Italian Cup and the UEFA Cup (in the final against Olympique de Marseille, held in Moscow, Crespo scored the opening goal in Parma's 3-0 victory).

Lazio

In 2000, after four successful years with Parma, S.S. Lazio broke the world transfer record (at that time) by paying £35,500 000 for Crespo. He ended his first season with Lazio as top scorer in Serie A with 26 goals.

Inter Milan

In September 2002, Crespo signed with Internazionale Milano F.C. as replacement for the departed Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima, for euro20 million plus Bernardo Corradi. In his only season at the club, he scored 7 goals in 18 appearances in Italian Serie A and 9 goals in 12 appearances in the UEFA Champions League. A bad injury sustained in early 2003 kept him out for 4 months.

Chelsea

Crespo was transferred to FA Premier League club Chelsea F.C. on 26 August 2003, for £16,800,000. However, he made only 31 appearances (19 League starts) in all competitions and scored 12 goals. After José Mourinho took over as Chelsea's manager in the 2004 off-season, Crespo became surplus to Chelsea's plans and was loaned out for the 2004-05 season to A.C. Milan, as requested by his former coach Carlo Ancelotti. With Milan, he scored 10 goals. Crespo scored two of Milan's three goals in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League final against Liverpool F.C..

After speculation involving Crespo and a return to Stamford Bridge (stadium), and Chelsea's failed attempts to land a big name striker during the summer of 05, José Mourinho decided to bring back Crespo from A.C. Milan. Despite Crespo making his desire to stay at Milan well known, Chelsea needed competition for striker Didier Drogba, and Mourinho convinced him that he had a future in the FA Premier League.

He made his first appearance back at Chelsea in the 2-1 victory over Arsenal in the FA Community Shield. Scored his first league goal of 2005 against Wigan Athletic F.C. in Chelsea's first game of the season at the JJB Stadium. His second came soon after in his fourth league game, a powerful header against Charlton Athletic F.C.. Crespo then opened his account in the season's Champion's League campaign with a header against Real Betis. He went on to score against R.S.C. Anderlecht, Newcastle United F.C., Portsmouth F.C., Fulham F.C., Birmingham City F.C., Sunderland A.F.C., Liverpool F.C., and West Ham United F.C., and was part of the Chelsea team that won the 2006 FA Community Shield and FA Premier League championship title.

In July 2006, Crespo stated his intention to return to play in Italy, particularly his former club AC Milan, as he still owns a residence in the suburbs of Milan. However, Chelsea released a club statement on its website stating that Crespo will remain a Chelsea player until the club accepted a suitable offer for him.

On August 7 2006, Crespo signed for Inter Milan on a two-year loan from Chelsea, in a similar deal to that agreed on for Juan Sebastián Verón, and although Chelsea had the option to bring Crespo back after one season, it was agreed on May 30 2007 he would remain for another year on loan. Inter will pay almost all of Crespo's wages during his loan period. In all competitions, he scored 26 goals for Chelsea F.C.. 14 of these came in his last season at the West London club, the other 12 were scored during his first spell before going on loan.

On December 2 2006, Crespo scored his 125th Serie A goal against Siena, and on April 2 2007, he scored his 200th goal in Europe, in a total of 400 matches since October 27 1996, giving an average of 0.5 goals per match..

On May 13 2007, Crespo scored a hat-trick to help F.C. Internazionale Milano come from behind and defeat S.S. Lazio 4-3, with Marco Materazzi scoring the winning goal. Crespo was part of the Internazionale team that won the 2007 Scudetto.

After the end of the English and Italian league seasons in the summer of 2007, it was announced that Crespo's career with Chelsea had effectively ended, after Chelsea confirmed that it would not exercise its option to recall Crespo. In a statement, Crespo said that he was thankful to the Chelsea management for being understanding to his situation. Inter also confirmed that it would now take over the total payment of Crespo's wages.

International career

, Crespo won his first cap for Argentina national football team, in a friendly match against Bulgaria national football team in Mendoza, Argentina, but he had to wait 16 months for his second cap and more than two years for his first goal. He played for his country in the Football World Cup 1998, 2002 FIFA World Cup and 2006 FIFA World Cups. He has 66 caps for Argentina, and has scored 35 goals. A ratio of more than one goal every other game makes Crespo a formidable forward at all levels.

In June 2005, and as part of his comeback of the 2004/05 season, Crespo scored two goals in Argentina's 3:1 World Cup Qualifying triumph over their arch-rivals Brazil national football team in Buenos Aires. This win ensured Argentina's participation in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. These last two goals against Brazil turned him into the all-time top scorer for Argentina in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.

Fans used to call Crespo "Valdanito" because his looks, build and running style recall 1986 FIFA World Cup winning forward Jorge Valdano.

Hernán Crespo was several times compared to Gabriel Batistuta. Former Argentine coach José Pekerman saw Crespo as the leader for the strike force, important for Argentine success in 2006 FIFA World Cup, even though younger players such as Javier Saviola, Lionel Messi, Carlos Tévez had been gaining the coach's attention.

Crespo has scored four FIFA World Cup FIFA World Cup goalscorers; against Sweden national football team in 2002 FIFA World Cup and against Côte d'Ivoire national football team, Serbia and Montenegro national football team, and Argentina's win over Mexican national football team in the Round of 16 of the 2006 World Cup.

He was the 2006 FIFA World Cup Silver Boot Award winner.

On June 28 2007, he scored twice in Argentina's 4-1 victory over the United States in their Group C opener in the 2007 Copa America taking his goal tally to 34 equalling Diego Maradona.

On July 2 2007 came off injured after equalizing via a penalty in Argentina's 4-2 win over Colombia_national_football_team, taking his tally to 3 for the tournament.

Honours

Club
- Primera División Argentina : 1993A, 1994A, 1996A
- Copa Libertadores : 1996
- UEFA Cup : 1999
- Coppa Italia : 1999
- Italian Super Cup : 1999, 2000, 2006
- FA Community Shield : 2005
- Premier League : 2006
- Serie A title: 2007
Country
- 1996 Summer Olympics Silver Medallist : 1996
- 2. FIFA Confederations Cup: 1995
Individual
- 1996 Summer Olympics Topscorer : 1996
- Coppa Italia Capocannoniere : 1999 and 2007 with 4 goals in 4 matchs
- FIFA 100
- Capocannoniere : 2000
- World Cup Silver Boot : 2006
- All Star Team : WM 2006
- Topscorer in the Primera División (Argentinia): 1994 (River Plate)

Facts

- On May 25, 2007, two days before Inter's Scudetto celebration, Crespo appeared in training without his customary long hair, which he had kept grown out for over five seasons.
- Hernán Crespo, along with Argentine team mate Juan Sebastián Verón, is one of the world's most expensive players of all time, the most expensive being Zinedine Zidane. He has never been sold for less than £16,000,000 since joining Parma in 1996 from Club Atlético River Plate and has a combined transfer fee of £68,000,000 - over half of which was down to one move, from Parma to Lazio for £37,000,000 (the most expensive transfer fee was that of Zinedine Zidane in 2001 for €66 million).
- Crespo is the only player who managed to score for five different teams in the UEFA Champions League: Parma F.C] (2 goals in 9 games; 1997-2000), S.S. Lazio (5 goals in 13 games; 2000-2002), Inter Milan (10 goals in 15 games; 2002-2003 and 2006-2007), Chelsea F.C] (4 goals in 15 games; 2003-2004 and 2005-2006) and A.C. Milan (6 goals in 10 games; 2004-2005).