Hernan
Crespo Biography – Introduction
- After what Gabriel
Batistuta and Diego
Maradona did for Italian soccer, any Argentinean player that
would play here would have some enormous shoes to fill. Crespo was
never a Maradona or a Batistuta, but admittedly he managed to fulfill
all expectations when he came to Serie A and he still remains one of
today's top strikers, despite his slight downfall in recent years.
I'm going to give you a short
overview of his career in this Hernan Crespo biography and you'll be
able to judge for yourselves if he is indeed a player worthy of
comparison to the likes of Maradona
and Batistuta.
Full
name
Hernan
Jorge Crespo
Date
of birth
July
5, 1975
Place
of birth
Florida,
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height
6.0FT
- 1.84M
Playing
position
Striker
Hernan Crespo
Biography – River plate Born near Buenos Aires, Crespo, like all
kids
his age, was a fan of local team River plate, which was on top form
when Hernan was growing up. When he was 11 years old, the Argentina
soccer team won the 1986 World Cup and Maradona
became one of the young boy's heroes. It was around this time that he
decided to become a soccer player, trying out
several youth clubs before getting into River Plate's youth squad.
His senior debut for
River
plate in 1993 was a huge step for the young Argentinean and he
immediately made an impact, scoring 13 times in his 25 league
appearances that season. More impressive is that he wasn't even a full
first team member back then, so some of his goals where scored as a
substitute.
His next two seasons
with
River plate were very successful, as the team managed to win the
Apertura championship ("half" of the Argentinean championship) twice as
well as the Copa Libertadores (the most prestigious South American club
competition – a sort of Champions League), scoring
twice in the home leg of the final.
Season
Club
Games
Goals
1993-1996
River
Plate
62
24
1996-2000
Parma
116
61
2000-2002
SS
Lazio
54
39
2002-2003
Inter
Milan
18
7
2003-
Chelsea
49
20
2004-2005
AC
Milan(loan)
28
10
2006-2007
Inter
Milan(loan)
29
14
Obviously, the
great form that
he was in attracted offers of big European clubs and the ones that
managed to get the young striker were Italian Serie A club Parma.
Hernan
Crespo
Biography – Parma It's at Parma that the Argentinean
became a
world class soccer player, Hernan Crespo scoring no less than 61 goals
in his 4 seasons with the club.
His impact with
the club was
immediate, as he helped Parma get a runner-up position in the Italian
Serie A the season he joined and although he never managed to win a
title with Parma, he helped turn the club from one that was always in
mid table at the end of the season, to one that would fight for the top
3 places in the league, next to titans AC Milan,
Internazionale Milano, AS Roma or Juventus Torino.
He even helped
Parma win the
UEFA Cup in 1999, with Crespo scoring one of the three goals against
Olympique Marseille in the final.
Years
National
Team
Games
Goals
1995-06/07
Argentina
66
35
Hernan
Crespo Biography – Lazio Roma In 2000 Crespo was already a
super star in
Italy and he was one of the most feared strikers in the league.
However, when Lazio Roma made Parma an offer they couldn't resist, of
approximately $50 million, Crespo found himself
packing up his bags again and moving to his new club.
Despite
having played for only
2 seasons with Lazio, Hernan Crespo managed to get an outstanding
goal/match ratio in this period, scoring no less than 39
goals in 54 matches, becoming top goal scorer in Serie A in
2001. But Lazio had some financial problems during that period and
their most outstanding soccer player, Hernan Crespo, was a perfect way
to get out of the trouble, so when Internazionale Milano offered $30
million, plus a talented young player, Bernardo Corradi, Lazio was
forced to take the offer.
Hernan Crespo
Biography – Latest Seasons - Ever
since 2002 when he
moved to Inter, Hernan
Crespo was in a slow downfall. Playing for clubs like Parma or Lazio,
he was extremely successful because he was the number one star in the
team, but at Inter he was one of the many world class players in the
squad so he found it harder to adapt there.
Moving to
Chelsea in 2003
seemed like a good move since Crespo managed to get back on top of his
form, scoring 20 goals in 49 matches, but he didn't adapt well to the
English
lifestyle and Premiership football, so he was loaned back in
Italy to AC Milan for the 2004-2005 season where he would pair up with
his former Parma coach, Carlo Ancelloti.
After a
successful season with
Milan (that ended with a shocking upset, Milan losing the Champions
League final against Liverpool, after they were 3 goals up at break
time, Crespo scoring 2
of the goals), Crespo moved back to Chelsea, but
found himself outside the club's plans and had to be loaned to Serie A
again, this time to his former club, Internazionale Milano, whom he has
a loan deal for another season.
