Thursday, December 07, 2006

Argentine striker Cavenaghi to leave Spartak Moscow: yay!

Much longer posts on the Champions League to come, but I had to post about this. Cavenaghi is one of my favourite young Argentinean players, and he had such a bright future ahead of him before foolishly choosing (or some shadowy investment group choosing for him) to go to Russia. In terms of sheer talent, he's probably the best young prospect Argentina have to succeed Crespo in the future. (There's also his successor at River, Gonzalo Higuain, but we don't know if he's going to play for Argentina or France yet.)

I'm forever moaning about him rotting in Russia, so to hear that he's now free to find himself another club (and that he's looking at Spain or Italy) is fantastic. He really did not settle at Spartak after being so brilliant for River and for Argentina at youth level, and this is a real chance to get his career back on track. Looking at the trouble he had adapting in Russia, I'd say he should try to find a Spanish club to play for. Given his complete lack of form for the past 2 seasons, it's probably asking a bit much for Barcelona or Real Madrid to come calling, but that's even better. Cavenaghi's only 23, he doesn't need that kind of pressure. Any struggling club in La Liga willing to take a bet on a young, talented player - for free! - could really strike gold, if they're brave enough to go for it. God knows there are enough clubs in La Liga who desperately need goalscorers.

Here's a crazy, Championship Manager-esque idea, just for laughs: Mallorca have Maxi Lopez - who Cavenaghi kept on the bench at River - on loan from Barcelona. He's not exactly in free-scoring form there, but neither is the rest of his team. Maybe they're looking for someone. Even better, Cavenaghi's old mate from River, former first choice goalkeeper for both club and country German Lux is joining the club. It could be a nice little reunion. But first Cavenaghi has to prove his best goalscoring days have not passed him by already at the age of 23.

2 comments:

pdp said...

I honestly think that Argentinian players have no idea how different it is in some countries compared to Argentina. I think that's how some get duped into going to places like Russia. You couldn't pick a country more different than Argentina. Portugal, Spain, & Italy are the closest in culture to Argentina. Particularly Italy & Spain. A prospect like Cavenaghi should have easily gone there. Thank god he's leaving. What a waste of two years.

My brother raves about this guy. I'm not really convinced though. Let's hope he does something noticeable in a good league in Europe.

Linda said...

I'm guessing that his transfer was a bit like D'Alessandro to Wolfsburg and more recently, Lucas Biglia to Anderlecht - the clubs in question didn't care about the future of the player, they just wanted to deal with the highest bidder.

Cavenaghi used to be a brilliant goal poacher, there's no question about that. With his physique he could succeed in a physical league too. I just hope the decline isn't permanent.

(The bad news is that I've heard Spartak may not be releasing him on a free. The asking price was a bit steep.)