Julio Ricardo Cruz

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Personal information
Julio Cruz
Full name	Julio Ricardo Cruz
Date of birth	October 10, 1974
Place of birth	Santiago del Estero, Argentina
Nickname	El Jardinero (The Gardener)
Position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Internazionale
Youth clubs
?	Banfield
Professional clubs*
Years	Club	Apps (goals)
1993-96 1996-97 1997-2000 2000-03 2003-	Banfield River Plate Feyenoord Bologna Internazionale	91 (16) 29 (17) 86 (45) 88 (27) 118 (45)
National team**
1997-	Argentina	17 (3)
* Professional club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of Nov 1, 2006. ** National team caps and goals correct as of June 30, 2006.

Julio Ricardo Cruz (born October 10, 1974 in Santiago del Estero) is an Argentinian footballer who plays for Italian side F.C. Internazionale Milano.

1 Club
2 Country
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Club

A physical and tall forward at 190 cm (6'3"), Cruz started his football career with Banfield in 1993, then moving to popular Argentinian team River Plate in 1996. In 1997 he moved to Europe, being signed by Dutch team Feyenoord, and showing a great potential in terms of scoring proficiency. He then moved in 2000 to Serie A team Bologna. After having experienced some difficulties adapting to Italian football, Cruz successfully showed his potential, even if he has not been able to repeat the scoring averages he achieved with Feyenoord (27 goals in three season with Bologna).

In 2003 Cruz left Bologna and signed for Italian giants Internazionale.^[1] With the nerazzurri, Cruz rarely played regularly in the first team, finding some playing time usually just when the leading strikers were unavailable, and often being used as a substitute, thus scoring just 12 goals in his first two seasons with Internazionale. Nevertheless, he had good performances during the few minutes given to him, such as on November 1, 2005 and for the Champions League, when he scored twice in half an hour after being sent in to replace striker Adriano, to turn a 0:1 defeat into a victory against Porto.

In the winter of 2005, rumours linked him to Roma and other clubs because his contract was running out, but in February 2006 the contract was extented to the summer of 2008, ending the rumours.^[2] He ended the season as being the surprise top scorer for Internazionale with 21 goals, including the 15 league goals in the 2005-06 season, and the second goal in the return match for the final of the 2006 Coppa Italia that Inter won 3-1 against A.S. Roma.

After being injured at the start of the 06-07 season, he has made an impressive comeback, scoring all the 3 goals for inter in the Champions League and scoring vital goals in th league as well

[edit] Country

With the Argentina national football team he has played 17 matches, scoring three times. He played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, coming on as a late substitute in the matches against the Netherlands and Germany.

[edit] References

^ "JULIO CRUZ JOINS INTER", Internazionale, 2003-08-30.
^ "CRUZ EXTENDS INTER STAY UNTIL 2008", Internazionale, 2006-02-20.

[edit] External links

FootballDatabase provides Julio Cruz's profile and stats

	Argentina squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup Quarter-finalists
1 Abbondanzieri \| 2 Ayala \| 3 Sorín \| 4 Coloccini \| 5 Cambiasso \| 6 Heinze \| 7 Saviola \| 8 Mascherano \| 9 Crespo \| 10 Riquelme \| 11 Tévez \| 12 Franco \| 13 Scaloni \| 14 Palacio \| 15 Milito \| 16 Aimar \| 17 Cufré \| 18 Rodríguez \| 19 Messi \| 20 Cruz \| 21 Burdisso \| 22 González \| 23 Ustari \| Coach: Pekerman