Cosas locas: Nicolás Spolli vs Paulo Ferrari

When Rosario rivals Newell's Old Boys and Rosario Central met in the preliminary round of the 2005 Copa Sudamericana most people expected the tie to be hard fought. After only two minutes of play Newell's defender Nicolás Spolli proved just how hard fought the game would be with a this chest high kung-fu kick on Central full back Paulo Ferrari.

For more crazy South American football check out the rest of the Cosas locas series.

Golazo: Enzo Maidana, Atlético Tucumán vs Rosario Central, Primera B Nacional 2010-11

on 16 November 2010 Enzo Maidana came on as a late substitute in the Argentine 2nd division game between Atlético Tucumán and Rosario Central who were both relegated the previous season and were looking to make an instant return to the top flight.

Atlético were 3-2 up as the game went into stoppage time, the fans were celebrating and Enzo Maidana hit his first goal for the club with an impressive long range strike.

Part of the Golazo series.

What ever happened to? Federico Arias

In January 2003 Southampton F.C. signed a 23 year old Argentine striker on loan from Vélez Sársfield with the option to buy. Federico Arias had plenty of experience having played over 80 competitive games between his hometown club Rosario Central and Vélez Sársfield  mainly in the Argentine Primera Division but also 12 appearances in the Copa Libertadores for Central.

The Southampton team were full of praise for Arias, manager Gordon Strachan said "he looks a useful player and is very quick and hopefully he will make us stronger" while chief scout terry Cooper said "He has two excellent feet. I watched him three times and could not tell which was his best. He is a great crosser of the ball, too. His nickname is the Torpedo and it is easy to see why - he is explosive over 20 metres. The Argentinians I have seen usually have good technique on the ball but not many have this kind of pace."

It may have been wise for Southampton fans to be wary of such enthusiasm about new South American signings given the situation with the Ecuadorian pair Agustín Delgado and Cleber Chalá. Cynics amongst the Saints faithful were proven right fairly soon. Within six months of joining Southanpton and without ever taking to the field in a competitive game for them, Arias was back in Argentina. He continued to play for Vélez Sársfield until 2005, but was used sparsely only making 19 appearances for the club over the space of the entire two and a half years he was with them. He was part of the Vélez Sársfield squad that won the Argentine Primera Division in Clausura 2005, but played in few of the games.

It was clear from his lack of game time that Arias was no longer part of Vélez Sársfield's long term plans and later in 2005 he joined Quilmes. After a poor season in which Quilmes finished in 17th place and Arias only made six appearances he joined Argentine 2nd division side Belgrano de Córdoba in 2006, who then finished 2nd in the Clausura tournament earning them the chance to play in a promotion/relegation playoff against Olimpo de Bahía Blanca. Arias featured in the playoff games which were both won 2-1 by Belgrano earning them promotion to the Primera División.

Unfortunately for Arias, he never got the chance to return to the Primera División, as he was offloaded to Peruvian side side Sporting Cristal as part of Belgrano's extensive rebuilding process aimed at securing survival in the top flight.

Sporting Cristal had a poor Clausura, falling back from their 2nd place finish the previous season to end up in mid table. Arias only contributed 2 league goals in the campaign, not nearly enough to justify his wages so he was offloaded to another Peruvian side; Coronel Bolognesi at the beginning of 2007. Arias had a worse time at his new club, they finished bottom of the table in Apertura 2007 and Arias did not score a single goal for them.

During the European summer transfer window Arias put his Italian passport to good use by joining Italian Serie C1/B side Martina Franca. For the first time in several years he managed to complete a full season with a club, however at the end of the season he was not kept on.

Arias returned to South America to join Melipilla of the Chilean Primera Division but in September 2008 his contract was terminated by mutual agreement mainly because he had failed to score a single goal for the club. At the end of the season Melipilla were relegated, but by then he was long gone.

Arias next showed up back in the Argentine 2nd division playing for a small team in his home town called Tiro Federal in 2009. He did not stay with them for long, they tried to offload him onto Australian side Newcastle Jets in July 2009, but despite positive first impressions they didn't sign him on a permanent basis.

In August 2009 his career took him to his 7th different country when he joined Yaracuyanos FC of the Venezuelan 2nd division where he played until December 2009. In March 2010 he signed for Aldosivi back in the Argentine 2nd division alongside another international journeyman footballer familiar to many English football fans; one time "new Maradona", ex-Middlesbrough player Carlos Marinelli.

According to one of the most reliable sources of Argentine football statistics he now plays in the regionalised 3rd division for Los Andes, but on closer inspection it turns out to be a completely different Federico Arias, who was born in 1988 and would only have been 10 years old when our Federico Arias made his professional debut for Rosario Central on 21 November 1998 in a 2-3 home defeat to Boca Juniors.

So what can I say? If the Argentine football statisticians don't even know what happened to him and have resorted to just making it up, I'm at a loss. The only answer to the question of what happened to Federico Arias is that after many years as an international journeyman footballer he completely disappeared into obscurity.

Part of the What ever happened to? series.

Partidazo: Rosario Central 7-2 Boca Juniors,

6 July 2003: In the last game of the Clausura 2003 championship Rosario Central hosted Boca Juniors. Boca were in 2nd place but the championship had already been won by their fierce rivals River Plate. Boca had just won the final of the 2003 Copa Libertadores, making them champions of South America for the 3rd time in 4 seasons, so they put out a number of reserve team players and suffered a historic 7-2 defeat as a consequence, with Luciano Figueroa poaching 5 goals to make him the top scorer in the championship with 17 in 19 games.

Aftermath

Luciano Figueroa was sold to Premier League side Birmingham City for £2.5 million later that summer, but he suffered six months of inaction as manager Steve Bruce refused to give him a chance to play in the first team, he was eventually offloaded to Cruz Azul of Mexico where he set about rebuilding his career.

Boca continued their run of success winning another 7 international titles and 4 league titles over the following 5 years before their form slipped in 2009 ending the most successful period in the club's history.

Figueroa returned to Rosario Central in 2009, but they were relegated from the Primera División at the end of the 2009-10 season.

For more great games involving South American teams, check out the rest of the Partidazo series.

What ever happened to? Luciano Figueroa

A rare sight; Figueroa in Birmingham colours.

In July 2003 Birmingham City signed 22 year old Argentine striker Luciano Figueroa from Rosario Central for a fee of £2.5 million. Figueroa had just finished as the top scorer in the Clausura 2003 tournament back in Argentina with 17 goals in 19 games and was being described by some as the next Gabriel Batistuta. He had scored a total of 35 goals in 57 league games for his home town club and Birmingham manager Steve Bruce said that "we believe that for the money we've spent we have got a very very good player".

After FIFA overturned a challenge to the deal by Spanish side Osasuna who claimed that they had signed the player first, Figueroa was free to play for Birmingham from October. However he was never really given a chance, he never started a game, only ever making 2 substitute appearances for the club, which came in a 2-0 defeat to Portsmouth in the league and in a 1-0 defeat to Blackpool in the League Cup. The reason Bruce gave for this lack of opportunity was that  "he was always going to have problems in the Premiership, because of his physique." A statement that raises the question of why Figueroa was signed by Bruce in the first place if he had poor physique.

Figueroa rediscovered his form
at Mexican side Cruz Azul.

Eventually Birmingham let him leave to join Mexican side Cruz Azul, where he worked hard to regain his match fitness and scoring touch. He knocked in 19 goals in 27 league games helping the club to reach the semi finals of the Clausura 2004 championship.

In the summer of 2004 he was selected for the Argentina squad for the Copa América 2004 in Peru alongside Sunderland flop Nicolás Medina. He played in several of the games and scored 2 vital goals against Uruguay to secure Argentina's progress to the 2nd round. Later that summer he won an Olympic gold medal as part of the Argentina squad that won the Olympic football tournament in Athens.


Figueroa secured a return to European football in November 2004, signing a five and a half year deal with Spanish side Villarreal. He was part of the team that secured Villarreal's highest ever league position of 3rd, and qualification to the 2005-06 Champions League.

After leaving Birmingham, Figueroa enjoyed
a successful stint in the Argentina national team.

In 2005 he played for Argentina in the Confederations Cup, where he finished as the 2nd highest scorer in the tournament behind Brazilian striker Adriano. He has not played international football for Argentina since 2005 but his short international career must be considered a success, having scored 9 goals in his 15 full international appearances.

Figueroa had dropped off the radar for most English football fans since he was released by Birmingham, but reacquainted himself with them in 2005 when he was part of the Villarreal side that eliminated Everton from the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, he scored the opening goal in the first leg which was Villarreal's first ever goal in the competition. He helped Villarreal finish top of group D, in which Manchester United surprisingly finished last. Villarreal went on to reach the semi-finals of the tournament, but by then Figueroa had lost his place in the first team.

In 2006 he returned to Argentina for a brief loan spell with River Plate, in which he scored 3 goals in 7 games, before suffering a serious cruciate knee ligament injury that ended his loan spell and kept him out of the game for over 18 months.

While he was still injured he was signed by big spending Italian 2nd division side Genoa, but his recovery was delayed when his knee operation had to be redone. He eventually made his debut for the club on 28 October 2007, nearly 15 months after he joined them, by which time the club had been promoted to Serie A. He never really settled in Genoa, only scoring 3 goals in 23 league games for the club. Of all the clubs he has played for, Genoa is the only one in which he had a comparably bad time to his few months at Birmingham in 2003.

When Figueroa signed for Boca Juniors
in 2008 he joined a select band of players
to have played for Boca & River.

In 2008 he returned to Argentina to play for Boca Juniors, putting himself on the exclusive list of players to have worn the shirt of Boca and River, which includes Abel Balbo, Gabriel Batistuta, Claudio Cannigia, J.J. López, Panco Sá and Nelson Vivas.

Figueroa returned to form at Boca, scoring 7 goals in 17 league games for the club, including the goal of the week in the last fixture of the Apertura 2008 championship, helping Boca Juniors to secure their 23rd professional league championship after a 3 way playoff with Tigre and San Lorenzo.

Figueroa returned to Genoa after Boca Juniors rejected the chance to buy him out of his contract with the Italian club. He only made a handful of further appearances for them before he was released from his contract in January 2010.

He returned to his boyhood club Rosario Central, but despite an improvement in form they were relegated at the end of the 2009-10 season after losing their promotion/relegation playoff against Buenos Aires minnows All Boys. He is currently plying his trade in the Argentine 2nd division, hoping to secure Central a quick return to the Primera División.

It cannot be denied that Figueroa had a disastrous time in the Midlands, but given his impressive scoring record for the Argentina national team, Rosario Central, Cruz Azul, River Plate and Boca Juniors, it seems that Birmingham may have missed out on a few goals when Steve Bruce decided to freeze his new signing out of the first team.

See also

• Rosario Central 7-2 Boca Juniors (Figueroa scored 5)
• Tribute video - part one
• Tribute video - part two

Part of the What ever happened to? series.

What ever happened to? Nicolás Medina

A rare sight, Medina in Sunderland colours.

In 2000 Sunderland signed a 19 year old player for £3.5 million from Argentinos Juniors, a club renowned for producing quality players like Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista, Claudio Borghi, Fernando Redondo and Juan Román Riquelme.

The player soon worked his way into the Sunderland first team, eventually making 177 appearances for the club and scoring 23 goals. This player was of course Julio Arca and his signing was such a success that Peter Reid could not resist splashing out another £3.5 million on another Argentinos Juniors player the following summer describing the latest signing as "the complete midfield player".

The second player was Nicolás Medina, who had starred alongside Arca in the Argentina U-21 team that had just won the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. Medina did not find himself thrown into the first team like Arca had been, in fact he hadn't even made his debut for the black cats by December 2002 when he received a surprise call up to a Argentina national team training camp.

Peter Reid had never given any satisfactory reason for why such an expensive signing was not getting the slightest chance to play for the club, and his successor, Howard Wilkinson was no better, giving the bizarre explanation that "The evidence suggests that Nicolas hasn't got it because the previous manager didn't pick him".

Medina had made only a single appearance for the club, in a FA Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers. By the summer of 2003, the management had lost faith with the player and he was farmed out on loan to Spanish 2nd division side CD Leganés for the 2003-04 season at the end of which Leganés were relegated to the regionalised 3rd division.

Medina was then called up by Argentina manager Marcelo Bielsa for the 2004 Summer Olympics, where he played in 3 of Argentina's games alongside players such as Javier Mascherano, Carlos Tevez, Javier Saviola, and Andrés D'Allesandro. Argentina beat Paraguay 1-0 in the final and Medina collected his Olympic Gold medal to go in his collection alongside his World U-21 medal.

Later that summer he was included in the Argentina squad for the Copa América 2004 along with recent Birmingham City reject Luciano Figueroa. Medina didn't play for the team during the tournament, but he didn't have long to wait until his full international debut.

On 4 September 2004 Medina was called up to the Argentina national team where he played in a 3-1 win over Peru in Lima. Highlighting an absurd situation where a player could supposedly be good enough to play for the Argentina national team, yet so bad that he failed to get a single league game for Sunderland in 3 seasons, despite the fact that they had spent the majority of that time embroiled in relegation dogfights. This single appearance for the Argentina national team was undoubtedly the high water mark of his career.

Medina did actually play
for other teams, yet I couldn't
find a single picture of him actually playing,
not least because there is another player
called Nicolás Medina from Chile
who is familiar with the concept
of actually playing club football.

Sunderland finally got him off their books, releasing him on a free transfer to Real Murcia of the Spanish 2nd division, and in so doing made him the most expensive signing not to have played a single league game for the club.

After one season with Murcia he returned to Argentina, where joined Primera División side Rosario Central in 2005. He only made 3 first team appearances for Central before joining Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata in 2006. Gimnasia loaned him out to a succession of clubs including Nueva Chicago where he only made a single appearance, and Talleres de Córdoba of the Argentine 2nd division. In 2007 he rejoined Gimnasia where he only played in 7 of their games during the entire 2007-08 season.

In 2009 he joined Chilean side O'Higgins, but failed to settle there, returning to Argentina in 2010 to play for 2nd division side Tiro Federal. In the summer of 2010 he was released by Tiro Federal and is now a 28 year old free agent. 

Medina will not be remembered for his playing abilities by Sunderland fans, except those die hard supporters that saw him play in that FA Cup game or turned out to watch the reserves between 2001 and 2003. He is remembered as a remarkable waste of money and a player who utterly failed to live up to expectations.

Looking back through the Argentina squad lists for the 2001 U-21 World Cup and the Olympic squad of 2004 there are understandably several players who's careers never reached the heights achieved by Tevez, Mascherano and Saviola, yet none have experienced a career nosedive as spectacular as that of Nicolás Medina.

Part of the What ever happened to? series.

Golazo: Eduardo Coudet vs Ferro Carril Oeste, Clausura 1996 - Rabona

On June 9 1996, Rosario Central were visitors at Ferro Carril Oeste. Ferro were in a dogfight to avoid relegation and Central were sitting comfortably in mid table with little to play for. Perhaps the lack of pressure helped them to relax and enjoy themselves.

Central were already 0-2 up when the ball broke to Eduardo "Chacho" Coudet in the Ferro penalty area, with defenders closing in he shot with his right foot behind his left to score one of the all time great rabona goals.

The final result was Ferro 0-5 Central, a huge blow to Ferro's survival hopes, but their fortunes turned with an impressive 2-3 win away at River Plate in their very next game and they finished the season strongly to narrowly avoid relegation.

Coudet continued to play for Central until 1998, he won two league championships with River Plate and returned to play for Central in 2004 and 2006. He currently plays for US outfit Philidelphia Union.

See also 

Top 10 rabona goals

Part of the Golazo series.