Fútbol Fútbol Fútbol: Celta Vigo

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What ever happened to? Iván Kaviedes

Kaviedes at Crystal palace in 2004.

On 19 August 2004 newly promoted Premier League side Crystal Palace signed 26 year old Ecuador international striker Iván Kaviedes from Barcelona Sporting Club for a reported fee of £2 million.

By this point Kaviedes was already an international journeyman footballer having played professional football in Ecuador (Emelec, Deportivo Quito & Barcelona SC), Italy (Perugia), Spain (Celta Vigo & Valladolid), Mexico (Puebla) and Portugal (FC Porto) with varying degrees of success. At the time he was a regular first team player for the Ecuador national team and a very popular player in his homeland having scored the goal that secured Ecuador's first ever qualification for the World Cup in a 1-1 draw with Uruguay in November 2001.

He was highly regarded as a finisher, he scored 43 goals in one season for his first club Emelec, the goal of the season for 2000-01 in Spain with a bicycle kick against Barcelona for Valladolid and this excellent finish for Mexican side Puebla. Another notable moment in his career was this dribble and pass to set up Agustín Delgado's goal in a famous 1-0 win against Brazil in 2001.

Upon his arrival in south London manager Ian Dowie said "He is an icon in Ecuadorian football and an outstanding footballer. He's come on trial and shown good motivation in training, he's a breath of fresh air, a great finisher and a free-kick specialist."

Despite Dowie's positive words Kaviedes barely featured for Palace despite the fact that they were embroiled in a relegation battle and struggling to score goals. He made six competitive appearances for the club, he made his debut in a 1-3 defeat against Everton. His only start came in a game against Chelsea and the remaining four appearances all came as a second half substitute. It can be argued that he was unfortunate that Dowie stuck to a 4-5-1 formation and team mate Andy Johnson hit a rich vein of form, scoring 21 goals in the season and making himself virtually undroppable. In January 2005 he was allowed to leave the club after his contract was terminated by mutual consent, despite all of Johnson's goals Palace were relegated at the end of the season.

Kaviedes spiderman celebration at the 2006 World Cup.

Kaviedes returned to Barcelona Sporting Club in 2005 and regained his scoring touch, netting 9 goals in 19 games

Later that year he joined Argentine Primera División side Argentinos Juniors where he played with limited success, but he was still selected for the 2006 World Cup squad. He famously put on a spiderman mask after scoring against Costa Rica in the World Cup as a tribute to former team mate Otilino "Spiderman" Tenorio who had died in a car crash in 2005.
After the World Cup he had another brief stint with Barcelona Sporting Club and in 2007 he joined El Nacional where he scored 14 goals in 34 league appearances. This stint was the last time that he managed to finish a season without being sacked by his club.

His last cap for Ecuador came in November 2007 in a 5-1 win against Peru in a World Cup qualifier. He made a total of 53 appearances for his country scoring 16 goals, making him Ecuador's joint 4th highest goal scorer behind Agustín Delgado, Eduardo Hurtado and Alex Aguinaga.

In 2008 he joined Liga de Quito but after only two games he quit the club after a disagreement about a debt he said wasn't his. In 2009 he spent time in a drugs rehabilitation clinic and after recovering he trained with LDU Portoviejo but was not ever officially part of their squad.

After two years out of the game he returned to action for Macará in 2010, but once again he was sacked. The official reason was that he kept missing training and had other disciplinary issues. The manager of the club said that Iván always said that he wishes people would listen to him, but lots of people did listen to him and when they said things that he didn't want to hear he got angry with them.

This version of events is disputed on his official website which claims that he was forced out of the club against the manager's wishes by a group of players that have influence with the directors.

Whatever the case, it is clear that Kaviedes' career has been in serious decline since the 2006 World Cup. He is still remarkably popular amongst Ecuadorians, which is unsurprising given the flair with which he used to score goals and his place in the history of Ecuadorian football is safe thanks to his goal to earn Ecuador their first ever World Cup appearance.

It is hard to say why he failed at Crystal Palace since he was barely given an opportunity to play for the club, but like Southampton flop and international strike partner Agustín Delgado it is clear from his achievements before and after his short spell in English football that he was a quality player.

Part of the What ever happened to? series.

What ever happened to? Nelson Vivas

In August 1998 Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger signed Argentine defender Nelson Vivas from Boca Juniors in a £1.6 million deal. Vivas had played for the Argentina national team in Copa América 1997 and again in World Cup 1998 where he was part of the team that eliminated England in the 2nd round.

Vivas who was born in the small town of Granadero Baigorria on 18 October 1969 began his career with Quilmes in 1990 before joining Argentine giants Boca Juniors in 1994. After a loan spell with Swiss side Lugano in 1997-98 he got his chance to play for the champions of one of the biggest leagues in Europe.

Vivas never really established himself as a regular player in the Arsenal team, but he did make 69 appearances for the club in all competitions during his three years in north London. 40 of his appearances were as a substitute, he was often used to replace more attacking players once Arsenal had established a lead or to cover injuries in the defensive line. His only goal came in a League Cup game against Derby County in a team almost completely made up of fringe players, his was the decisive goal in a 1-2 win.

In early 2000 he was loaned out to Spanish side Celta Vigo, who at the time were one of the top sides in La Liga. After only a handful of appearance in Spain he returned to Arsenal, but he only made sporadic appearances for the club until the end of his contract in 2001.

After leaving Arsenal, Vivas joined Italian giants Inter Milan where he fulfilled the same kind of bit part role that he had at Arsenal. Despite only making occasional appearances for his European clubs between 1998 and 2003 he made the majority of his appearances for the Argentina national team during this period, including appearances at the Copa América 1999 while an Arsenal player. His 39th and last cap came in a 3-0 away win against Venezuela in a World Cup qualifier in 2003.

In 2003 he returned to Argentina to play for River Plate making him one of a select band of players to have worn the shirts of both sides of the famous Superclásico rivalry. He only made a few appearances for River Plate before returning to his first club Quilmes in 2004.

The 2004-05 season turned out to be Vivas' last on the football field, he played for the club in the Copa Libertadores and the Copa Sudamericana and at the end of the season retired from the game at the age of 35.

Following his retirement he obtained his coaching licences and in 2006 he became former Argentina team mate Diego Simeone's assistant at Estudiantes de la Plata. Under the leadership of this rookie coaching team and their onfield leader Juan Sebastían Verón Estudiantes won the Apertura 2007 championship, their first trophy in 23 years.

This success attracted the attention of other major clubs and in 2007 when Simeone was given the job as River Plate manager he brought Vivas back to his former club as his assistant. In their first season they led the club to the Clausura 2008 championship but Simeone resigned the following season after River were knocked out of the Copa Libertadores and had gone 11 games without a win in the Primera División. Vivas was also sacked and River went on to finish bottom of the league for the first time in their 107 year history.

He worked with Simeone once again at San Lorenzo beginning in April 2009, but after less than a year into the job Simeone resigned and Vivas was out of work again. Vivas has stated his desire to work as a football manager in his own right, but as of October 2010 he has not found the opportunity.

Vivas was a fairly decent player despite his lack of regular first team football. One Arsenal fan even selected Vivas in an all-time Arsenal worst XI (obviously a pretty young one judging by the lack of pre-Premier League Arsenal flops in his team).

It would be fair to say that Vivas never really fitted in at Arsenal and his penalty miss against Middlesbrough in the 1999-00 League Cup and his penchant for wearing gloves on the pitch did him no favours, but to call him one of the worst Arsenal players ever is something I believe most Arsenal fans who had actually seen him play would disagree with.

Part of the What ever happened to? series.

What ever happened to? Facundo Sava

Facundo Sava celebrating a goal with his mask.

In 2002 Fulham F.C. manager Jean Tigana signed a striker from Argentine club Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata for a fee of £2 million. Sava was virtually unknown outside of South American football at the time, but he had a reasonable goalscoring record having notched 67 goals in 182 league games for Gimnasia.

Sava bagged his first goal in English football on 25 August 2002 scoring the equaliser in an unlikely last minute comeback from 2-0 down against Middlesbrough at the Riverside stadium. He got his second goal for the club in a 1-0 win against Charlton on 7 October 2002, this time he played his party piece, pulling a zorro mask from his sock to celebrate the goal. He later said that the only reason he didn't do it against Boro was that he had left his collection of 250 masks back in Argentina.

One of the highlights of his time in England was netting two goals in a 3-2 win against Liverpool to end a 6 game winless streak back in November 2002.

In 2003 big spending manager Jean Tigana parted company with Fulham, his replacement Chris Coleman decided to rebuild the team in his own style and Sava was soon loaned out to Spanish 2nd division side Celta Vigo.

Sava helped Celta win promotion to La Liga, but his loan spell was not renewed for the following season and he was loaned out to Lorca Deportiva, another Spanish 2nd division side.

Fulham and Sava finally parted company in 2006 after his contract expired, in his time with the club he scored a total of 6 league goals for Fulham in 26 games although he only started half of them. Overall he played 42 games in all competitions, but apart from his 6 league goals, he only netted one other in an FA Cup game against Birmingham on 5 January 2003.

Sava had a great two year spell with Racing Club after returning to Argentina.

After leaving Fulham Sava returned to Argentina where he excelled for Racing Club de Avellaneda scoring 29 goals in 66 league games between 2006 and 2008.

In the summer of 2008 he was surprisingly sold to Arsenal de Sarandí where he fared less well, only netting 3 goals in 21 appearances. The following season he joined Quilmes of the Argentine 2nd division where he endured another hard season, scoring only 4 times in 21 games.

In 2010 he returned to his first club Ferro Carril Oeste, as many Argentine players do as a closing point for their career. After 14 years away from Ferro he scored 2 goals in 6 games for his boyhood team before calling it a day in September 2010 at the age of 36.

Sava is a qualified social psychologist and is looking to use his knowledge in that area to help him become a successful manager.

Sava will be remembered by Fulham fans for his goals, but for most people and football writers he will be remembered for inventing the silly mask celebration long before Newcastle's Jonás Gutiérrez spiderman celebration.