Pablo Aimar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Pablo Aimar | ||
| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Pablo César Aimar | |
| Date of birth | November 3, 1979 | |
| Place of birth | Rio Cuarto, Argentina | |
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in) | |
| Playing position | Attacking midfielder, Winger | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| River Plate | ||
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 1995–2001 2001–2006 2006– |
River Plate Valencia CF Real Zaragoza |
83 (21) 162 (27) 53 (5) |
| National team2 | ||
| 1999– | Argentina | 51 (8) |
|
1 Senior club appearances and goals |
||
Pablo César Aimar (born November 3, 1979 in Rio Cuarto) is an Argentine football player, who currently plays attacking midfielder for Real Zaragoza of the Spanish La Liga. He holds a Spanish passport.[1]
He is nicknamed El Payaso ("The Clown"). Other nicknames include El Cai, Pablito.
He is an attacking midfielder famed for tricks, pace and vision.
Contents |
[edit] Life and career
[edit] Club career
Aimar began his ascent to stardom with River Plate, whose first team he joined for the 1997/98 season after rejecting a place at medical school, and with whom he quickly established himself as one of the best young players in Argentina.
Valencia CF signed Aimar in 2001, at a price of 24 million Euros. The purchase proved justified, as Aimar helped lead the team to a first-place finish in the 2001-02 Spanish season as well as finishing runners-up in the 2001 UEFA Champions League final, in which they were defeated by Bayern Munich. Aimar also won the UEFA Cup with Valencia, defeating Olympique Marseille in 2004.
On April 12, 2006, he was hospitalized after being diagnosed with acute viral meningitis, but made a quick recovery and returned to play for his team.
During the summer of 2006 Aimar joined spanish side Real Zaragoza for 12 million Euros.
Hence, over speculation in Turkish media has reported Trabzonspor will make an 8 million euro offer to Real Zaragoza to lure him to Turkey.
On February 12, 2007 he was awarded as the best Ibero-American La Liga player of the 2005/2006 season by news agency EFE.[2]
[edit] International career
Aimar has played over 50 times for Argentina since his debut in 1999[3]
He played in the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. At the 2002 World Cup he played well against England when he came on for Juan Veron, which led coach Marcelo Bielsa to start him against Sweden, leaving Juan Veron on the bench.
Diego Maradona said that Aimar was "his legitimate successor as the world's best player" and that he would pay to watch Aimar play (although it is worth noting that Maradona has said that about all players touted as his successor, including Andres D'Alessandro, Carlos Tevez, Marcelo Carrusca and Lionel Messi)
He scored the last goal of the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup, during Argentina's 4-1 loss in the final to champions Brazil.
He played for Argentina in the Copa América 2007. Argentina were runners-up losing to Brazil in the final.
[edit] Honors and awards
[edit] 
Argentina national football team
[edit] River Plate
- Apertura 1996/97
- Copa Libertadores 1996
- Clausura 1996/97
- Supercopa Sudamericana 1997
- Apertura 1997/98
- Apertura 1999/00
- Clausura 1999/00
[edit] 
Valencia
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Diego Forlán |
Trofeo EFE Best Iberoamerican Player of the Spanish League 2006-2007 |
Succeeded by Lionel Messi |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
