Christian Giménez (footballer born 1981)

Christian Giménez

Personal information
Full name	Christian Giménez
Date of birth	February 1, 1981 (1981-02-01) (age 30)
Place of birth	Resistencia, Argentina
Height	1.72 m (5 ft 7 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Attacking Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Cruz Azul
Number	10
Youth career
1989–1998	Boca Juniors
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1998–2002	Boca Juniors	47	(7)
2003	Unión	16	(3)
2003–2004	Independiente	33	(7)
2004–2005	Veracruz	34	(4)
2005–2006	América	34	(5)
2006–2009	Pachuca	127	(46)
2010–	Cruz Azul	66	(20)
National team‡
2009–	Argentina	0	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of May 13, 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of May 13, 2011

Christian "El Chaco" Giménez (born February 1, 1981 in Resistencia, Chaco) is an Argentine football player who currently plays for Cruz Azul in Mexico's professional league, the Mexican First Division. Labeled an Attacking Midfielder, Giménez is one of many talented players to be exported from Boca Juniors.

Career

Argentina

From a very early age, Christian was playing football in a competitive environment. In 1989, he was signed by scouts working for Boca Juniors and was immediately enrolled in the team's youth squad. Almost a decade later, Giménez debuted in the professional Argentine league with Boca Juniors and quickly enjoyed success, being part of the teams that won the Apertura '98, Clausura '99 and Apertura 2002 championships for the Xeneizes, as well as two international titles, the Copa Libertadores of 2000 and 2001.

In 2003, Christian split time at Independiente and Unión and later returned to Independiente for the first half of the 2004 season. Then Giménez migrated to Mexico, as he was transferred to Veracruz.

Mexico

At Veracruz, Giménez was joined by a talented squad that included Walter Jiménez, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Kléber Boas, Braulio Luna and Gustavo Biscayzacú. In Giménez's first season at Veracruz, the team led the entire league in points, with Christian scoring four goals throughout the regular season. Despite being the top-seeded team, Veracruz exited the playoffs in the first round. The following season, Veracruz lost Blanco and Boas in the transfer window, and new signing Leandro Romagnoli was not performing at top level despite his seven figure salary. As a result, the team's performance dropped and Veracruz missed the playoffs. Giménez also saw a drop in production at a personal level, failing to score a goal despite increased play.

Before the Apertura 2005 season, it was reported that Christian's old teammate, Cuauhtémoc Blanco, was trying to convince his team's (América) bosses to sign Giménez for the following season. The executives took Blanco's advice and Giménez was signed to a contract shortly after. In his first season at América, Giménez scored three goals despite limited play (coming off the bench in eight of his nine appearances) and América led the league in points at the end of the regular season. Strangely enough, the set of events that occurred during Blanco and Giménez's (and Kléber Boas, who also migrated to América with Blanco in 2004) partnership in Veracruz repeated themselves at América. Like at Veracruz, their team was the top-seeded club going into the playoffs, and like at Veracruz, América failed to get past the first round of the playoffs, being defeated by UANL Tigres.

Prior to the start of the Apertura 2006 season, Giménez was transferred to Pachuca, who days before had won the Clausura 2006 tournament, defeating Club San Luis - a sister club of Christian's last employer, Club América. 2007 started promisingly to Giménez, scoring 8 goals in three matches.^[1]

El Chaco Giménez is a member of the "Blanco Four", a group of players who once played at Veracruz with Blanco and were signed by América after being recommended by the striker. The other members are Kléber Boas, Carlos Infante and Armando Navarrete. He left his club Pachuca on 17 December 2009 and signed for Cruz Azul. In the tornement Bicentario 2010 Gimenez was a quik starter for the team Cruz Azul, because of the coach Enrique Meza already knowing the great skills that Gimenez had from the years that Meza coached with Pachuca. Although Gimenez was one of the most important transfers of the season, he was not able to lead Cruz azul to qualify for the quarter final's, and was only able to score 2 goals in 16 appearrences. In the Apertura 2010 season Christian Gimenez was criticized by the media because of his bad performance in the first season, and was wanted to be kicked out of Cruz Azul. But in the fifth jornada of the season Christian Gimenez scored his first hat-trick with Cruz Azul in a 3-2 win over Jaguares de Chiapas.^[2]

International career

Former manager Diego Maradona, called up 'El Chaco' for Argentina's world cup qualifiers in June vs. Colombia and Ecuador,^[3] but did not play on any of the two matches.

Titles

Season	Club	Title
Apertura 1998	Boca Juniors	Primera División Argentina
Clausura 1999	Boca Juniors	Primera División Argentina
Apertura 2000	Boca Juniors	Primera División Argentina
2000	Boca Juniors	Copa Libertadores
2001	Boca Juniors	Copa Libertadores
2005	Club América	Primera División de México
2006	Club América	CONCACAF Champions Cup
2006	C.F. Pachuca	Copa Sudamericana
2007	C.F. Pachuca	CONCACAF Champions Cup
2007	C.F. Pachuca	Primera División de México
2007	C.F. Pachuca	North American SuperLiga
2008	C.F. Pachuca	CONCACAF Champions Cup

References

1. ^ http://www.ole.com.ar/notas/2007/04/14/01399680.html
2. ^ Cruz Azul holt Giménez
3. ^ "Otamendi y Bergessio se ganaron un lugar en la lista" (in Spanish). TyC Sports. 22 May 2009. http://tycsports.com/global/not_detail.php?id=49717. Retrieved 18 December 2009. 

External links

• Statistics at Guardian Stats Centre
• (Spanish) Profile
• (Spanish) Club América Profile

Persondata
Name	Gimenez, Christian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1981-02-01
Place of birth	Resistencia, Argentina
Date of death
Place of death