Iván Hurtado

Football player infobox|playername=Iván Hurtado
fullname = Iván Jacinto Hurtado Angulo
nickname = Bam-Bam


dateofbirth = birth date and age|1974|8|16
cityofbirth = Esmeraldas
countryofbirth = Ecuador
height = height|m=1.80
currentclub = Millonarios
clubnumber = 3
position = defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1990 1991–94 1994–99 1999–01 2001 2001 2002–03 2003–04 2004–2005 2005-2006 2007
2008
2008-
clubs = Esmeraldas Emelec Atletico Celaya UANL Tigres Emelec La Piedad Barcelona SC Real Murcia CF Pachuca Al Arabi Atletico Nacional Barcelona SC Millonarios
caps(goals) = ? (?) 102 (10) 96 (2) 81 (0) 18 (0) 14 (1) 57 (2) 15 (0) 28 (0) 13 (3) 26 (1)
20 (0)
6 (1)
nationalyears = 1993-present
nationalteam = Ecuador
nationalcaps(goals) = 153 (5)
pcupdate = June 2006
ntupdate = 19 july 2008

Iván Jacinto Hurtado Angulo (born August 16, 1974 in Esmeraldas, Ecuador) is a professional football central defender. He has been captain for the Ecuadorian national team since 2000.

Club career

He started his career with the small club of his hometown, Esmeraldas Petrolero, at the age of 16. A year later he moved on to one of Ecuador's biggest clubs in Guayaquil, Emelec, and had two stellar seasons, including a championship with the club with a free kick goal he executed.

His excellent play warranted a switch to the Mexican leagues where he even further developed his defending techniques and his intelligent read of the game. Ivan made a big impact in his first club, Celaya, where he led them to the Mexican league finals. He then moved to Tigres. He then moved on to the La Liga in Spain playing for Real Murcia. [ es cite news | date=2003-12-29 | url=http://elmundodeporte.elmundo.es/elmundodeporte/2003/12/29/liga/1072722320.html | title=El Murcia presenta a Iván Hurtado y Leonel Gancedo | publisher=El Mundo | accessdate=2008-04-03] After a mostly successful spell with Pachuca in Primera División de México, he moved on to Al Arabi in the Qatari League, impressing many over there.

After the FIFA World Cup in Germany, where Hurtado shone, it was reported that high profile clubs such as English Premier League's Wigan Athletic, and Spanish La Liga's Recreativo Huelva and Villarreal CF were highly interested in him. However none of these rumors were accurate, and after spending six more months with Al Arabi, Hurtado moved to Colombia where he played for Atletico Nacional. In 2008, he finally returned to his home country where he currently plays for Barcelona SC, Ecuador's most popular team, He is now playing for the 2008 season next to Millonarios of Colombia

Playing Style

Once a top class defender, he is known in Spanish by his fans as "Bam Bam" for ramming the football with his feet like the Hanna-Barbera character does with his club. Ivan's playing style differs from his national partner, Giovanny Espinoza. While Espinoza is a very large player who uses his size, power and speed to overwhelm his adversary, Hurtado is considered to be very classy and often needs no contact at all to dispossess his adversary. Ivan also makes very clean tackles, organizes his back line as well as the best of them, and can even display confidence with the ball at his feet, and he can occasionally make surprising dashes forward.

A notable long and short passer, Hurtado has also taken free kicks well. Although not able to the bend the ball as well as other notable free kick takers, he has been known to strike the ball with such force that goalkeepers find it hard to judge and time his shots.

International career

Hurtado holds the record as the youngest Ecuadorian to play for his country at just 17 years and 285 days. He has appeared in more CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup qualifiers than any other player, and has more overall international caps than any other South American player. Hurtado was one of the key players who played a major role in securing a first ever World Cup berth for Ecuador in 2002. [cite news | date=2002-05-03 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport3/worldcup2002/hi/team_pages/ecuador/squad/newsid_1951000/1951181.stm | title=Ivan Hurtado's 2002 FIFA World Cup profile | publisher=BBC Sport | accessdate=2007-08-11] He had such an impressive tournament, that he was appointed to succeed former Ecuadorian star Alex Aguinaga to be the captain of a new generation of an ever-improving Ecuador side.

His best performances came in Ecuador's dream tournament in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. His defence left stars such as Polish forward Jacek Krzynowek, Costa Rican striker Paulo Wanchope, and English players Wayne Rooney, Joe Cole, and Steven Gerrard desperate for goals.

However, his form declined in a space of just six months. Nevertheless, he played for Ecuador in Copa América 2007, where his performance was very low and criticized by many of his countrymen as the main reason for Ecuador's early elimination. Hurtado started the first two games against Chile and Mexico but was on the bench the whole game against Brazil.

Hurtado was called up for the first two 2010 World Cup qualifiers against Venezuela and Brazil, miserably losing both matches. As a consequence, he along with teammate Ulises de la Cruz, was excluded from the squad for the next round against Paraguay. [cite news | date=2007-11-06 | url=http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=631712.html#ecuador+snub+hurtado+de+cruz | title=Ecuador snub Hurtado and De la Cruz | work=FIFA | accessdate=2007-11-15] [cite news | date=2007-11-15 | url=http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=482335&cc=5901 | title=World Cup: Troubled Ecuador try to break duck | work=ESPNsoccernet | accessdate=2007-11-15]

References

External links

* [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/ihurtado-intl.html International statistics] at rsssf
* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=2081 Career stats on national-football-teams.com]