Fernando Ezequiel Cavenaghi (born September 21 1983 in O'Brien, Buenos Aires Province) is an Argentine football player who currently plays for Spartak Moscow. He started playing for Club Atlético River Plate (the team that produced Pablo Aimar and Hernan Crespo among others). He is rated by Gianfranco Zola as the only Argentine he would pay to see play.
Cavenaghi made his debut in the 2000/2001 season for in which he scored 1 goal in 5 appearances. In his first full season he scored 17 goals in 23 appearances including a hat-trick against Estudiantes. He left River at the beginning of the 2004/2005 season joining Spartak Moscow for a fee of £6.5 million. In his time at River he scored 55 times in 88 appearances.
In the 2005 season, playing for Spartak Moscow, he has scored 7 goals in 26 appearances (incomparison to 14 of Kirichenko - the season's top-scorer) but he played his part in helping Spartak reach a UEFA Champions League place.
It had been a tough first season for Cavenaghi though as he found it difficult to adapt to the style of play, the artificial pitches and language.
He started the new 2006 season well, scoring a goal in both legs of the Russian Cup against Luch Vladivostok (Spartak won 2:0 on aggregate) but found himself relegated to the bench by (now ex) Spartak coach Starkov for league games.
Despite not getting many opportunities to play in the league, Cavenaghi's goalscoring form in the cup has continued. He scored in both legs of the semi-final against Saturn (Spartak won 4:2 on aggregate) taking his tally to 4 goals in 7 appearances (4 starts) so far this season.
He got 4th place in 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship.
Career stats (matches/goals)
- 2001 - River Plate (9/3)
- 2002 - River Plate (33/22)
- 2003 - River Plate (29/23)
- 2004 - River Plate (13/9)
- 2004 - Spartak (9/1)
- 2005 - Spartak (25/7)
- 2006 - Spartak (10/5)
External links
- Russian up-to-date fansite
- Argentinian fansite
- Cavenaghi's page on Spartak's official website in English (not entirely up-to-date)
- Cavenaghi's page on Spartak's official website in Russian (up-to-date)
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