Gonzalo Higuain

Gonzalo Gerardo "El Pipita" Higuaín (Spanish pronunciation: [ɡonˈθalo iɣwaˈin]) (born 10 December 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer. He was born in France, attaining Argentine citizenship in 2007, and now holding dual nationality. He currently plays as a striker for Real Madrid and the Argentina national football team.

Early Life

Higuaín was born in Brest, France, the son of the Argentine former footballer Jorge Higuaín, who was playing for Stade Brestois 29 as an expatriate. Therefore, he holds dual French-Argentine nationality. Having left the country at the age of 10 months, he did not return to France until the 1998 FIFA World Cup. Even though he does not speak French, he holds a French passport because his father was naturalized in France. He successfully applied for Argentine nationality in January 2007.

Higuaín has two older brothers, Nicolas and Federico and one younger brother, Lautaro. His mother, Nancy Zacarías, is an artist, she is of Palestinian origin (Christian city of Bethlehem).

River Plate

Higuaín started playing in the youth teams and made his debut with River Plate in a 2–1 defeat against Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata on 29 May 2005. On 12 February 2006, he scored his first league goal in a 3–1 victory over Banfield. Higuaín ended the 2005–06 season with five goals in 12 appearances.

Following his brace in the Superclásico derby against Boca Juniors on 8 October 2006, River Plate manager Daniel Passarella declared that Higuain had an "enormous future" and was "destined for superstardom." In the following season, he scored eight goals in 17 league matches.

Real Madrid

In June 2010, Real Madrid extended Higuaín's contract until 2016. On 23 October 2010, he scored Real Madrid's 5200th league goal, against Racing Santander on a 6–1 trashing by the Whites. On 4 November of the same year, Gonzalo entered the history of Real Madrid by being the scorer of the club's 700th goal in the Champions League.

On the first weeks of December 2010, Higuaín was diagnosed with a herniated lumbar disc, and was suggested by Real's medical staff to have it operated. On 5 January 2011, Real Madrid announced he would finally undergo surgery at the Department of Neurological Surgery of Chicago's Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine under the command of Dr. Richard G. Fessler, M.D. The surgery took place on 11 January, and Higuaín was discharged from the hospital the next day following a successful operation.He was expected to spend at least four months away from the field in the recovery process. Two months spent to recover from the surgery and another two to train with the team, however he was able to make an early comeback. On 23 April 2011, Higuaín scored a hat-trick against Valencia in a 3–6 away win in Estadio Mestalla, giving him 8 goals in 8 matches against Valencia. Higuaín also assisted two other goals for Karim Benzema and Kaká in that same match.

Gonzalo Higuaín opened his tally for the new league season with a goal against Getafe on September 10.On September 24, 2011 he scored his second goal of the season in a game against Rayo Vallecano which ended in a 6–2 win. On October 2, 2011 he scored his first hat-trick of the season against Espanyol in a 4–0 away win. On October 8, 2011 he scored a hat-trick for Argentina in a 4–1 win against Chile, to take his tally of goals for the Argentina shirt to 12 goals from 20 games. On October 15, 2011 he scored yet another hat-trick in a 4–1 win against Real Betis. That means "El Pipita" has scored 9 official goals in less than two weeks time.

International Career

Higuaín initially rejected calls from both the Argentine and French national teams, claiming at the time he was undecided for which country he would prefer to play, before choosing Argentina. Higuaín was called up by the Argentina Olympic squad for a friendly match against Guatemala in February 2008, and scored two goals in his debut as Argentina won 5–0, though the match was not officially recognized by FIFA as "A" international matches.

Higuaín was selected for Argentina by coach Diego Maradona for the last 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification games against Peru and Uruguay. He scored his first goal on his full debut, a 49th minute strike during a 2–1 win over Peru on 10 October 2009. He netted his second goal for Argentina in the 1–0 win over Germany at the Allianz Arena in Munich on 3 March 2010, right on the stroke of half-time, pouncing on a mistake made by German goalkeeper Rene Adler, in which Higuaín tapped into an open net from about 25 yards out. Following Argentina's qualification, Higuaín was included in the squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He scored a hat-trick in Argentina's 4–1 win over South Korea in their second group match,becoming the third Argentinian to score a hat-trick in the World Cup finals, after Guillermo Stábile in 1930 and Gabriel Batistuta in 1994 and 1998, and the first player to score a hat-trick in the tournament since 2002. His goal in the 3–1 defeat of Mexico in the Second Round took him to a total of four, and he remained one of the top scorers for Argentina in the competition.

Shortly after a disappointing World Cup campaign, on 7 September 2010, Higuaín scored in a friendly match against newly crowned world champions Spain making it 2–0, a game that ended 4–1.

Higuaín is one of only three foreign-born players to have played for Argentina in a FIFA World Cup, along with Pedro Arico Suárez and Constantino Urbieta Sosa.

Higuain scored the equalizer against Uruguay in the Copa America quarter-finals, and he scored a goal hitting the upright twice before going into the net in the penalty shootout where they lost 4-5.

Team in the Asian tour with Argentina, led by new coach Alejandro Sabella On September 2, Gonzalo Higuain played in the match against Venezuela in the city of Calcutta in India, Argentina won 1-0 in Argentina scoring Nicolás Otamendi. Higuain scored the first goal September 6, for Argentina when they beat Argentina 3-1 to Nigeria In the city of Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the help of Lionel Messi and had a role in the third goal, but did not record his name. On 8 October 2011, Gonzalo scored a hattrick and assisted one goal for Messi in a 4-1 win against Chile, To take his tally of goals for the Argentine national team shirt 12 goals from 20 games.