Juan Sebastian Veron has just announced that he's returning for one last go at the beautiful game, and we couldn't be happier to see him back
With the news that Juan Sebastian Veron is un-hanging up the boots to return to play for his beloved Estudiantes again, there was only one man's career that we could cover in this week's profile.
He comes from a footballing dynasty of sorts, in which his father Juan Ramón Verón (known as
La Bruja)
and his uncle, Pedro Verde had also been professional footballers, with the latter having a spell in England at Sheffield United when Juan was still just a boy.
The man they call
La Brujita (which means the little witch) started his career with Estudiantes in La Plata in Argentina in 1993, and helped them to return to Argentina's top flight in 1995. Ultimately, he was destined to move on to one of the giants of Argentine football, as he was signed by Boca Juniors, and playing alongside some lad called Diego Maradona.
He was then noticed on an international stage as Sven-Göran Eriksson snapped him up for his Sampdoria side at the time, . Here he began to really dominate games, and moved to Parma and eventually to Lazio. Despite having all these clubs, he was anything but a journeyman, the reason for all the moves being to do with the fact that he was so highly sought after. While goals were not the only thing to his game, he did score a few tasty little numbers in his time in Serie A.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48h2CNJj28E
With Parma, in 1999, he won the Uefa Cup in a team that featured a few of the most iconic players of their generation in Roberto Sensini, Lilian Thuram, Gianluigi Buffon, Fabio Cannavaro, Hernan Crespo, Dino Baggio, and Faustino Asprilla. We've heard a few of those names before we think...
He moved then to Lazio (along with Crespo), and it was from here that Manchester United bought him. However, his time in England was certainly not a highlight for his career, and there is no doubting that the Premier League did not see the best of his talents. His talent was undoubted, and the ability was there, but certainly it could be said his career stalled somewhat at this point.
Alex Ferguson was one man who was sure that he was a great player, and famously told the assembled crew of reporters that they were 'not very intelligent' for questioning him, but he didn't use such polite language. He did knick a few goals, as this compilation video, set to a truly, truly awful soundtrack, shows.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlDuC0FM8rQ
Perhaps, had he arrived a few years later, or even were he in his pomp now, his time at Old Trafford would have gone very differently indeed. A move to Chlesea (at about half the price he signed for United at) came afterwards, where he made very few appearances, and ended up on loan to Internazionale, where the mere smell of Italian soil had him in better form almost immediately. However, the pace of the game and the fact that the teams were built to hold possession and build slowly also suited his deep-lying play-making style.
2009 was to see the realisation of a dream for Verón, as he returned to Estudiantes, his boyhood club where he began his career. He was able to lead by example, as captain, and guided his team to success in the Copa Libertadores final (the South American equivalent of the Champions League) against Cruzeiro of Brazil, in a series of displays that saw him stand out as one of the best players on the continent.
Yesterday, having retired before the start of last season, Veron announced he would come back, and is donating his wages to the club's youth teams. His contract runs through until next June, so we would advise that you get your hands on some method of watching the Argentine league for what will surely be the last roundspin on the aul turnybob of football for one of the best midfielders in many a generation. The word 'legend' barely covers it...
