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Birthdate:
08.06.1984
Birthplace: San Lorenzo, Argentina
Other clubs: River Plate, Corinthians, West Ham, Barcelona
Bought from: West Ham
Signed for LFC: £18600000 30.01.2007 (on loan) - 29.02.2008 permanently
International debut: 16.07.2003 vs. Uruguay
International caps: 62/2 (11.08.2010)
Liverpool debut:
24.02.2007
Last appearance: 15.08.2010
Debut goal: 15.03.2008
Last goal: 25.02.2010
Contract expiry: 30.08.2010
LFC league games/goals: 94 / 1
Total LFC games/goals: 139 / 2
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Player Notes:
Mascherano started his career with River Plate in the 2003-2004 season and attracted interest for his displays in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. He joined Brazilian club Corinthians in the 2005-2006 season for 7,5 million pounds. He won the Campeonato Brasileiro with Corinthians, together with Argentine teammate Carlos Tévez. He had a very impressive World Cup in Germany in 2006 and in the autumn he was transferred to West Ham along with Tévez by his "owners" Media Sports Investment. He only played 7 games in a struggling Hammers team and was very much on the sidelines when Benítez came in for him. Liverpool had to court FIFA to get him because of FIFA Article 5.3, which states that a player may not sign for more than three clubs, and play for more than two, between 1 July of one year and 30 June of the next.
Benítez said at the time: "There is a big difference between the law and the rules. A worker cannot be stopped working. That's the law of the European community. There are players in the world now who have played for three or four clubs in a season. The rules are one thing, but the law is another. Nobody can stop people moving to other jobs. They have freedom and they need to work." He had his reasons for getting Mascherano: "He is a player with a good character, good mentality and personality and has the qualities we need. I knew about this player when he was with River Plate. He was playing in their reserve team but already in the national team. That shows you the quality and the character of the player. I have been speaking with one of his former managers and he was talking really well about him as a player, a person and a professional."
Liverpool paid initially 1,6 million pounds to get Mascherarno on loan with a view to a permanent transfer in January 2007 and he certainly impressed the fans, players and Rafa. Even Maradona is a big fan: "Mascherano has the biggest talent of all the young players I have seen in the last years. He is a monster of a player and destined for great things." 'Jefecito' or 'Little chief' is a tough-tackling player, who distributes the ball well and encourages others to give their best. In only his 11th game he was Liverpool's best performer in the Champions League final vs. Milan in Athens. On 29th of February 2008 after intense speculation about his future he signed a permanent contract with Liverpool who paid the required 17 million pounds. Once his immediate future had been resolved by the signing of a four-year contract, Liverpool supporters quickly began to see the best of the little Argentinian and he soon became a crowd favourite, even though that was often at the expense of another popular overseas player in Alonso. March 2008 was a mixed month for Mascherano as he scored his first Liverpool goal with a brilliant effort against Reading at Anfield but was then sent off by Steve Bennett at Old Trafford a week later for confronting the referee at length after a yellow card had been given to Fernando Torres. The usual one-game League ban for a straight red card was extended to 3 games with an additional 2-game ban for improper conduct. He continued to play in the Champions League because his ban was only for domestic matches and he also figured in most of the remaining League fixtures after the ban had been served.
Mascherano represented Argentina in the Olympic games in Beijing in August 2008 as one of their over-23 year old players and became the only football player to have won two Olympic gold medals as he was also in Argentina's successful team in Athens 2004. Soon after being appointed head coach of Argentina in November 2008, Diego Maradona appointed Mascherano as team captain on 10 November 2008 "because I believe he is the Argentinian player who is closest to the idea I have about the Argentinian shirt - sweat for it, sacrifice for it, being a professional, being close to the team-mate." The Argentinan was however not as dynamic as was expected for Liverpool for the first part of the 2008-9 season and clearly suffered from not getting sufficent rest over the summer because of his international duties. He got back to his very best and it was hardly surprising that big clubs such as European champions, Barcelona, showed strong interest in him during the summer. Mascherano's agent claimed that his client wanted to join Barca, but Liverpool don't want to sell him under any circumstances.
Argentina's captain took a while to get going in the 2009-10 season, confessing he found it hard to motivate himself after his proposed move to Barcelona fell through. A couple of months into the season he got back to his usual tremendous standards in Liverpool's midfield, only missing 4 Premier League matches and 4 cup matches during the whole campaign. Even though he didn't miss many matches, his presence certainly was missed when he was unavailable. However, he was the architect of his own unavailability, not once but twice, receiving red cards first for an unnecessary lunge at United's van der Sar at Anfield in October and then, perhaps unluckily, for another unnecessarily late lunge during an abject team display at Portsmouth just before Christmas. He was ranked #1 on the displinary list in the 2009-2010 Premier League season with 9 yellows and 2 red.
Never expected to be or likely to become a regular goalscorer, Mascherano woke the statisticians up with a thrilling long-range drive in the Europa League match against Unirea Urziceni in Romania towards the end of February. A few weeks earlier a similarly fierce drive from about the same distance in the Goodison derby had deflected off Yobo and into the Gladwys Street goal. Mascherano's run and dive in front of the away supporters told everyone anything they needed to know about the player's passion and enthusiasm and his pride in wearing a Liverpool shirt.
Irrespective about whether or not he has a good World Cup, the tournament will inevitably be followed by a period of speculation surrounding several Liverpool players and such a list will certainly include Javier Mascherano. Courted most notably by Barcelona during the summer of 2009, they and/or other high-profile clubs are quite likely to try and entice Mascherano away from Liverpool despite the player signing a four-year extension to his contract in 2008.
World Cup 2010 : Having played for every minute of his country's appearance at the 2006 World Cup finals, Javier was now Argentina's captain and was therefore expected to be an ever-present again. However, after the opening two group matches against Nigeria and South Korea, Maradona left him out of the final group match against Greece. He was back (and still captain ... Messi had taken that role against the Greeks) for the knock-out matches with Mexico and Germany but three second-half goals by the Germans ensured that one of the pre-tournament favourites went home earlier than expected.
After a summer of intense speculation linking Mascherano with Barcelona, an unsettling situation that caused new Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson to leave the Argentinian out of some early-season competitive squads, a fee was finally agreed between the two clubs a few days before the end of the transfer-deadline and that gave permission for the Catalan club to talk to the player about his future. On the penultimate day of August Barcelona confirmed that Mascherano had signed a four-year deal for a fee believed to be 17,25 million pounds. |
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