Ariel Cabral

Alejandro Ariel Cabral (born September 11, 1987) is an Argentine footballer who currently plays for Cruzeiro.

Club Career

Velez Sarsfield

Cabral started his playing career in 2007 with Velez Sarsfield, during Ricardo La Volpe's coaching era. Despite playing in the youth system as an attacking midfielder, he has mostly played in the first team as a centre midfielder. Cabral was part of Velez' 2009 Torneo Clausura winning team, playing 5 games.

For the entire 2010–11 season, Velez loaned Cabral to Legia Warszawa, for a fee of USD 150,000 and a buyout price of USD 2 million. Cabral showed considerable promise early on (scoring against Arsenal FC in a pre-season friendly and being called up to the senior national team). The Argentine midfielder played 40 minutes (including the extra time) in the final of the 2010–11 Polish Cup and scored on the penalty shootout. Winning the Polish Cup, Legia secured its right to play in the 2011–12 Europa League qualifying games. At the end of the season the club decided not to make use of the buyout clause and Cabral returned to Velez Sarsfield.

Upon his return, Cabral was relegated from Velez's first team by Victor Zapata. However, initially due to the latter's injuries, he started seeing more action during the first half of 2012, playing 15 games during the 2012 Clausura and 9 during the 2012 Copa Libertadores.

After Zapata's departure from the team in June 2012, Cabral established himself as a regular starter, playing all 19 games (and scoring twice) of Velez's 2012 Inicial championship-winning campaign. The midfielder fractured his tibia in 2013 and was left out of the squad for the entire Torneo Final and Copa Libertadores, causing Velez to obtain the loan of Fernando Gago as his replacement. He returned to Velez first team in 2014 and was a starter in the 2013 Supercopa Argentina victory against Arsenal de Sarandi.

Cabral scored his last goal for Velez in a 2–0 victory against Crucero del Norte for

This page also has a version in other languages :  Ариэль Кабраль (russian)