Maxi Lopez

Maximiliano "Maxi" Gaston Lopez (born 3 April 1984) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a second striker.

Lopez holds both an Argentine and an Italian passport. He is known as El Rubio ("The Blonde"), and La Gallina de Oro ("The Golden Hen").

Club Career

River Plate

Lopez began his career in 1997 with River Plate. On 19 August 2001, at age 17, he made his senior debut, against Talleres de Cordoba. That same season, he was officially promoted to the senior squad following five years with the youth program. With River Plate, he was a standout striker and the club won the Torneo Clausura in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Lopez remained with the club until his transfer to Spanish giants Barcelona in January 2005. With River Plate, he made 56 appearances, scoring 13 goals.

Barcelona

In January 2005, Barcelona signed Lopez for €6.2 million following an injury to striker Henrik Larsson. On his UEFA Champions League debut on 23 February 2005, he came on as a second-half substitute for Ludovic Giuly and within four minutes beat Chelsea defender William Gallas to score an equalizer with his first shot for the club, an eventual 2–1 first-leg win. His only other goal for the club came in a Copa del Rey tie against Zamora on 11 January 2006. Lopez failed to break into the club's first team; in his two seasons in La Liga, he made just 14 league appearances.

Mallorca, Moscow and Gremio

Lopez transferred to Mallorca on loan for the 2006–07 season, scoring 3 goals in 25 matches, and returned to Barcelona in the summer of 2007, only to be sold to FC Moscow on 16 August 2007 after a €2 million transfer fee was agreed by the clubs. With Moscow, Lopez made 22 league appearances and scored 9 goals.

This page also has a version in other languages :  Макси Лопес (russian)