Juan Pablo Caffa (born 30 September 1984) is an Argentine former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. His nickname was "El violinista del Viaducto" (literally translated as "The

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

ist of the viaduct"), as he played an imaginary

during his

goal celebration In sports, a goal celebration is the practice of celebrating the scoring of a goal. The celebration is normally performed by the goalscorer, and may involve their teammates, the manager or coaching staff or the supporters of the team. Whilst r ...

s. His professional career, other than in his own country where he represented

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

Ferro Carril Oeste Club Ferro Carril Oeste, known simply as Ferro Carril Oeste or familiarly, Ferro, is an Argentine sports club from the neighbourhood of Caballito, Buenos Aires. Although many activities are hosted by the club, Ferro is mostly known for its footb ...

and

Arsenal de Sarandí An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

(two spells), was spent in Spain, Greece, Uruguay, Ecuador and the United States.

Club career

Argentina

Born in

Murphy, Santa Fe Murphy is a town in the General López Department of the Santa Fe Province, Argentina. It is named after an Irishman, John James Murphy, from Haysland, near Kilrane, County Wexford, close to Rosslare Harbour. Born in 1822 into a Catholic family, M ...

, Caffa was part of

Club Atlético Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the Arge ...

youth system, being already with the first team when it won the 2003 ''Apertura'', although he only featured in one

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

match. In the following years, he played with

and

Spain

After a number of strong displays with Arsenal during the 2006 ''Apertura'' tournament, Caffa earned a

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

2 million transfer to

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

in the January 2007 transfer window. He played his first

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

match on 4 February against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

, but went scoreless in his six

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

appearances, also not finding the net in his first full campaign although he did not start regularly for the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

ns. In 2008–09, Caffa played on loan with

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, being an important attacking element as they returned to the first division after just one year out. Again at Betis, he appeared in 32 games – although only ten starts– and scored seven goals, but the club failed to regain top-flight status.

Return to Argentina

In early December 2010, Caffa bought out the remainder of his contract with Betis and returned to Argentina to his former team Arsenal, agreeing on a three-year contract.

Club statistics

(asterisk signals statistics drawn from all competitions)

Honours

Arsenal Sarandí *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

: 2012 Clausura

References

External links

Argentine League statistics
* *
Statistics
at

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is considered a newspaper ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Caffa, Juan Pablo 1984 births Living people People from General López Department Argentine footballers Association football wingers Argentine Primera División players Boca Juniors footballers Ferro Carril Oeste footballers Arsenal de Sarandí footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Real Betis players Real Zaragoza players Super League Greece players Asteras Tripolis F.C. players Uruguayan Primera División players Defensor Sporting players Ecuadorian Serie A players L.D.U. Loja footballers C.D. Universidad Católica del Ecuador footballers USL Championship players FC Tulsa players Fresno FC players Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Uruguay Expatriate footballers in Ecuador Expatriate soccer players in the United States Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Greece Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Uruguay Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States Sportspeople from Santa Fe Province