José Luis Calderón (born 24 October 1970) is an Argentine former professional

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 lea ...

who played as a striker. He played for 17 years between 1989 and 2006 without winning a trophy, but between the ages of 36 and 39 he won four major championships with three teams. Nicknamed ''Caldera'', he is remembered for a 48-metre goal he scored against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in 1999 and for his hat-trick against Estudiantes' derby rivals Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata on 15 October 2006. He retired in 2010, at almost 40 years of age.

Club career

After a promising spell in the youth system of Defensores de Cambaceres, he was transferred to

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

, the team he supported as a child, in 1992. His scoring helped the team return from relegation in 1994. Later, he played for Independiente for a year and Italian side

S.S.C. Napoli Società Sportiva Calcio Napoli (), commonly known as SSC Napoli or simply Napoli, is an Italian professional football club based in Naples, Campania that currently competes in the Serie A, the highest league of Italian football. Napoli are am ...

during the 1997–98 season. He returned to Independiente for two years and then moved to Mexico to play with América and

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. Calderón has had multiple spells with Estudiantes, Independiente and Arsenal de Sarandí. He did not win any major honours until late in his career, winning the 2006 Apertura with Estudiantes and the

2007 Copa Sudamericana The 2007 edition of the Copa Sudamericana was played by 34 teams; 30 teams from the CONMEBOL and 4 teams from the CONCACAF. CONMEBOL organized the tournament and invited three North American clubs which were the best three of the CONCACAF Champio ...

with Arsenal. In July 2008 he rejoined Estudiantes for the third time in his career. He was runner-up with the team in the 2008 Copa Sudamericana, and was part of the squad that won the 2009 Copa Libertadores, where he was used exclusively as a substitute. On 25 November 2009, Calderón announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 39. He explained that his decision came after coach Alejandro Sabella informed him that he was not being considered for the

2009 FIFA Club World Cup The 2009 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament played from 9 to 19 December 2009. It was the sixth FIFA Club World Cup and was played in Ab ...

. Sabella denied that this was indeed the case. On 4 January 2010, Calderón announced that

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its association football, football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was reco ...

coach Claudio Borghi convinced him to return to football, after a brief retirement from the game. In an article, Calderón stated, "El Bichi (Borghi) has given me the chance to retire from within a football field". He agreed to play for Argentinos for six months and then possibly retire. Calderón was one of the key players in the Argentinos' team that won the 2010 Clausura championship. He played in 18 of the club's 19 games and scored 3 goals during their championship-winning campaign. He also assisted Matías Caruzzo in a vital 93rd-minute winner goal against Independiente in the penultimate fixture of the campaign. After winning the 2010 Clausura, Calderón played one last professional game with his first team, Defensores de Cambaceres, in which he scored one last goal from a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

International career

Calderón only had a brief interlude with the Argentina national team. He played in the 1999 Copa América, but a fight with the then coach

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning 'The Madman Bielsa'; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional Association football, football manager who is the current manager of the Uruguay national football team ...

diminished his chances of ever playing for the national team again.

Personal life

Calderón's son

Lucas Lucas or LUCAS may refer to: People * Lucas (surname) * Lucas (given name) Arts and entertainment * Luca Family Singers, or the Lucas, a 19th-century African-American singing group * Lucas, a 1960s Swedish pop group formed by Janne Lucas Perss ...

is a professional footballer.

Honours

Estudiantes LP * Primera División: 2006 Apertura *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Arsenal de Sarandí *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Argentinos Juniors * Primera División: 2010 Clausura Individual * Argentine Primera División top scorer: 1995 Apertura, 1999 Clausura * Copa Libertadores top scorer:

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

References

External links

José Luis Calderón's goals in Arsenal Futbol Club Of Sarandí (Argentina)
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Profile
at Football-Lineups * at Futbol XXI {{DEFAULTSORT:Calderon, Jose Luis 1970 births Living people Footballers from La Plata Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's international footballers 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Men's association football forwards Arsenal de Sarandí footballers Club América footballers Atlas F.C. footballers Defensores de Cambaceres footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Copa Sudamericana–winning players Copa Libertadores–winning players Club Atlético Independiente footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers SSC Napoli players Serie A players Liga MX players Argentine Primera División players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Copa Libertadores top scorers