Full name Maximiliano Gastón López
Date of birth April 3, 1984 (1984-04-03) (age 26)
Place of birth Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position Striker
Club career
River Plate
López started his career in 1997 with River Plate. On 19 August 2001, at the mere age of 17, he made his senior debut against Talleres de Córdoba. That same season, the player was officially promoted to the senior squad, following 5 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. López remained with the club until his transfer to Spanish giants FC Barcelona in January 2005. With River Plate, Lopez made over 60 appearances, scoring nearly 20 goals.
FC Barcelona
In January 2005, FC Barcelona signed the Argentine striker for €6.2 million following an injury to striker Henrik Larsson. López failed to break into the club's first team, and despite scoring a wonder goal on his European debut, against Chelsea F.C. in the UEFA Champions League, he was not a regular in the team. In his first season with the Catalan giants, López made just 13 league appearances. He transferred to RCD Mallorca on loan for the 2006–07 season, where he failed to live up to the expectations, scoring only three goals in 25 matches, and hence returned to Barcelona in the summer of 2007, only to be sold simultaneously to FC Moscow.
FC Moscow
On August 16, 2007, López signed with FC Moscow after a transfer fee of €2 million was agreed with Barcelona.[3] With the club, López made 22 league appearances scoring 9 goals, but on February 13, 2009, Brazilian club, Grêmio signed López on a 1-year loan from FC Moscow.[4] During his season long loan, the strker managed 11 goals in 25 league starts, and was scouted as a transfer target by several European clubs including Calcio Catania, Chievo Verona, Genoa CFC, Ajax, and Vfl Wolfsburg
Calcio Catania
On January 20, 2010 Lopez officially signed a 4-year contract with Calcio Catania, in the Italian Serie A.[1] He scored his first Serie A goal on 7 February 2010, providing the only goal in a key 1–0 away win at Stadio Olimpico against struggling S.S. Lazio.[5] Following his transfer, Lopez broke right into the club's starting line-up under coach Sinisa Mihajlovic, knocking Japanese international, Takayuki Morimoto to the bench. Lopez went on to score 12 goals in just 17 appearances for his club, following his winter transfer and instantly became a fan favorite, and a transfer target by many clubs around Italy. Lopez led his club to a 5th consecutive avoidance of relegation, also guiding his team to a record points total for the club, also ensuring a 12th place finish in the league. Under Mihajlovic, Catania lost just 4 games in 6 months, following his appointment on December 8, 2009.
International career
Maxi López represented his birth nation of Argentina at Under-15, Under-17 and Under-20 levels, also taking part to the 2003 South American Youth Championship. He is currently eligible for both Argentina and Italy, as he holds both citizenships and has never represented any national team at senior level. In July 2010 he explicitly stated he might accept a call-up from the Azzurri.
Senior career Stats appearances(goals)2001–2005 River Plate 56 (13)
2005–2007 Barcelona 14 (2)
2006–2007 → Mallorca (loan) 29 (3)
2007–2009 FC Moscow 22 (8)
2009 → Grêmio (loan) 25 (12)
2010– Catania 21 (12)
National team‡
2001 Argentina U17 5 (3)
2001–2004 Argentina U20 29 (8)
Its common knowledge that we need a striker. Quag has done a great job pushing further forward than perhaps he would like to ideally...acting someway between a second striker and a prima punta, when he plays with DP. Now Iaquinta is getting back to fitness, amauri is injured or by now definitely dead as a footballer even when physically fit...we desperately need a target man, a proper prima punta...there have been many reports, from a variety of sources, not just the goal.com goons and their compatriots in the BullsHit Journalism game, linking us to Maxi...Marotta mentioned late last month that it was too early to talk of negogiations for Lopez, but after amauri returned to the team, played shit, then got injured for another month, maybe he will see more urgency, in the pursuit of Lopez, who could well do us proud until the end of the season when we can lose VinnyCenzo (and Amauri if we cant shift him in January), and bring in Dzeko to battle with Lopez for the prima punta role...Anyway, I thought it was worth sticking up on here, to get your opinions, on the liklihood of the transfer, and his suitability to our needs.
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