In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Santa Cruz and the second or maternal family name is Cantero.
Roque Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz with Paraguay in 2011
Personal information
Full name
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero[1]
Date of birth
(1981-08-16) 16 August 1981 (age 42)
Place of birth
Asunción, Paraguay
Height
1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)[2]
Position(s)
Striker
Team information
Current team
Libertad
Number
24
Youth career
1990–1997
Olimpia
Senior career*
Years
Team
Apps
(Gls)
1997–1999
Olimpia
24
(13)
1999–2007
Bayern Munich
155
(31)
2005–2006
Bayern Munich II
6
(2)
2007–2009
Blackburn Rovers
57
(23)
2009–2013
Manchester City
20
(3)
2011
→ Blackburn Rovers (loan)
9
(0)
2011–2012
→ Betis (loan)
33
(7)
2012–2013
→ Málaga (loan)
31
(8)
2013–2014
Málaga
43
(9)
2015–2016
Cruz Azul
10
(4)
2015–2016
→ Málaga (loan)
17
(2)
2016–2021
Olimpia
148
(66)
2022–
Libertad
40
(13)
International career
1999
Paraguay U20
13
(6)
2000
Paraguay U23
4
(2)
1999–2016
Paraguay
112
(32)
Medal record
Representing Paraguay
Copa América
Runner-up
2011 Argentina
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 19:31, 8 December 2022 (UTC)
Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero (locally[ˈrokeˈlwissantaˈkɾuskanˈteɾo]; born 16 August 1981) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a striker for Paraguayan Primera División club Club Libertad. He is the record goal scorer and has earned over 100 caps for the Paraguay national team, thus he is regarded as one of the best players in the nation's history. Santa Cruz has scored goals at a professional level in each of the last four decades.[3]
Santa Cruz started his career with Olimpia, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad where he made his debut at the age of 15 in 1997.[4] He finished his career with the club having scored 13 goals in 24 Primera División appearances where Olimpia claimed the 1997, 1998 and 1999 Primera División titles. Santa Cruz scored three goals in four appearances for Paraguay at the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship before debuting for the Paraguay national team at the 1999 Copa América, where he scored three goals in four appearances. He immediately joined Bundesliga club Bayern Munich in August 1999 for a fee of €5 million, which was the highest transfer fee in Paraguayan football until 2019.[5][6] where he scored five goals in 28 league appearances in his first season. He faced a series of injuries and heavy competition from teammates Giovane Élber, Roy Makaay and Claudio Pizarro which limited his impact and restricted his appearances for the club.
Santa Cruz was part of a successful team for Bayern, winning numerous Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and DFB-Ligapokal titles. He also won the 2000–01 UEFA Champions League and the 2001 Intercontinental Cup. He left Bayern Munich in July 2007 to join Blackburn Rovers for a transfer fee of €5 million, where he scored 19 goals in the 2007–08 Premier League season. In June 2009, he joined Manchester City for a fee of £17.5 million on a four-year deal. Since his transfer, he was loaned out to Blackburn and Real Betis.
He represented Paraguay at the 2002, 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cup tournaments, and at the 1999, 2007, 2011 (where Paraguay finished runners-up) and 2015 Copa América tournaments. He retired from international football in 2016,[7] but reversed his decision in May 2019.
^"2006 FIFA World Cup Germany: List of Players" (PDF). FIFA. 21 March 2014. p. 20. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 June 2019.
^"Roque Santa Cruz". Club Olimpia (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 August 2020. Retrieved 5 February 2019.
^"Roque Santa Cruz es el mejor jugador paraguayo de la historia". Nanduti (in Spanish). 8 November 2016. Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 8 November 2016.
^"Málaga y paraguayo Roque Santa Cruz renuevan contrato por tres temporadas más" (in Spanish). peru.com. 11 July 2013. Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
^"Juan Escobar sería el más caro del fútbol paraguayo". 23 May 2019.
^"Confirmado: Roque Santa Cruz vuelve a Olimpia". goal.com (in Spanish). 11 June 2016. Archived from the original on 12 October 2016. Retrieved 12 June 2016.
^"Paraguay, Santa Cruz dice addio alla Nazionale". TUTTOmercatoWEB.com (in Italian). Archived from the original on 9 November 2016. Retrieved 9 November 2016.
Roque Luis SantaCruz Cantero (locally [ˈroke ˈlwis santa ˈkɾus kanˈteɾo]; born 16 August 1981) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as a...
holds the most appearances for the national team with 148 matches and RoqueSantaCruz is the all-time leading goal scorer with 32 goals. Denis Caniza, who...
Paraguaya. SantaCruz is most notable for scoring during the first–leg of the 2014 Copa Libertadores Finals. He is also the brother of RoqueSantaCruz. In August...
from Carlos Gamarra, RoqueSantaCruz, Julio César Cáceres and Jorge Martín Núñez. In Round 16 of the qualifiers, RoqueSantaCruz scored with a left foot...
RoqueSantaCruz (1997), Ruben Maldonado (1997) and Julio César Caceres (1999). Baez was transferred to J1 League club Avispa Fukuoka whilst Santa Cruz...
goalscorer, aged 17 years and 205 days, breaking the previous record of RoqueSantaCruz, aged 18 years and 12 days. On 3 November, Musiala made his Champions...
Rican pole vaulter RoqueSantaCruz (born 1981), Paraguayan footballer Victor Cruz (born 1986), American football player Wendy Cruz (born 1976), Dominican...
would like to stay connected with football. Along with players such as RoqueSantaCruz and Amr Zaki, Michu was described as a 'one-season wonder' by sports...
Erico, Aurelio González, Romerito and José Luis Chilavert. In 2016, RoqueSantaCruz was regarded as one of the best players in the nation's history. Paraguay's...
public, was established in 2004. Justo Villar was the inaugural winner. SantaCruz played the first half of 1999 for Olimpia, before being transferred to...
Pit-os, Pulangbato, Sambag I, Sambag II, San Antonio, San Jose, San Roque, Sirao, SantaCruz, T. Padilla, Talamban, Taptap, Tejero, Tinago, Zapatera Population...
Bentley (£500,000), Ryan Nelsen (free), Stephen Warnock (£1.5 million), RoqueSantaCruz (£3.5 million), and Christopher Samba (£400,000). Rovers finished tenth...
adjacent roques (those of Salmor, Fasnia, Bonanza, Garachico and Anaga). Its capital is the city of SantaCruz de Tenerife (commonly known as SantaCruz), on...
SantaCruz de Tenerife (Spanish: [ˈsanta ˈkɾuθ ðe teneˈɾife]) (Spanish: [ˈsanta ˈkɾus ðe teneˈɾife]), commonly abbreviated as SantaCruz, is a city, the...
Claudio Pizarro and Salihamidžić for Niko Kovač, Carsten Jancker and RoqueSantaCruz respectively. Liverpool substituted Gerrard and Riise for Igor Bišćan...
formerly known as the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (KIAC) RoqueSantaCruz (born 1981), Paraguayan footballer Rules of the Supreme Court, rules...