Juan Arango

Venezuelan Football is almost unknown for most of people around the world,
but in the recent football history, some Venezuelan players have been on top of the
football elite; Miku Fedor, Roberto Rosales, Salomn Rondn and Toms Rincn
are the best players right now in the national squad, but there is a player who
started everything, and is considered by many people as the best player in
Venezuelan football history, his name is Juan Arango also known as El capi. Juan
Fernando Arango Saenz was born on May 17th 1980, in Maracay, Venezuela. He
is a Venezuelan Football player who plays for the New York Cosmos in the Major
League Soccer as a midfielder. He is one of the few Venezuelan players ever to
play in a first division team in any important European league. He spent the better
part of his career in the Spanish league playing with Mallorca, he appeared in 196
official games, he also played several years with Borussia Monchengladbach, for
which he signed at the age of 29. In Venezuelan squad he is the record holder for
scoring 23 times in 127 matches between 1997 and 2015, he represented the
national team in six Copa America tournaments.
He started playing as a professional at the age of sixteen with Nueva Cadiz
(Now Zulia F.C) which ascended to the Venezuelan first division. The following
season he joined Caracas F.C but six months later was bought by Mexicos
Monterrey, then he represented Puebla and Pachuca in that country, until 2004
when he joined La Liga with Mallorca in Spain, coached by Benito Floro, who was
his boss back in Monterrey.In 2005 Arango suffered a serious injury, a brutal
collision with Sevillas defender Javi Navarro. He fell unconscious, broke his
cheekbone, shallowed his tongue and got serious cuts in his face. He returned to
play a month later and in the following season was the teams top scorer with
eleven goals. In 2006 he was elected by the European Football Association as the
third best Latin American Player in any European league. He missed only one
match in the 2006-2008 period, without receiving any red card.
In 2009 he was officially signed for Borussia Monchengladbach for 3.6 million of
euros, penning a three-year contract. He played along with the German player

Marcus Reus who considers Juan as a teacher of his football. In his third season in
the Bundesliga he scored six goals in 34 games and also provided 12 assists, as
his team finished fourth and qualified for the UEFA Champions League, on
December 10th 2012, Gladbach manager Lucien Favre hailed Arango as one of
the best left-footed players in the world, after the Venezuelan scored a 48-yard
goal in a 20 defeat of FSV Mainz 05 the previous day. In the following year, he
was ranked as the most popular footballer in the world by the International
Federation of Football History & Statistics. In 2013 he was elected by World Soccer
as the best free kick scorer in that season, over Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Pirlo. Between 2009-2014 Juan scored 25 times in 154 appearances. For that
reason, In Germany he was known as The special Juan referring to the special
one, the golden left foot or the Caribbean hurricane
Arango returned to Mexico at the age of 34, signing with Club Tijuana on May
22th 2014, coached by Cesar Farias who was his former coach in the Venezuelan
squad, In April of the following year he was handed a two-match ban by the
Mexican Football Federation, after footage showed him biting Monterrey player
Jess Zavala. He found the net 11 times in 45 matches.
In the Venezuelan squad his first appearance was in 1999 when he was 19. At
the 2004 Copa Amrica, Arango appeared in all three group stage matches for
Venezuela. In the 2007 edition, held in his country, he helped the national team
finish first in the group stage, and scored in the quarterfinals against Uruguay, but
in a 14 defeat, Also in that year, Arango was chosen national team captain by
newly appointed coach Csar Faras. In the 2011 Copa Amrica in Argentina, he
helped the Vinotinto finish a best-ever fourth in the continental competition, scoring
in the last match, a 14 loss against Peru for what was his 100th cap. In his 116th
international appearance, Arango levelled the record for the most goals scored for
Venezuela with 22 goals, scoring in the 56th minute against Bolivia in a 11 draw
for the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers on June 7th 2013.
In 2015 he decided to retire of the Venezuelan squad, and he played his last
match against Panam.

On January 28th, 2016, Arango joined the New York Cosmos of the North
American Soccer League, he is already known by his lethal free-kick skills, his first
match was against Ottawa Fury, in that game Arango scored 2 times, placing him
as the first player to score twice in a debut match for the North American Club. He
is an associated partner of Zulia F.C, he also expressed that he wanted to end his
career in that club, where he started to play.

Juan Arango

Teacher:

By:

Jonathan Ytriago

Juan Borregales
C.I: 19.446.799

May, 14th 2016