Out In The Cold

Many of Argentina's best young players soon find themselves in Europe, plying their trade in Spain, Italy, England, Germany.....and Russia.

In the past few years, Russian money has been finding it's way to South America and taking some of the finest young talent they can get their hands on. The policy has worked very well for CSKA Moscow, with their Brasilian trio of Daniel Carvalho, Vagner Love and Dudu. CSKA won the Uefa Cup in 2005 and only a couple of days ago defeated 2006 Champions League finalists, Arsenal.

CSKA's rivals, Spartak Moscow, went down a similar route but with mixed results for both the club and the players involved. Sports Magician details the rise and fall of the man formerly known as "Argentina's next no.9".

Fernando Cavenaghi has long been expected to be the eventual successor to Hernan Crespo for the Argentina national team. Brought up through the pipeline of talent that is River Plate, "El Torito" made his professional debut for Los Millonarios in 2000/2001. It was not long before Cavenaghi was a fixture in the side, and instinctively scoring goals week after week. His strike rate improved year after year, in 2002 he scored 22 goals in 33 apperances. In 2003, he improved with a record of 23 goals in 29 games and in 2004 continued his prolific ways with 9 goals in 13 outings.

Rumours of Cavenaghi's future being in Europe picked up momentum after the 2003 World Youth Championships. Argentina, without Carlos Tevez due to injury and a club-country dispute, were still expected to be one of the main contenders for the title given the depth and quality of Albiceleste youth sides. Argentina ended up losing to Brasil in the Semi-Finals (with the winner in a 1-0 triumph coming from Dudu, Brasil also featured Daniel Carvalho). Despite not performing as a team as well as expected, a few names enhanced their standing, Gonzalo Rodriguez, Javier Mascherano, Osmar Ferreyra and Cavenaghi (who captained the side, scoring 4 goals in 7 games). Ferreyra, a left sided midfielder/attacker with a wonderful set piece delivery, quickly moved to CSKA Moscow from River after barely playing 20 games. It was an error, the move was made too soon and he was not ready to adapt to Russian football. After being out of favour he eventually moved back to Argentina and is currently playing for San Lorenzo having not featured on the national stage since that 2003 tournament.

It was a lesson Cavenaghi was not to learn from, stories of Juventus and Barcelona were constantly circulating but no concrete offers ever came in. Having led River to a few Clausura titles but no success in the Copa Libertadores, Cavenaghi appeared to be getting itchy feet and a move to Europe was inevitable after a bust up with then River coach, Leo Astrada. Spartak had big plans to challenge CSKA and saw Cavenaghi as the main piece of the puzzle. For a brief period there was even a bidding war between the two Russian clubs for his services with Spartak eventually securing his signature for a fee of £6.5m - a Russian record. Cavenaghi also reportedly became the highest paid player in the country with a wage that far outweighed what he had been receiving in Argentina.

At the time of the transfer, many including myself felt it was the wrong move. That Russian football was not the best place for Cavenaghi to begin his European adventure and that the difficulties that faced Ferreyra would be liable to hurt Cavenaghi too. 'El Torito' did not come alone, he was joined by Boca Juniors left back, Clemente Rodriguez. Another player who had been tipped as a future regular for the national team. At first both struggled mightily in Russia, and while things have improved for Rodriguez, they never have for Cavenaghi. A poor return of only 8 goals in 34 games during 2004 and 2005 did not help matters. And if that wasn't enough, Cavenaghi was having problems with the coaching changes and being unable to find any type of continuity.

As far as his international aspirations were concerned, he had become a forgotten man. Out of sight and out of mind, Cavenaghi was never called by Bielsa, not even for the 2004 Olympics which came as a shock to many and was a clear signal that Cavenaghi was no longer seen as part of Argentina's future. Following Bielsa's departure, the arrival of Jose Pekerman raised Cavenaghi's hopes of a call up. He was indeed selected for a squad to play an unofficial match against Catalunya in Barcelona. He made a 20 minute appearance as a substitute and laid on a goal. His performance was encouraging, but clearly not enough to impress Pekerman. Cavenaghi would not be seen again in any future squad.

Approaching each transfer window were rumours of Cavenaghi moving back to River or La Liga, nothing materialised. This year his strike rate has improved in front of goal and Spartak Moscow qualified for the Champions League and drawn in a tough group with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan and Sporting Lisbon. Maybe this would be the chance for Cavenaghi to remind the rest of the world he was still a talent worth being utilised in a more high profile league? Not so. Cavenaghi has been left on the bench as Spartak have been able to take only 1 point from a possible 9. Even their hopes of qualifying for the Uefa Cup look dead and buried. Cavenaghi's hopes of getting out of Russia and back into the picture of the national set up seem even more remote than they ever were.

A talent wasted because of a rush to make the first move to Europe, rather than the right move. What is all the more startling is that Maxi Lopez, another River forward, made a move to Barcelona following Cavenaghi's departure. Few would claim that Maxi Lopez is a better forward than Cavenaghi, although with a greater physical presence he has many rough edges and Cavenaghi had already proven he was an outstanding finisher infront of goal with a balanced all round game. Lopez is currently on loan at Mallorca, getting a regular game in arguably the best league in the world enabling him the opportunity to prove whether he is good enough to sink or swim.

Fernando Cavenaghi is finding it hard to swim in Moscow, what with the ice and all...