Diego Milito

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Diego Alberto Milito (born 12 June 1979 in Bernal, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine footballer who currently plays as a striker for Italian Serie A club Internazionale. He also plays for the Argentine national team.^[1]

Diego has a younger brother named Gabriel who is also a footballer, currently playing for Spanish club Barcelona.

[edit] Club career

Diego Milito started playing at Argentine first division Racing Club in 1999, where he won the 2001 Apertura tournament. During this time, his younger brother Gabriel played for Racing's main rival, Independiente.

At the beginning of 2004, Milito moved to Italian second division Genoa. After two very successful seasons, where he scored 33 goals in 59 matches in Italy, Genoa were relegated down to Serie C1 as a punishment for an alleged match-fixing case in the final match of the 2004–05 season. Due to this, Milito was forced to leave Genoa and he joined his brother Gabriel at Real Zaragoza for €5 million. Diego again showed his potential in Spain, scoring four goals in the first semi-final of the 2006 Copa del Rey to beat Real Madrid 6-1. He finished the season as Real Zaragoza's top scorer with 16 goals in the Spanish first division.

Milito was the club captain at Real Zaragoza, taking over this role from brother Gabriel, who departed for FC Barcelona in 2007^[2]. Milito was one of the top scorers in the La Liga 2006-2007 season^[3]. He scored 23 goals, two less than the top goalscorer Ruud van Nistelrooy and three behind European Golden Boot winner Francesco Totti. His goals helped Zaragoza to a sixth place finish in the league. As of January 2008, Diego was averaging higher than a goal every two games for Real Zaragoza, a statistic he also achieved with Genoa.

On 1 September 2008, just a few minutes before the transfer window closure time, Genoa completed the transfer of Milito from Zaragoza for €13 million, after the Spanish team were relegated to Segunda División. His agent Fernando Hidalgo confirmed Milito chose explicitly to return to Genoa despite having received more lucrative offers from other major European clubs.^[4] He made his debut on 14 September against AC Milan. Genoa won this game 2-0 with Milito assisting the first goal and scoring the second. On 9 November, Milito scored his first hat-trick for Genoa in the 4-0 victory against Reggina. He finished the season with 24 goals in 31 league appearances, placing him second behind Zlatan Ibrahimović in the Capocannonieri scoring title.

[edit] Internazionale

On May 20, 2009, La Gazzetta dello Sport confirmed that Milito was transferred to Internazionale for €25 million^[5] (alongside Thiago Motta).

Diego Milito has had an excellent start to his Inter career. Milito opened his score sheet for Inter in the Pirelli Cup game against rivals A.C. Milan when he scored a brace. He then went on to also score in the next game against AS Monaco. Subsequently in his first ever Milan Derby, he assisted two goals and scored a penalty, created by Samuel Eto'o, to cap off a 4-0 victory. On September 13, 2009, he scored his second goal in the Serie A, in a home match against Parma F.C., which they went on to win 2-0, with another goal from new strike partner Samuel Eto'o. He scored all goals for Inter in a 1-2 win against Cagliari. The double goals placed him at the top of the all-time Serie A scoring charts for best strike rate, with 28 goals in 35 games, giving him an average of 0.8 goals per game.^[6] He subsequently scored in the fourth minute in the next match at home to Napoli, scoring the second goal after Samuel Eto'o scored in the first minute. He subsequently returned from injury and scored the fifth goal in a 5-3 win over Palermo, and then scored what would be the winner in a 2-0 win against Livorno the week after, returning his strike rate so far as 7 in 9 Serie A games and 7 in 11 in total. On November 4 he scored his first goal in the Champions League in the 86th minute against Dynamo Kiev. It was the equaliser which led to Wesley Sneijder's game-winner in the 89th.

[edit] International career

Milito scored two goals on his international debut against Uruguay in 2003, but appeared only intermittently during the following years,^[7] and was omitted from the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad.^[8] He was given the nod for first team action against Brazil in September 2006 where he scored with a diving header, and played for Argentina in the Copa América 2007 tournament.^[9]

[edit] External links

• Diego Milito FIFA competition record
• Guardian statistics
• Career details at National football teams

[edit] References

v • d • e Argentina squad – Copa América 2007 Runners-up 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala • 3 Díaz • 4 Ibarra • 5 Gago • 6 Heinze • 7 Palacio • 8 Zanetti • 9 Crespo • 10 Riquelme • 11 Tévez • 12 Carrizo • 13 González • 14 Mascherano • 15 G. Milito • 16 Aimar • 17 Burdisso • 18 Messi • 19 Cambiasso • 20 Verón • 21 D. Milito • 22 Orión • Coach: Basile