José Luis Calderón (born October 24, 1970) is an Argentine former football striker. He played for 17 years between 1989 and 2006 without winning a trophy, but since then, between the ages of 36 and 39 he won four major championships with three teams. Nicknamed ''Caldera'', he is remembered for a 48-metre goal he scored against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

in 1999 and for his hat-trick against Estudiantes' derby rivals

Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (; ''La Plata Gymnastics and Fencing Club''), also known simply as Gimnasia, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1887 as "Club de Gimnasia ...

on October 15, 2006. He retired in 2010, at almost 40 years of age.

Club career

After a promising spell in the youth system of

Defensores de Cambaceres Club Defensores de Cambaceres is an Argentine football club from the city of Ensenada, Buenos Aires Province. The team currently plays in Primera C, the regionalised fourth division of the Argentine football league system. The club was founded ...

, he was transferred to

Estudiantes de La Plata Club Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "Students from La Plata"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata , is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, wher ...

, the team he supported as a child, in 1992. His scoring helped the team return from relegation in 1994. Later, he played for Independiente for a year and Italian side S.S.C. Napoli during the 1997–98 season. He returned to Independiente for two years and then moved to

Mexico Mexico ( Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guate ...

to play with and América and

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

. Calderón has had multiple spells with Estudiantes, Independiente and Arsenal de Sarandí. He did not win any major honours until late in his career, winning the 2006 Apertura with Estudiantes and the 2007 Copa Sudamericana with Arsenal. In July 2008 he rejoined Estudiantes for the third time in his career. He was runner-up with the team in the 2008 Copa Sudamericana, and was part of the squad that won the 2009 Copa Libertadores, where he was used exclusively as a substitute. On November 25, 2009, Calderón announced his retirement from professional football at the age of 39. He explained that his decision came after coach Alejandro Sabella informed him that he was not being considered for the

2009 FIFA Club World Cup The 2009 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament played from 9 to 19 December 2009. It was the sixth FIFA Club World Cup and was played in ...

. Sabella denied that this was indeed the case. On January 4, 2010, Calderón announced that

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of th ...

coach Claudio Borghi convinced him to return to football, after a brief retirement from the game. In an article, Calderón stated, "El Bichi (Borghi) has given me the chance to retire from within a football field". He agreed to play for Argentinos for six months and then possibly retire. Calderón was one of the key players in the Argentinos' team that won the 2010 Clausura championship. He played in 18 of the club's 19 games and scored 3 goals during their championship winning campaign. He also assisted Matías Caruzzo in a vital 93rd-minute winner goal against Independiente in the penultimate fixture of the campaign. After winning the 2010 Clausura, Calderón played one last professional game with his first team,

, in which he scored one last goal from a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

International career

Calderón only had a brief interlude with the Argentina national team. He played in the

1997 Copa América Bolivia hosted the Copa América for the second time in its 38th edition. It was held from 11 to 29 June. It was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. There is no qualifying for the final tournament. All South America ...

, but a fight with the then coach

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning "The Crazy Bielsa"; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional football manager who was most recently the head coach of Premier League club Leeds United. He is a for ...

diminished his chances of ever playing for the national team again.

Personal life

Calderón's son Lucas is a professional footballer.

Honours

Club

;

* Primera División (1): 2006 Apertura *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

(1):

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

;

Arsenal de Sarandí An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American fo ...

(1):

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

;

* Primera División (1): 2010 Clausura

Individual

* Argentine Primera División top scorer (2): 1995 Apertura, 1999 Clausura * Copa Libertadores top scorer (1): 2006

References

External links

José Luis Calderón's goals in Arsenal Futbol Club Of Sarandí (Argentina)
* *
Profile
at Football-Lineups
Argentine Primera statistics
at Futbol XXI {{DEFAULTSORT:Calderon, Jose Luis 1970 births Living people Footballers from La Plata Argentine footballers Argentina international footballers 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Association football forwards Arsenal de Sarandí footballers Club América footballers Atlas F.C. footballers Defensores de Cambaceres footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers S.S.C. Napoli players Serie A players Liga MX players Argentine Primera División players Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico