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.^[2]

Diego has a younger brother named Gabriel who is also a footballer, currently playing for Spanish club FC 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. 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^[3]. Milito was one of the top scorers in the La Liga 2006-2007 season^[4]. 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, 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.^[5] 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. On May 20, 2009, La Gazzetta dello Sport confirmed that Milito and his teammate, Thiago Motta were transferred to Internazionale for an undisclosed sum.

[edit] International career

Milito scored a brace on his international debut against Uruguay in 2002, but appeared only intermittently during the following years^[6], and was omitted from the 2006 FIFA World Cup squad^[7]. 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^[8].

[edit] External links

• Diego Milito career stats and news at the Global Football Database
• 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

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