Javier Mascherano, whose biography, rating and achievements of which are described in more detail below, has long been considered one of the best supporting midfielders in the world. In this regard, it is not surprising that throughout the career interest in its services was expressed by the strongest clubs in the world. The footballer became famous and won the love of fans of all the teams in which he played, thanks to his ability to give good passes and intransigence in individual martial arts.
First steps
June 8, 1984 in the Argentine city of San Lorenzo, the future star was born - Javier Mascherano (Javier Mascherano). His biography as an aspiring young football player began when the boy was only four years old. His first club then was San Lorenzo Ceramics. At the age of ten, he replaced him with the Barrio Vila. Both clubs were based in the Argentinean hometown. Four years later, he was spotted by the scouts of Renato Cesarini from Rosario. Since there was an opportunity to learn not only football, but also other subjects, Javier accepted the offer to move to a new team. The parents of the young man did not object to this.
Buenos Aires and the youth team
At the age of fifteen, Javier Mascherano underwent preliminary training in the province of Santa Fe, which later allowed him to be in the ranks of River Plate, one of the country's leading clubs. It should be noted that getting into the youth team of this team so early is not so simple. The hard work of the guy in training yielded positive results: his attention was turned to him by Hugo Tokalli - a man who at that time was looking for talents for performances in the youth teams of Argentina in the age categories up to 20 years. Since that time, Javier began to regularly appear on the field as part of various tournaments. In general, this stage of the player’s career has become very productive in terms of trophies won in the youth of the River Plate and the Argentina national team. Then the player received a clearly advantageous offer to move to the Ajax Amsterdam, which he immediately rejected.
Debut for adult teams
When the young man was 19 years old, few of the fans were well-known footballer Mascherano Javier. His biography as a professional, according to the player himself, began with an invitation to play for the national team, led by Marcelo Bielsa. Then a friendly match against the national team of Uruguay, dedicated to the opening of a new arena in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, ended in a draw 2: 2. It should be noted that Javier made his debut as part of the most important team of his life, having not played a single match for the adult River Plate before. As for the first Masquerano fight for the Argentinean grand, it took place on August 3, 2003. The rival of the team was Nuevo Chicago. The footballer entered the field under the fifth number. That season, he played 46 games in which he scored one goal scored.
West Ham
On the final day of the summer window of 2006, a real bomb thundered on the transfer market: the English West Ham acquired the rights to two Argentinean players for $ 50 million, which were Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano. If the first of the players almost immediately won a permanent place in the “base” and scored many important goals, then the career of the second player was not very successful. Midfielder for six months took part in only five games. The rest of the time, he did not even get into the application for the match. In fairness, it should be noted that the team mentor Alan Pardew did not see the guy’s internal motivation in training, so his decisions could not be called strange.
"Liverpool"
In the winter offseason, at the beginning of 2007, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez began to build a new team, the backbone of which was to be composed of Spanish-speaking football players. Many considered the invitation to the club of this Argentinean a rather risky undertaking. At the same time, the Spanish specialist was sure that Javier Mascherano was able to help Liverpool. As a result, on January 30, a lease agreement was signed between the two clubs, according to which the player went to play for the new team. The transaction value amounted to one and a half million pounds.
Here his career was much more successful. Being a rented football player, during the season he demonstrated a high-quality game that could not but satisfy the needs of even the most demanding fans, not to mention the head coach. As a result, the club signed a full-fledged labor agreement with its newcomer . Javier Mascherano played in the Liverpool T-shirt for two years, after which he moved to the Spanish championship.
Barcelona
The transfer of a football player to Barcelona for 18 million pounds became known on August 30, 2010. The first season in the new club he developed, to put it mildly, not very successfully. This is not surprising, since its main competitors in terms of position on the field were Andres Iniesta and Xavi. Along with this, in the middle of the season, the main defender of the team Carles Puyol was injured . The mentor of the Catalans decided to use the Argentine instead, and was not mistaken, because he perfectly coped with the new task. Over the past few years, it was Javier Mascherano who became one of the most stable players playing at Camp Nou, regardless of who is on the coaching bridge of the team. The Argentinean star of Barcelona always carries out all the settings with high quality and fights on the football field until the final whistle, regardless of the score. This player earned a lot of fans love. As part of the Catalan grand, he reached the peak of his career and won many titles, including the victory in the Champions League.
National team
As noted above, in the national team of his country, Javier has been playing since 2003. During this time, he managed to participate in three world championships and win two Olympic tournaments. At the last world championship in 2014, together with his team, he reached the final, in which the Argentines lost to the German national team.