Lucas Ramon Barrios Caceres Born 13 November 1984 in San Fernando, Buenos Aires is an Argentine-born Paraguayan footballer. He currently plays as a striker for Borussia Dortmund in the German Bundesliga. Barrios is known for his effectiveness in the target area. This earned him his nickname, La Pantera which means The Panther.
Barrios' mother is Paraguayan, which made him eligible to receive Paraguay nationality at birth. He received his Paraguay nationality in March 2010. (subsequently renounced Argentine nationality as the nation does not recognize dual nationality).
Barrios rose to prominence as a forward for the Chilean club Cobreloa, where he had a spectacular scoring record. Before joining Cobreloa, he spent much of his professional career in second division football, either in Chile or Argentina. However after joining Cobreloa, he has demonstrated his innate goal scoring ability, notching 14 goals in the Apertura 2007.
After the good time he passed with Cobreloa, Barrios garnered attention from Chilean club Colo-Colo and Mexican club Necaxa. However, Barrios was finally signed by Mexican club Atlas for $2.5 million, where he played one short season in which he scored a single goal in 14 league appearances.
At the beginning of 2008 Colo-Colo signed Barrios on a six-month loan as a reinforcement for their Copa Libertadores 2008 campaign. Barrios returned to his pre-Atlas form as he was the leading goal scorer in the Apertura with 19 goals. In the play-offs Barrios was an integral part of the club's success. In the second leg of the semi-final Colo-Colo found themselves trailing Ñublense 2–0 on aggregate with only ten minutes remaining, when Barrios scored two goals in less than two minutes to qualify the team for the final. In the first leg of the final, Barrios added his fifth goal of the play-offs and his nineteenth of the season.
At the end of May 2008, and with the loan agreement due to expire in June 2008, Colo-Colo offered $1.5 million for Barrios which Atlas rejected as it didn't meet their $2 million valuation. Eventually, Colo-Colo offered the $2 million Atlas was asking for Barrios. However Colo-Colo only purchased eighty percent of the player and Barrios holds the remaining twenty percent of his ownership. Barrios' salary with Atlas was almost $400,000 per year, but in order to be transferred to Colo-Colo he had to accept a forty percent pay cut.
Barrios maintained his fine form in the 2008 Clausura, scoring 18 goals in 16 matches only. This meant he finished top scorer in both halves of the championship, the first to do so since Patricio Galaz in 2004. He amassed an impressive 37 goals in 38 games which attracted the attention of a number of clubs.
Lucas Barrios was on the verge of signing a four-year contract with French club Nancy, but Colo-Colo's president Gabriel Ruiz-Tagle, on the afternoon of 12 January 2009, rejected the offer, but stated that further offers were being discussed.
On 29 January 2009 it was revealed that a $7 million offer from Espanyol had been rejected by Colo-Colo due to the way the deal was structured. On 28 June 2009, rumors from Greece claimed that Lucas Barrios signed a 4-year-contract with Panathinaikos for a sum of €5 millions. However it was later announced that even after Colo-Colo accepted the offer, Barrios declined to go, without any reasons being mentioned.
In July 2009, after just one and a half years at Colo-Colo, Barrios officially signed a contract with German club Borussia Dortmund. The German club paid a sum of €4.2 million.[6] After having a tough start, Barrios finally broke through and scored five goals in five consecutive Bundesliga matches. Barrios also added four goals and one assist in three DFB-Pokal appearances. Since then he has added 13 more goals, bringing his tally to 19 for the Bundesliga season, and 23 all together.
Barrios was a key part of Dortmund's push for Champions League football for next season. His goals, especially his hattrick on 24 April 2010 against 1. FC Nuremberg helped his team win 3–2 and to secure a place in the Europa League the following season.
His first season in Germany ended with a goal on the final day of the season away at Freiburg, the goal meant Barrios finished third in the Bundesliga top scorer of 2010 with 19 goals in 33 games.
In his second season, Barrios continued his fine form for Dortmund. The Germans were drawn against Azerbaijan side FK Qarabağ in the Play-Off round of the Europa League. In the first leg on 19 August, both Barrios and Shinji Kagawa scored braces in a 4-0 victory at home. The second leg was held on 26 August at the Tofik Bakhramov Stadium in Baku. The game looked destined to end 0-0, but Barrios popped up and netted the winner in the first minute of stoppage time, leading to an aggregate win of 5-0.
After Dortmund lost on the opening day to Bayer Leverkusen, Barrios scored his first goal of the season against VfB Stuttgart on 29 August 2010. Dortmund started their UEFA Europa League campaign on 16 September against Ukrainian side Karpaty Lviv. Dortmund were down 3-2 late in the game, but Barrios scored the equalizer in the 87th minute and Mario Götze scored the winner in the second minute of stoppage time. It took Barrios almost another month to find the back of the net again in the Bundesliga for Die Borussen. But against FC Kaiserslautern, he was able to score two goals, helping secure a 5-0 win on 22 September. On 2 October, Bayern Munich travelled to the Westfalenstadion. Barrios scored the first goal, in a 2-0 win for the home side, meaning they won one six games in a row since defeat on the opening day. His goal helped Dortmund keep up their chase of league leaders Mainz 05. Dortmund played league leaders Mainz on 31 October at the Stadion am Bruchweg. Mario Götze opened the scoring for Dortmund in the first half and Barrios added a second after the break. The result meant that Dortmund leap-frogged Mainz into first place in the Bundesliga. Lucas continued this goalscoring form, scoring in each of the next two games. This included a 4-0 victory over Hannover and a 2-0 win over Hamburg. After being relatively unaffective in his side's 2-1 defeat of SC Freiburg on 20 November, Barrios netted in the next game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the final goal of a 4-1 thrashing, and also added an assist.
In the third game back from the Bundesliga winter break, Lucas netted the winning goal in the second minute against VfL Wolfsburg, Dortmund went on to win the game 3-0. 26 February saw a top of the table clash with German powerhouse Bayern. Dortmund once again prevailed against the Bavarians, this time by a score of 3-1. Lucas opened the scoring in the 9th minute at the Allianz Arena and put his side 13 points clear of Bayer Leverkusen at the top of the table. Because of his success with Dortmund, reports in Europe linked him with English giants Chelsea in a reported £17.5 million move.
On 2 April, Barrios had arguably his best performance all season against Hannover. Lucas scored the second and third goals of his side's 4-1 win and also grabbed an assist. He scored 14 goals through 30 games. With two games left, Dortmund secured the 2010-11 Bundesliga Championship, their first German title in 9 years, when Barrios scored the winning goal in a 2-0 win over Nuremberg. In the final game of the season at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, Barrios grabbed a brace, after missing an early penalty, in a 3-1 win and brought him onto 16 Bundesliga goals for the season. The result was terrible for Frankfurt, as it meant that they were relegated.
Player Details
Full name: Lucas Ramon Barrios CaceresDate of birth: 13 November 1984
Place of birth: San Fernando, Argentina Height: 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position: Center forward
Club information
Current club: Borussia Dortmund
Number: 18
Senior career
2003–2004 Argentinos Juniors 17 (5)
2004 → Tigre (loan) 16 (7)
2005 Temuco 28 (12)
2006 Tiro Federal 12 (1)
2006–2007 Cobreloa 39 (26)
2007 Atlas 14 (1)
2008–2009 Colo-Colo 53 (49)
2009– Borussia Dortmund 65 (35)
National team
2010– Paraguay 18 (6)
source:wikipedia
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