Walter Samuel

Football player infobox
playername = Wálter Samuel


fullname = Wálter Adrián Luján / Samuel
nickname = "Il Muro" (The Wall)
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1978|3|23
cityofbirth = Firmat
countryofbirth = Argentina
height = height|m=1.82
currentclub = Internazionale
clubnumber = 25
position = Defender
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1996-1997 1997-2000 2000-2004 2004-2005 2005-present
clubs = Newell's Old Boys Boca Juniors AS Roma Real Madrid Internazionale
caps(goals) = 037 (0) 075 (4)
122 (9)
030 (2)
057 (5)
nationalyears = 1999-2006
nationalteam = Argentina
nationalcaps(goals) = 053 (4)
pcupdate = 5 Aug 2008
ntupdate = 5 Aug 2008

Wálter Adrián Samuel (born Wálter Adrián Luján March 23, 1978 in Firmat, Santa Fe Province) is an Argentine football (soccer) player, who currently plays for Internazionale of the Italian league.

Samuel started playing professionally in 1996 in Argentina for Newell's Old Boys, and a year later moved to Boca Juniors where he stayed until 2000. In that year AS Roma bought his contract for €19.8m. He gained fame as one of the best defenders in the Italian league and attracted interest from Spanish team Real Madrid. Real paid 25,000,000 Euros (almost 30,000,000 U.S. dollars) for his transfer in 2004. But Samuel had a poor performance that season, and in August 2005 he returned to the Italian League, with a transfer to Internazionale for 16 million euros, signed 4 year contract [cite news
url = http://www.uefa.com/competitions/ucl/news/kind=1/newsid=322723.html
title = Inter complete Samuel signing
publisher = uefa.com
date = 2005-08-01
accessdate=2007-07-18] .

The centre-back got the nickname of "The Wall" while playing for AS Roma in Italy, due to his defensive skills.In the Milan Derby (23rd December 2007) he hurt himself whilst marking Kaka, and a couple weeks later had reconstructive surgery on his medial cruciate ligament. He is expected to be out until the end of the 07/08 season.He has played 53 matches for the Argentine national team, scoring 4 goals. He played for his country in the 2002 World Cup.

Achievements

*2008 Italian Championship (Internazionale)
*2007 Italian Championship (Internazionale)
*2006 Italian Super Cup (Internazionale)
*2006 Coppa Italia (Internazionale)
*2005 Italian Super Cup (Internazionale)
*2001 Italian Super Cup (AS Roma)
*2001 Italian Championship (AS Roma)
*2000 Copa Libertadores (Boca Juniors)
*1999 Argentine Clausura Championship (Boca Juniors)
*1998 Argentine Apertura Championship (Boca Juniors)
*1997 FIFA's Football World Youth Championship

Personal life

Son of a single mother, he was born under the name of "Walter Luján", but decided to change his mother's lastname for his stepfather's lastname when he was a teenager [ [http://www.as.com/articulo/Diario/As/Edicion/Impresa/juvenil/Lujan/asombro/Argentina/daspor/20021030dasdai_51/Tes/ "EL JUVENIL LUJÁN QUE ASOMBRÓ A ARGENTINA"] - Diario AS es icon] .

He has a daughter.

References

External links

*nfteams|306
* [http://www.footballdatabase.com/index.php?page=player&Id=919&b=true&pn=W%C3%A1lter_Adri%C3%A1n_Samuel Samuel's profile at footballdatabase.com]
* [http://touchline.onthespot.co.uk/guardian/StatsCentre.asp?Lang=0&CTID=13&CPID=19&pStr=Player&PLID=48019&TEID=41 Guardian statistics]