Birthday Boys- Juan Cuadrado and Franco Cervi

In today’s edition of the Birthday Boys we have a look at the career’s of Juventus right-back Juan Cuadrado and Benfica left-midfielder Franco Cervi.

Juan Cuadrado

The Colombian winger/full-back has been a key figure for Juventus in recent years and has played all around the world really but how did it all start off for Cuadrado in the first place.

Cuadrado’s career would start in his native country for Independiente Medellin in 2008 as he was signed on a professional contract coming up from the U20 squad. He would only play twice for the club as looked to move clubs.

He would then venture to the Italian Serie A with Udinese as they signed him for an undisclosed fee in the summer of 2009. In both the 09/10 and 10/11 campaigns he would make 12 appearances for the first-team with the player getting used to Serie A life and not contributing to any goals.

Lecce would get the winger on a season long loan for the 11/12 campaign. He would play 33 games for the Serie A club scoring three times and getting two assists in the process as he returned back to Udinese at the end of the season.

Another loan followed for Cuadrado, this time to Fiorentina for the season. 40 games, five goals and seven assists followed as the winger began to make a name for himself in Italian football.

In July 2013, he was signed by Fiorentina for £18 million from Udinese. In his two and a half years as a Fiorentina player, the Colombian would appear 66 times scoring 21 goals and recorded 14 assists before European giants looked to sign him.

Chelsea paid Fiorentina £28 million for Cuadrado back in February 2015. 14 appearances in the 14/15 season with one assist was not the return Chelsea were after.

Juventus loaned the player in from his horrible time in London for a year in August 2015. This season would see Cuadrado return to making 40 appearances as he went onto score five goals and grab five assists.

The next year, Juventus would loan the player from Chelsea for yet another year. He would make a personal record amount of appearances (45) and would become an assist machine, assisting on ten ocassions and scoring three times.

In July 2017, Juventus finally bought the player from Chelsea for £18 million. Since then he has played 79 times for Juventus scoring eight goals and assisting on 16 ocassions as he’s been deployed as a right winger and coverted into a right-back.

Internationally, he has participated in three Copa America’s and has featured in two World Cups for Columbia and has made 88 appearances for the national team scoring eight times.

In his trophy cabinet he has the Premier League title and the League Cup which he won with Chelsea and with Juventus he has won the Serie A four times, the Italian Cup three times and the Italian Super Cup once.

Franco Cervi

Benfica’s left midfielder has been a loyal servant to the club, but how did Cervi end as a key player at the Portuguese club?

In July 2014, the midfielder made the step up to professional football for his boyhood club CA Rosario. In his first senior year he would appear 30 times for the club contributing five goals and assisting six times. The next season would see him feature fewer times (22) only being able to score twice and assist five times.

Benfica would then sign the youngster seeing his talent in the summer of 2016 for £6 million. In his first season for Benfica he featured 41 times for the Portuguese club scoring seven goals and grabbing seven assists.

The next season would see him play 37 times as he kept up his fitness and match sharpness. He continued to impress and provide assists with ten assists that season scoring four.

65 games in the 18/19 and 19/20 season brings us up to date with the midfielders career so far. He’s bagged nine goals and nine assists in those two seasons.

He has played four times for the Argentina national team with his senior debut coming in September 2018.

Benfica are known to win trophies which they have in the last couple of seasons. He’s won the Liga NOS twice, Portuguese Cup once and the Portuguese Supercup twice.

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