Maxi López

Maximiliano Gastón López (born 3 April 1984) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a striker for Italian club Torino.

López holds both an Argentine and an Italian passport. He is known as El Rubio (The Blonde) and La Gallina de Oro (The Golden Hen).

Club career

River Plate

López started his career in 1997 with River Plate. On 19 August 2001, at the age of 17, he made his senior debut against Talleres de Córdoba. That same season, the player was officially promoted to the senior squad, following 5 years with the youth program. With River Plate, he was a standout striker and the club won the Torneo Clausura in 2002, 2003, and 2004. López remained with the club until his transfer to Spanish giants FC Barcelona in January 2005. With River Plate, López made 70 appearances, scoring nearly 16 goals.

Barcelona

In January 2005, FC Barcelona signed López for €6.2 million following an injury to striker Henrik Larsson. On his UEFA Champions League debut on 23 February 2005, he came on as a second-half substitute for Ludovic Giuly and within four minutes beat Chelsea defender William Gallas to score an equaliser with his first shot for the club in a 2-1 first-leg win. His only other goal for the club came in a Copa del Rey tie against Zamora CF on 11 January 2006. López failed to break into the club's first team: in his first season in La Liga, he made just 13 league appearances.