Juan Sebastián Verón (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈxwan seβasˈtjam beˈɾon];[A] born 9 March 1975) is an Argentine former professional footballer and current chairman of Estudiantes de La Plata,[1] where he had served as Director of Sports.

[3] A midfielder, Verón's career started in Estudiantes, continued in Argentina's Boca Juniors, and included stints in several clubs in the Italian Serie A (where he won the Scudetto with Lazio and with Inter Milan, and a UEFA Cup with Parma), and England's Manchester United and Chelsea.

[citation needed] In 2000, Verón was the driving force for Lazio as they captured the Scudetto, the Coppa Italia and the Italian Super Cup, as he scored eight goals.

In September 2001, he found the back of the net in three of Manchester United's four outings, including a goal and an assist in a 5–3 comeback win at Tottenham Hotspur,[15] which ultimately led to him being awarded the Premier League Player of the Month.

There was plenty of pressure on him at the start of his second season at Old Trafford and his performances did improve considerably, especially in the Champions League, where he excelled due to the slower tempo of the matches, scoring four goals, and was at the heart of United's successes in the group stages.

[18] Verón later commented that the reason for his fitness problems and struggles with injuries at Manchester United were due to the less intense summer pre-season training in England.

Some rival fans booed him, arguably dating back to his sub-par performances during the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but Verón was ranked among the top three players in the 2006 Argentine League by sports newspaper Olé.

[22] Following his donations to the club's training grounds, Verón was a decisive factor in the agreement with La Plata city hall to update Estudiantes' historic stadium to modern standards.

Verón personally engaged then Argentine president Néstor Kirchner to kick-start the negotiations, which had been stalled by La Plata mayor Julio Alak.

[24] Verón suffered from a string of minor injuries after his return from the 2007 Copa América, and missed a number of important games during the 2007–08 season.

In 2009, he played in the Copa Libertadores for the second time, having seen Estudiantes eliminated in the round of 16 in the previous year by eventual champions Liga de Quito.

The Copa Libertadores has long been a special competition for Estudiantes and its fans, ever since the team won three consecutive titles from 1968 to 1970 with Verón's father playing a key role on the left wing.

[35] He made his first appearance for the club since coming out of retirement in a 1–0 friendly victory over Bahia in the Florida Cup, in Orlando, on 15 January 2017, playing the first half, before being substituted.

[36] Verón was called up for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France, where Argentina was eliminated by the Netherlands in the quarter-finals following a 2–1 defeat; during the match, Veron set-up Claudio López's goal.

He was called up again for the 2002 World Cup in South Korea/Japan, where Verón was regarded as a key player and captained the side in place of the injured Roberto Ayala.

Some fans held him personally responsible for Argentina's dismal performance, which included a loss to England and elimination in the group phase.

After missing the match against South Korea due to injury, Verón returned to the starting line-up against Greece and played the full 90 minutes as Argentina won 2–0.

[43][44] Verón was a talented, complete, influential and versatile midfielder, who usually functioned as a playmaker; he was capable of playing both as an attacking midfielder and in the centre, or even just in front of the defensive line, as a deep-lying playmaker, due to his awareness, ability to read the game, tackle and dictate the tempo of his team's play or orchestrate his team's attacking moves from deeper positions with his passing after winning back the ball, in addition to providing assists and creating goalscoring opportunities for teammates.

A strong, athletic, tenacious, hard-working and physical player, in his prime, he was gifted with pace, good footwork and excellent technical ability, as well as outstanding vision, creativity, passing range and possessing a powerful shot from distance with either foot.