Lucas Barrios

Lucas Ramón Barrios Cáceres (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlukas raˈmom ˈbarjos ˈkaseɾes]; born 13 November 1984) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a forward.

Barrios began playing junior football for Argentine clubs Mitre, Juventud de Liniers, Barracas Central (where he was present from 1999 until February 2002)[6] and Pacífico, before joining Huracán, where he was eventually forced to leave the club due to his small stature and low physical physique.

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.

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.

[10] On 28 June 2009, rumors from Greece claimed that Lucas Barrios signed a four-year-contract with Panathinaikos for a sum of €5 million.

In July 2009, after just one and a half years at Colo-Colo, Barrios officially signed a contract with German club Borussia Dortmund.

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.

[15] 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.

Barrios scored the first goal, in a 2–0 win for the home side, meaning they had won six games in a row since their opening day defeat.

[23] After being relatively ineffective in his side's 2–1 defeat of SC Freiburg on 20 November,[24] Barrios netted in the next game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, the final goal of a 4–1 thrashing,[25] and also added an assist.

[28] 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.

[36] Barrios endured a difficult campaign, losing form and his place in the side in favor of Robert Lewandowski.

He managed his first goal of the season on 3 February 2012 when he came on a substitute in the 71st minute and knocked the ball past Raphael Schäfer to secure a 2–0 win over Nürnberg.

[37] After Dortmund secured their second Bundesliga title in a row, Barrios was given the start on 28 April when the champions travelled to relegated Kaiserslautern.

Barrios helped his side to a 5–2 win, netting a terrific hat-trick, keeping them on pace to overturn the record of 79 points a Bundesliga season.

[39] On 2 May 2012, Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande announced that they had officially signed Barrios on a four-year deal for a domestic record fee of €8.5 million.

On 18 July, Barrios scored his first goal for the first team in a 2012 Chinese FA Cup match which Guangzhou Evergrande beat Henan Jianye 2–1 at Tianhe Stadium.

Although Cléo left for Kashiwa Reysol at the beginning of the 2013 season, Barrios continued to be a substitute player as another talented forward Elkeson joined the club.

Guangzhou Evergrande sent a lawyer's letter to kicker immediately and stated the club had fully complied with Barrios' contract and duly paid all of the salary for him.

[46] On 10 August 2013, Guangzhou Evergrande announced that Barrios has left China to join Russian club Spartak Moscow for €7 million.

[57][58][59] Barrios started his dual citizenship process on 16 March 2010 hoping to get a chance to be in the 2010 FIFA World Cup which was granted on 8 April.

[60] He is the fourth Argentine to join the Paraguay National team along with Jonathan Santana, Néstor Ortigoza and Sergio Aquino.

On 4 May 2010, Barrios was called up by trainer Gerardo Martino to join the Paraguay training camp for the World Cup.

In 2011, Barrios was a runner-up in the Copa América with the Paraguay national team, appearing as a substitute in the final loss to Uruguay.