Football Player Profile: Getting to know Bryan Ruiz, the Fc Twente Striker Liverpool
Roy Hodgson has taken over the hot seat from Rafael Benitez, as the manager of Liverpool football club and is given the task of bringing the glory days back to the Anfield club. However, the task isn’t an easy one, as he has a very limited transfer budget and is only promised the money generated by the sale of players to be used to bring in fresh blood to the club. Therefore, with limited options, Hodgson is out in the market looking for cheap but quality strikers that can help Liverpool topple Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal from the top of the perch.
Hodgson is a shrewd manager and has revived the careers of many players at Fulham like Bobby Zamora, Damien Duff and Danny Murphy, while bringing in bargain purchases like Brede Hangeland to Craven cottage. The task at hand is not an easier one as he has two owners in Tom Hicks and George Gillet that are not easy to please but still he is trying his best and after selling Yossi Benayoun to Chelsea for 5 million pounds, he has turned his sights on Fc Twente’s Costa Rican striker Bryan Ruiz.
Bryan Ruiz Gonzalez was born on the 18th of August 1985 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Ruiz is nick named in Holland as San Bryan Del Twente, which is not exactly very catchy but still better than what he is know as in his homeland: la comadreja, ‘the weasel.’ When translated into English, the nick name is given to him on the account of his speed and ability rather than any of his character defects. Costa Rica fans have recently been calling their star striker El Duende or the Elf which isn’t much better than any of his other nick names but despite the crazy nick names the player has got he is a sheer talent and has set the Dutch Eredivise alight in recent seasons.
Ruiz first emerged on the international stage playing for Alajuelense, a top flight Costa Rican Club. Ruiz is a gifted forward who is capable of playing anywhere in the attacking third. Playing for his native club, he bagged 24 goals in 80 appearances and also helped them win the 2004-05 league seasons.
Ruiz made his full international debut in 2005 and scored his first international goal against Honduras in 2005 CONCAF Gold cup. Bryan Ruiz has recently become a permanent fixture in his national side and has won over 30 caps and scored 9 goals. He last scored for his country in the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign but sadly, it was not enough for Costa Rica to book a place at the World Cup finals in South Africa.
Ruiz first moved to Europe in 2006 when he joined the Belgian side Gent. He was an instant hit at the club, counted for 26 goals during his three year spell at the club, and regularly finished as the team’s leading goal scorer.
In July 2009, he moved to FC Twente for a paltry sum of 5 million Euros, it was considered a big gamble by Steve Mclaren, who had just taken over the management of the club but Ruiz was off to a flier and bagged a goal on debut in a 2-0 win over Sparta Rotterdam.
It was a dream first season for Bryan Ruiz in the Dutch Eredivise where he scored 10 goals in 10 consecutive matches for his side during one purple patch of his career. In March 2010 he bagged his first hat trick for his club, when he piled on the misery on a side, he scored his first ever goal in the Eredivise, he banged 4 goals in 4 minutes against Sparta Rotterdam, still one of the quickest hat tricks in Dutch Football.
He finished his first season in the Eredivise with a tally of 24 goals from 34 appearances and on they way helped Steve Mclaren’s side to win the Dutch Crown for the first time ever.
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