Manchester City may be on the verge of elimination from the Champions League, but one of their employees will remain in the competition in 2013.
The chances of him ever turning out for Manchester City again are slim to none, but fans may be interested to note Roque Santa Cruz’ progress at Malaga.
Yes the Paraguayan remains a City player, technically, despite not playing a competitive match for them since November 2010, although he did pull on a City shirt in pre-season.
Since then he has been loaned to Blackburn Rovers, Real Betis, and now Malaga, as Roberto Mancini has struggled to offload him permanently considering his £90,000 per week wages.
At the age of 31, Santa Cruz landed himself a nice loan deal to Malaga, which in hindsight looks far better than the move to be reunited with Mark Hughes at QPR he was heavily linked with.
Last night was validation of that decision, as the Spanish side sealed their path to the Champions League knockout phases with a 1-1 draw away to AC Milan.
Santa Cruz came off the bench for the final 25 minutes, and while he missed his one opening, overall he will be counting his blessings considering he could be sitting in the City reserves.
For Malaga it is an amazing turnaround after their summer of discontent, which saw their financial troubles force them to sell off star players Santi Cazorla and Salomon Rondon.
After four games they are unbeaten, courtesy of three straight wins over Zenit, Anderlecht and AC Milan, before last night’s draw in the San Siro.
Santa Cruz’ permanent employers meanwhile Manchester City remain winless and rooted to the bottom of their group with two draws and two defeats, with last night finishing 2-2 against Ajax.
To date at his new club Santa Cruz has scored three times in 12 appearances, with all three coming in the last month, signs he is finding his feet in Spain.
Don’t expect him to feature again for City; his contract finally expires this summer, so he really is playing for his future in Malaga. He will be determined to seize the opportunity, and a chance to show what he can do in the knockout stages of the Champions League is the perfect shop window.
City fans how do you feel about this cruel twist of fate?
image: © warrenski
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