Lucas Biglia

Lucas Biglia is an Argentine professional footballer who was born on January 30, 1986 in Mercedes, Buenos Aires in Argentina. He plays as a defensive midfielder for the club AC Milan.

Background

Biglia began his professional career at Argentinos Juniors on June 24, 2004 against Talleres where they won the match 2-1 and eventually they went on to qualify for the play offs and the team got promoted to Argentine First Division. He played 17 games in the entire Argentine Primera Division and due to lack of experience in first division, Biglia left the club and moved to Anderlecht.

Besides that, Biglia also played for Argentina U17 in 2003 and was part of the Argentine squad that won South America U17 Football Championship; came third in the FIFA U17 World Championship where he was named 'Player of the year’.

After under-17 football, Biglia played for Argentina U20 team in 2005 that won the South American U20 Championship in Columbia and later won the 2005 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Debut

After winning big tournaments for the Argentina Youth teams, it was expected for Biglia to play for Argentina Olympic team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing but he was left out and Sergio Batista was selected over him.

Finally waiting for many years, Biglia made his international debut for Argentina in February 2011 in a friendly match against Portugal that Argentina eventually won 2-1.

Rise to glory

After spending short time with Argentine clubs, Biglia moved to Belgian Pro League club Anderlecht in 2006. After a tough start with them and taking time to settle in, he gave impressive performances and was named as the Young Professional Footballer of the year in January 2007.

He also scored his first goal for them in a 6-0 winning match against Brussels where he also assisted two goals and Anderlecht eventually won the trophy.

Club career

In 2004, Lucas Biglia started his club career with Argentinos Juniors in a 2-1 winning match over Talleres.

His team qualified for the 2004 Argentine Primera Division and eventually got promoted to first division.

Biglia also scored once in a match against Huracan in the 17 matches that he played during that season.

In February 2005, he was transferred to Independiente for an undisclosed fees after his performance in South American U20 Championship.

He made his debut for them in a 1-0 losing match against Lanus on February 26. After spending one and a half season with Independiente, Biglia joined Belgian Pro League club Anderlecht where he played with them for seven consecutive seasons.

He played his opening game for them against K. Sint- Truidense in place of injured Mark de Man in a 4-2 win. In 2007 only, he was also named as the Young Professional Footballer of the year.

After 2011-12 Copa America, Biglia expressed his desire to leave Anderlecht and join another club to seek higher opportunities in other other leagues but could not leave them till 2013 where he joined Lazio for an undisclosed fees on a five year contract.

One of his most successful performance came in the quarterfinal of 2014 Coppa Italia where he scored the only goal of the match against AC Milan.

In 2017, after all the rumors in public and media, Biglia officially joined AC Milan for €17 million which will keep toll 2020.

Records

He was part of the Anderlecht side that won Belgian Pro League in 2006-07, 2009-10, 2011-12 and 2012-13; Belgian Cup in 2007-08 and Belgian Super Cup in 2006, 2010 and 2012.

He was also a member of Argentine side that won FIFA U20 World Cup in 2005.