Hugo Ibarra

Hugo Benjamín Ibarra (born April 1, 1974 in El Colorado, Formosa) is a retired Argentine professional football player. He is an icon at Boca Juniors where he has played over 200 games in three separate stints at the club and won 15 titles.

Born in Pirané Department, northern province of Formosa, Ibarra went to Santa Fe Province to start playing in Colón de Santa Fe. It was a second division team when he started playing professionally in 1993, but 2 years later the team got promoted to first division. His performance called Boca Juniors' attention, and he was transferred to the club he would late refer to as "my home".

After 3 successful seasons in Boca, Ibarra moved to Europe. Because he did not have a European passport, Ibarra was loaned back to Boca Juniors after playing his first season in Portuguese FC Porto. Porto loaned him to French Monaco FC a year later, and then to Spanish RCD Espanyol.

El Negro played 6 matches for Argentina national football team, including Copa América 1999. While in Monaco, the team reached UEFA Champions League finals, beating in its way such teams as Real Madrid and Chelsea F.C., to later lose 3-0 to his former club Porto, club that owned him at that moment.

In July 2005, after some difficult negotiations due to the economic crisis in Argentina, Hugo Ibarra went back to Boca Juniors, his last team. On April 18, 2007, he got back to Argentina national football team, as Argentina’s captain, to play a friendly match against Chile......
Read More