Ulises de la Cruz

Ulises Hernán de la Cruz Bernardo (born February 8, 1974 in Piquiucho) is a Ecuadorian football currently with LDU Quito.

De la Cruz has set up a charity, Friends of FundeCruz, in his home village to fund a number of projects serving the local community.

Club career

Early career

De la Cruz's first team was the Ecuadorian side Sociedad Deportivo Quito, for whom he started playing at the age of 16 in the junior division and later the professional division. Nonetheless, De la Cruz's breakthrough season was with LDU Quito in 1998. He scored three goals in the final against Emelec (7–0).

Alex McLeish, the manager of Scottish Premier League club Hibernian, watched de la Cruz play in international matches for Ecuador, and then signed him in June 2001 for a club record fee of £700,000. De la Cruz scored two goals for Hibs, both coming in an Edinburgh derby match against Hibs' local rivals Hearts., The Independent, 22 October 2001. He only played for Hibs in one season; after de la Cruz played in the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he was signed by Graham Taylor for Aston Villa.

Aston Villa

In De la Cruz's first season at the club, he played 24 times, scoring one league goal, against Charlton Athletic. He featured more in the 2003-04 season after David O'Leary took over, and an injury to Mark Delaney ensured that de la Cruz could start more games than he had...
Read More