Cristhian Stuani: wasted winger to La Liga’s goal scorer

Posted on November 29, 2018 in European Football, Features

Remember the name Cristhian Stuani? The rarely played winger whose goal saw Middlesbrough promoted to the Premier League two seasons ago. Casey Baughan looks at how the Uruguayan super star has taken La Liga by storm, overstepping Lionel Messi as the league’s goal scorer.

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Girona’s striker holds ten goals to his name, with Barcelona’s captain falling ever so shortly behind with nine goals in 871 minutes played.

Sounds pretty impressive from the 32 year old, right? It’s nice to hear new names competing for the top spot!

Stuani has been a crucial component in Girona’s recent Spanish success, putting the ball past Diego Lopez twice in their win over Espanyol in the Catalan derby on Sunday. It seems that the top English flight lost out on another real, talented player with an ability to score absolute ‘worldies’ and bullet headers. The video below never gets tiring to watch!

https://www.laliga.es/en/video/stuani-protagoniza-el-momento-dontcrackunderpressure-de-esta-jornada

Age is no problem for Stuani with his hunger for scoring those all important goals, as he netted two in the space of six minutes at the RCDE stadium on Sunday. With his contract tied down until 2020 there’s plenty more time to see the full striker package threatening Spanish defences.

I guess the Espanyol fans expected nothing less as he used to fire in goals for fun for them before signing for Middlesbrough.

With Girona still settling into La Liga life as semi newbies after joining at the end of the 2016-17 season, the Uruguayan-Italian footballer has made his mark against some big names in the campaign.

He’s given seventh place Girona the hope of survival, after a 2-2 draw against Barcelona where Gerard Pique was left trailing behind in terms of quality (let’s face it, who can do this very often?)

Will we see a new striker take home the position of La Liga’s top goal scorer or can Messi make his comeback in the leaderboard? But it is safe to say that Stuani is not one to be messed with, and he does love a yellow card now and then.

Girona face Atletico Madrid on Sunday where Eusebio Sacristan’s attacking force will battle it out with the sturdy Madrid defence.

You can follow Casey on Twitter @casey_baughan