Name: Julio Ricardo Cruz
Nickname: "El Jardinero"




Country: Argentina
Club: F.C. Internazionale
Position: *CF
Side: RF/BS
Age: 30-33 years (10/10/1974)

Height: 190 cm
Weight: 78 kg


Attack: 85
Defence: 43
Balance: 84
Stamina: 80
Top Speed: 74
Acceleration: 74
Response: 84
Agility: 73
Dribble Accuracy: 79
Dribble Speed: 72
Short Pass Accuracy: 76
Short Pass Speed: 77
Long Pass Accuracy: 72
Long Pass Speed: 73
Shot Accuracy: 83
Shot Power: 84
Shot Technique: 83
Free Kick Accuracy: 80
Curling: 79
Header: 86
Jump: 77
Technique: 82
Aggression: 83
Mentality: 76
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 81

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition: 6
Weak Foot Accuracy: 7
Weak Foot Frequency: 6
Consistency: 5
Growth type: Late/Peak

CARDS:
P16 - Fox in the Box
S01 - 1-touch Play
S13 - Super-sub

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Scoring - Post Player - Lines - 1-touch Play

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack Minded


INFO:
Julio Cruz was a centre forward. His professional career began in 1993 at Banfield, where he scored 16 goals in 65 matches in three seasons. He then became very prolific in every team he played for. He scored 18 times in 35 games at River Plate in 1996-97, 52 goals in 112 matches at Feyenoord from 1997 to 2000, 30 in 99 at Bologna from 2000 to 2003. He then joined Inter, where he had his best time: 72 goals in 174 matches from 2003 to 2008 and many national titles won. His last two seasons, respectively at Inter and Lazio, weren't as successful in terms of individual statistics. Therefore, he retired in 2010. He gained 22 caps for Argentina, scoring 3 goals.
Cruz was the typical in-box striker, effective with first time shots and very capable in the air thanks to his height and heading ability. He wasn't very quick but his good technique offset that gap. Due to ability to protect the ball, he could possess it before eventually serving nice passes. Gifted with a great spirit of sacrifice for the squad, he wasn't stuck inside the opposing area but moved also outside of it and along the lines. He scored a few times from free kick and penalty, proving to be also a good piece taker. Incredibly effective when coming in from the bench, he scored most of his goals at Inter as substitute.

https://youtu.be/G81ZBZESH9g Cruz goals at Inter

Updated.

I honestly don't think that he deserves 87 for ATT. We're speaking about a player whose best goal record were 21 goals in 46 games, that's IMO nothing impressive for a CF. Yet he has 87 in ATT, 84 in RES, all three shooting stats close to mid yellow, HEA 86 and CON/CONS 6. It's true that he could set up chances for his own team mates but that's already represented well enough with SPA/SPS and yellow value for TMW.
The whole combination will make him certainly much more dangerous IG than he was in real life, especially ATT (IMO 85 max) and CONS should be reconsidered here.

His scoring rate between 2005 and 2008, not considering headers, free kicks and penalties, was between 0,3 and 0,4 which isn't bad and yet I didn't give him too high shooting stats.
However, I can agree regarding his ATT, which may be too high. I was thinking 84-85 since he didn't do anything too remarkable inside the box except of mainly headers and easy goals.
What do you mean about reconsidering CONS? I must say that Cruz was way less consistent in 2006-07 than he was in the prior and following seasons. Would you go down to 5?

It may not be bad but it's certainly nothing good. And I don't see a reason why a player like Cruz needs the same value for ATT than Hazard or Griezmann (who both had bigger variety of offensive abilities) and also not why he needs yellow value for CONS. He was never a consistent goalscorer despite playing in very good teams at both club and NT level. In 2007-08 Serie A he remained goalless for 10 games in a row and that's not worth any coloured value in CONS, especially when it's a CF.