Luciano Figueroa (Λουσιάνο Φιγερόα)

Luciano Figueroa (born 19 May 1981) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a forward.

His exceptional performances for Cruz Azul led to a transfer to Spain, where he signed a five-and-a-half-year contract with Villarreal in November 2004. The transfer fee was officially undisclosed, but was estimated in the media as €3 million.

Figueroa made less of an impact at Villarreal. Even so, he helped the club to a third-place finish in La Liga in the 2004-05 season and contributed in the early rounds of Villarreal's progression to the semi-final of the 2005-06 Champions League - including scoring the club's first ever Champions League goal, against Everton in the third qualifying round.

On 1 August 2006, Villarreal sold Figueroa to Genoa of Serie B for a reported $13-million fee. He signed a four-year contract with the club. Though still not fully recovered from his injury, medical opinion was that Figueroa should have been able to play again by mid-October. However it became clear that the knee reconstruction had not been completely successful and that another operation would be needed. It was predicted that this further surgery would keep him from playing that season.

Figueroa eventually made his debut for Genoa, by this time in Serie A, on 28 October 2007 as a second-half substitute against Fiorentina, and scored his first goal for the club some six weeks later, a stoppage time consolation in a 3-1 defeat at home to Siena.[20]

Figueroa was loaned from Genoa to Boca Juniors in October 2008. He played an important role during the Torneo Apertura by scoring important goals as the title race was between Boca Juniors, Tigre and San Lorenzo, who were level on points at the top of the table. Eventually, Figueroa's performances helped Boca to win the Torneo Apertura.

In January 2006, apparently concerned that his lack of playing time would adversely affect his chances of selection for Argentina at the 2006 World Cup,[15] Figueroa returned to his home country. He joined River Plate, who bought 50% of the rights to the player.[16] He started well there, scoring three goals in his first seven games of the 2006 Clausura, but on 5 March 2006 he suffered a cruciate ligament injury which effectively put an end to his career with River.

Figueroa has appeared for the Argentina national football team while playing for Cruz Azul and Villarreal, performing impressively in the Copa América 2004 and the 2005 Confederations Cup - where only the Brazilian Adriano outscored him - and was part of the gold medal-winning Argentina team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. At international level, he boasts a strike-rate of 60%, with 9 goals from 15 appearances, the same stats as Martín Palermo. The cruciate injury deprived him of the chance to represent his country at the 2006 World Cup.