Cristian Javier Báez

Cristian Javier Báez came through the youth ranks at Independiente and made his professional debut there in 2010, the same year the club won the Copa Sudamericana, though his own part in that campaign was limited. The years that followed were built on loans rather than a settled first-team place, with spells at Instituto de Córdoba, Defensa y Justicia and Deportes Iquique in Chile before he left Argentina for good in 2016.

What followed was a long tour across South and Central America: San Martín de San Juan, two stints at Dorados de Sinaloa in Mexico either side of a season at Godoy Cruz, then a return home to Paraguay with Guaraní. At Libertad he won the Paraguayan Primera División in 2021, before another move back to Argentina with Rosario Central and then, in 2023, a second spell at the club where he started, Independiente.

Since then he has kept moving on free transfers rather than settling: Cerro Porteño in Paraguay, then Atlético Junior in Colombia, where he added a second domestic title, winning the Clausura in 2025. He has also featured for the Paraguay national team during recent World Cup qualifying cycles. In January 2026 he signed for Barcelona SC in Ecuador, agreeing a deal through the end of the year with an option to extend into 2027.