Roque Luis Santa Cruz Cantero

Roque Santa Cruz was still a teenager when he left Olimpia for Bayern Munich in 1999, and it was in Bavaria that he built the reputation that carried him through the rest of his career. By his early twenties he was already recognised as the best footballer in Paraguay, having taken that national honour in 1999, before his move abroad had even played out in full.

He spent eight years in Germany before English football took an interest. Blackburn Rovers signed him in 2007, and two strong seasons there prompted Manchester City to pay £17.5 million for him in 2009 — a fee that made him one of the club's marquee arrivals of that period. He was named Premier League player of the month in December 2008, a recognition that came just before that switch. Game time at City proved harder to come by, and loan spells at Real Betis and Málaga followed, with the move to Málaga later made permanent.

Spells at Cruz Azul and a return to Olimpia extended a career that eventually brought him back to Paraguay for good, first with Olimpia and then with Libertad. Through it all, Santa Cruz scored in every single season from 1998 onward, a run that had reached 25 consecutive seasons by 2024. According to the IFFHS, he also became the first Paraguayan to pass 1,000 games between club and country, combining 888 club appearances with his international caps.

For the national team he was a fixture for close to two decades, from 1999 to 2016, amassing 112 caps and 32 goals. Domestically, he has collected 12 Paraguayan league titles across his spells with Olimpia and Libertad.