José Ernesto Sosa

José Ernesto Sosa left Carcarañá for Estudiantes de La Plata as a teenager and made his mark early, winning the Apertura 2006 before Bayern Munich paid €6 million plus a sell-on clause for him in 2007. Munich proved his most decorated stop: he lifted the Bundesliga, the DFB-Pokal, the DFL-Ligapokal and the DFL-Supercup, and a loan back at Estudiantes in between did nothing to slow him down. He also went to Beijing in 2008 and came home with Olympic gold as part of the Argentina squad.

The following decade took him from Napoli to Metalist Kharkiv, then to Atlético Madrid on loan, where he added a La Liga title in 2013–14. At Beşiktaş he had his best individual campaign, topping the Süper Lig's assist charts with twelve in 2015–16 as the club won the league. Spells at Milan, Trabzonspor and Fenerbahçe followed, bringing an Italian Supercoppa and a Turkish Cup, before he returned to Estudiantes in 2022 on a free transfer.

That second homecoming turned into the most trophy-laden stretch of his career at the club: the Copa Argentina in 2023, when he was named the competition's MVP, the Copa de la Liga Profesional in 2024, back-to-back Trofeo de Campeones wins in 2024 and 2025, and the Torneo Clausura in 2025. For the national team, he earned 19 caps between 2005 and 2013, scoring once, against Costa Rica in a friendly. One gap in his medal collection stands out: he had already left for Bayern Munich by the time Estudiantes won the Copa Libertadores in 2009, missing out on the club's biggest continental night.