Roque Santa Cruz is a Paraguayan football striker born on August 16, 1981 in Asuncion, Paraguay. He married Giselle Tavarelli, sister of Ricardo Tavarelli, his former national and Olimpia teammate, in 2004. He has a son and a daughter named Tobias and Fiorella, respectively. Roque Santa Cruz is also known by his nickname Chico.
Roque Santa Cruz made his maiden international appearance at the 1999 U-20 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Youth Championship, where he scored three goals for Paraguay. This performance elevated him to the senior national team for the Copa America Cup at the age of 17, where he again came up with three goals for his team.
At the 2002 World Cup Roque Santa Cruz scored one goal and helped his team to advance to the elimination rounds. At the 2006 World Cup he played in three group stage matches in a 2-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago. He had also scored a total of seven goals in the qualification rounds of both these World Cups. Roque Santa Cruz secured a hat-trick at the 2007 Copa America Cup in a 5-0 victory over Colombia. He is also one of the top scorers of the Paraguayan team with three goals at the 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Roque Santa Cruz began his career in the Olimpia Youth Division at an early age of nine. He finished several seasons as the highest goal scorer. Impressed with his record, Luis Cubilla, the head coach of Olimpia’s first team, invited him to practice with the team when he was barely fifteen. The very next year Roque Santa Cruz made his professional debut with that team and played a pivotal role in the team clinching the Paraguayan Championship in 1998 and 1999. For his superb performance Roque Santa Cruz was awarded the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year in 1999.
Later in 1999 he made a move to the Bundesliga to play for Bayern Munich. He stayed for eight years during which, Bayern finished on top of the German first division five times. His success at the Bayern also includes four German Cups with the team. But the highlight of his stint at Bayern came when it lifted the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League and the Intercontinental Cup in 2001.
In July 2007 Roque Santa Cruz moved to Blackburn Rovers on a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee, believed to be about £3.5 million. During his first season at the English Premier League, Roque Santa Cruz scored a total of nineteen goals. On 12 January 2008, he was declared the Premier League Player of the Month for December 2007.
His deep passion for music made him to team up with the German rock band Sportfreunde Stiller to sing in the song titled “Ich Roque" a pun on the phrase I rock. Roque Santa Cruz also likes shopping, working with computer, as well as playing tennis and basketball during his leisure time.
