Argentine Footballer Gonzalo Higuaín

Gonzalo Higuaín has become a name that is well known in the football world. A talented striker, Higuaín plays football for his country as well as for his club, Real Madrid. The twenty-four year old (soon to be twenty-five) has been on the radar for sometime and there is no denying that he is a player that is worth his weight.

Pipita, as he is fondly called, was actually born in France even though he plays for Argentina. He has dual citizenship and that means that if he wanted to, he could play for France on an international level. Although I am sure that France would love to have him, Pipita seems content to play on the side of Argentina.

Born in family of footballers, it was only natural that Gonzalo would turn to the sport. His father, Jorge, played football from 1976 to 1992 with teams such as River Plate, Boca Juniors, San Lorenzo and Stade Brestios 29.

Higuaín's older brother Federico Higuain, also plays football for Columbus Crew.

Gonzalo's nickname actually comes from his father. Jorge was nicknamed El Pipa (meaning big nose) and since Gonzalo was his son, he became El Pipita. Pipita translates as little pipe.

Higuaín grew up with three other brothers. Federico, Nicolas and Lautaro. He is what is called 'the middle child' as Nicolas and Federico are older and Lautaro is the youngest.

Both Gonzalo and Federico began their career like their father did at River Plate. Gonzalo played there for four years while Federico played there for five. Both decided to move on to other clubs with Federico playing with six others before settling with Columbus Crew and Gonzalo moving on to Real Madrid where he continues to play to this day.

Higuaín has played with Real Madrid for six years now and he has become a favorite with Madridistas everywhere. For some, only Pipita will do and there is disappointment if he does not make an appearance in a game. So far, Higuaín has scored 98 goals for Real Madrid and there is sure to be many more to come. In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, he scored a hat trick for Argentina while Lionel Messi was unable to. This was an accomplishment that made Piptia's fans from all over the world very proud and it is not something they forget easily.He was actually the first player to score a hat-trick in the World Cup since the year 2002.

• He is 6 ft tall
• He was born on the 10th of December, 1987
• He was born in France
• His middle name is Gerardo
• He was robbed as a teenager. They took his sneakers. ( I know a few people that that has happened to)
• He is not a fan of Facebook
• He had meningitis
• He is afraid of cockroaches and spiders. (I wonder if he screams like a little girl when he sees them?)
• He could take Forrest Gump in a table tennis match. Beating him at it is another story.

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