Franco Di Santo

On 31 August, Di Santo made his first-team debut in the 1–1 home draw with Tottenham Hotspur, coming on in place of Nicolas Anelka in the 88th minute of the game.

He scored his second goal of the pre-season campaign in the 65th minute against the Chengdu Blades in a 7–0 victory after he had replaced Nicolas Anelka five minutes before.

His UEFA Champions League debut came against CFR Cluj, replacing Florent Malouda in the 70th minute of a 0–0 draw on 2 October.

He assisted a goal in the 88th minute for Juliano Belletti to make it 1–1, and Frank Lampard then scored a 94th-minute winner.

Franco Matías Di Santo (born 7 April 1989) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a striker for the Argentine Primera División club Independiente Rivadavia.

In the 2006–07 season, he scored 26 goals in 76 matches, including one goal in six matches in the Copa Libertadores.

Then, in 2007 he scored 12 in 17 matches for the club, including one goal in four matches in the Copa Sudamericana.

He finished the 2007–08 reserve season with 12 reserve goals in eight games.

Di Santo began his career at Chilean club Audax Italiano, earning a £3.4 million move to Chelsea in 2008 and a first-team place following good form in the reserves.

Dubbed the "new Maradona" due to his precocious and prolific performances, on 25 January 2008, Di Santo signed for English Premier League side Chelsea on a four-and-a-half-year contract for a fee of £3.4 million.

Di Santo scored on his debut for Chelsea reserves on 11 February 2008, getting a late goal in a 2–2 draw with Fulham reserves and scored his second goal in as many appearances, against Reading reserves on 3 March.

On 14 April, he scored his first hat-trick for Chelsea's reserve team against Tottenham Reserves; the most spectacular of the three goals being a volley from a Branislav Ivanović cross that found the top right corner.

In the last reserve match of the season, Di Santo scored his seventh goal in eight reserve games against Aston Villa.

Di Santo trained with the first team in 2008–09 pre-season and flew out with the squad on their tour of China.

Ahead of their first game on tour, he was handed the number 36 jersey and came off the bench in that game against Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, to score the third goal during a 4–0 victory.

He made 8 substitute appearances during Chelsea's 2008–09 Premier League campaign and was afterwards linked with a loan move to Blackburn Rovers.

On 3 January 2009, Di Santo made his FA Cup debut in the third round, replacing Joe Cole for the last six minutes against Southend United in a 1–1 draw at Stamford Bridge.

Di Santo came on as a substitute for Florent Malouda with half an hour remaining and Chelsea a goal down against Stoke City on 17 January 2009.

On 30 May, Di Santo was an unused substitute as Chelsea won the 2009 FA Cup Final against Everton.

Di Santo scored his first goal of the 2009 pre-season against Club América; he also provided an assist to teammate Florent Malouda a minute later.

Chelsea won the game 2–0 to win the World Football Challenge.

On 3 August 2009, Di Santo joined Blackburn Rovers on loan until February 2010, with the option of extending the loan by six months to June 2010.

He was not selected for Rovers' final squad of the 2009–10 season, against Aston Villa.

It was his first goal since 18 October 2009.

After a season on loan at Blackburn Rovers, he moved to Wigan Athletic for £2 million in 2010, where he won the FA Cup in 2013.

As a result of his good performances, Rovers extended his loan deal by a further six months until June 2010.

However, after his extended loan, Di Santo saw less time on the pitch due to his poor goals-to-games ratio and was often used more as a late substitute.

On 31 August 2010, Di Santo signed a three-year contract with Wigan Athletic for a transfer fee of £2 million.

He made his debut on 11 September, appearing as a 54th-minute substitute for Hendry Thomas in a 1–1 draw against Sunderland, in support of his compatriot Mauro Boselli.

In the following game, against Manchester City, he started for the first time as Wigan lost 2–0 at home.

On 23 April 2011, Di Santo replaced Charles N'Zogbia for the last seven minutes of a 4–2 defeat at Sunderland and scored the last goal of the game in added time.

After totalling 14 goals in 122 Premier League matches, he was released following Wigan's relegation to the Championship in 2013.

He then moved to Werder Bremen in Germany, spending two seasons there, before making a controversial switch to rivals Schalke 04.

Di Santo has represented the Argentina national football team on three occasions.

He was nicknamed 'Crespito' (Little Crespo) after former Argentinian striker Hernán Crespo (who was nicknamed 'Valdanito', after Jorge Valdano).

Born in Mendoza, Mendoza Province, Di Santo began his club career in the Chilean team Audax Italiano.

He made his debut for Rovers on the opening day of the season, 15 August, replacing Jason Roberts in the 65th minute of a 2–0 home defeat to Manchester City.

He made his first start in the next match, away to Sunderland a week later, but was substituted for Nikola Kalinić due to injury after 14 minutes; Blackburn lost 2–1.

He recovered from injury after a month, starting a 2–1 home win over Aston Villa on 26 September in which he won David Dunn's winning late penalty after his shot was handled by Richard Dunne.

On 18 October he scored the only goal of his loan in a 3–2 home win over local rivals Burnley, also assisting David Dunn with a flick.