Crespo To Replace Van Nistelrooy?

After it was con­firmed that Dutch inter­na­tional Ruud Van Nis­tel­rooy would be out for the remain­der of the sea­son, the Madrid brass began Oper­a­tion RVN (Replace Van Nistelrooy).

It would not be easy to find a player that would fill the shoes of one of the top goalscor­ers in the world the past decade, but it seems like they have just found their short-term solu­tion in Italy.   Argen­tine inter­na­tional Hernán Cre­spo could be the one that makes this hap­pen mostly due to his own sit­u­a­tion at Inter. Cre­spo is also the man at the top of Madrid’s list.

Cre­spo, 33, would be the only top-level goalscorer that could sat­isfy Real Madrid’s pre­ten­sions for a league and Euro­pean dou­ble.  He is at the bot­tom of the totem pole at the neroaz­zurro as Jose Mour­inho con­sid­ers play­ers like Zla­tan Ibrahi­movic, Mario Balotelli, Julio Cruz, and Adri­ano before the for­mer Lazio and Chelsea man.  Cre­spo is not cup-tied.  He is not part of Mourinho’s list for the UEFA Cham­pi­ons League which would make him eli­gi­ble to play for Madrid come Feb­ru­ary dur­ing the knock­out stage.

Signed, sealed, deliv­ered?  Not quite.

Crespo’s con­tract with Inter expires at the end of this sea­son and he would want what­ever team is inter­ested in him to give him more than a six-month stint.  He wants to get at least a year from Madrid.  On the other hand, the Merengues are only look­ing for a short-term fix.  They are not look­ing to invest their future on a 33-year old striker.   Their long-term inter­ests lie in play­ers like Ben­zema, Cris­tiano Ronaldo, and Franck Ribéry.   They are also look­ing at the pos­si­bil­ity of Bas­t­ian Schwe­in­steiger or Mario Gomez (cur­rently injured) despite the thumbs down given by Bernd Schuster.

Cre­spo wants the play­ing sta­bil­ity because he wants Diego Maradona to con­sider him for the Argen­tine national team side.  To play for a team like Madrid will give him the forum where he can show­case him­self to El Diego and he can make one last push on Batistuta’s record.

For Cre­spo this could be his last oppor­tu­nity to show­case him­self on a Euro­pean stage.  There have been talks about an even­tual return to Argentina to end his career kind of in the mold of a Juan Sebastián Verón or a Kily González.  That option will be much tougher for Cre­spo if his inten­tions are to wear the Albice­leste yet once more.  There are var­i­ous options that Maradona has at this stage that he would go to before Cre­spo– Lionel Messi, Ser­gio Agüero, Car­los Tevez (albeit he is on the bench), Ger­mán Denis, Diego Mil­ito, Gon­zalo Higuaín, and maybe even a Mar­i­ano Pavone.   These are options Diego has even if Cre­spo plays.  Once he arrives in Madrid, he is not guar­an­teed play­ing time.   He would have to get into game shape in a hurry in order to carve out some time from the iconic Raúl or the white-hot Higuaín.

Would it be a great move?  Short-term, absolutely.  Cre­spo changes things.  He makes things hap­pen.  He is the typ­i­cal goalscorer.  He can be inaus­pi­cious for 89 min­utes and he touches the ball once and it’s in the back of the net.

In the end we will most likely see Cre­spo wear­ing white, but it will be in a way to sat­isfy both sides’ “self­ish inten­tions”- Madrid’s title bids and Crespo’s hopes for self and country.

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