Mauro Boselli

Mauro Boselli (born 22 May 1985) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a striker for León. Boselli began his career at Argentine First Division clubs Boca Juniors and Estudiantes before moving to England in 2010 to join Wigan Athletic. He has also made four appearances for the Argentina national team.

His style of play has been described by Roberto Martínez as "a clever player and natural finisher ... who can create havoc in the penalty area."

Boca Juniors

Boselli made his debut for Boca Juniors in a 7–2 defeat to Rosario Central on 6 July 2003, for the last fixture of the 2003 Clausura. He subsequently spent the 2005–06 season on loan at Málaga B in the Spanish Segunda División. After returning to Boca Juniors, Boselli struggled to become a regular in the first team, being behind Martín Palermo and Argentina World Cup player Rodrigo Palacio in the coaches' consideration.

Estudiantes

In July 2008, Estudiantes de La Plata bought 50% of Boselli's transfer rights from Boca, allowing the forward to move to the La Plata outfit. In Estudiantes, Boselli started strongly with 8 goals in 15 league games during his first tournament, the 2008 Apertura. In 2009, he won the Copa Libertadores with Estudiantes. During the competition, Boselli scored 8 goals, finishing as the overall top scorer of the tournament. He also helped the team by scoring the winning goal in the tournament's final against Cruzeiro, in Belo Horizonte. In total, Mauro Boselli scored 49 goals at Estudiantes de la Plata since June 2008. He hit 32 goals in the Argentine Primera División and a further 17 goals in international cups: 12 in the Copa Libertadores, four in the Copa Sudamericana and one in the FIFA Club World Cup.

Wigan Athletic

On 29 June 2010, Boselli signed a four-year deal with Wigan Athletic for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around £6.5 million. He made his debut in the opening game of the Premier League season against Blackpool, and scored his first competitive goal for the club against Swansea City in the League Cup on 26 October 2010. However, following his first goal for the club, Boselli found settling into the English Premier League difficult. In March 2012, Wigan fans voted Boselli as the club's worst ever foreigner.

Genoa

Having struggled to adapt to English football, Boselli was loaned to Italian Serie A side Genoa on 13 January 2011 for the remainder of the 2010–11 season. He made seven appearances and scored two goals for Genoa, including a match-winning goal in stoppage time against rival club U.C. Sampdoria.

Estudiantes

Before returning to Wigan from his season-long loan at Genoa, Boselli expressed interest in a permanent move to the Italian side. However, he later stated his main aim was to return to Argentina, and was subsequently loaned out to former club Estudiantes for the 2011–12 season. Boselli finished as the club's top goalscorer in both the Apertura and Clausura tournaments, featuring in 29 games and netting 11 goals.

Return to Wigan

Boselli returned to Wigan after a year and a half on loan at two different clubs. He was issued the squad number 19 as Franco Di Santo had taken his original number 9 shirt. After appearing on the bench for the first two league games, briefly appearing away at Southampton in a 2–0 win as an 89th-minute substitute, Boselli returned to starting action by starting for Wigan in a League Cup tie away at Nottingham Forest. Boselli scored the first goal in a 4–1 victory and impressed during the night. It was his second ever goal for Wigan. On 25 September 2012 Boselli scored twice in a 4–1 win away at West Ham in the third round of the League Cup. On 15 January 2013, Boselli grabbed his 4th goal of the season in a 1–0 FA Cup Third Round Replay win away at Bournemouth.

Palermo

In the post match interview following the FA Cup game against Macclesfield on 26 January 2013, Wigan manager Roberto Martínez confirmed that Boselli had agreed to a further loan spell, this time back in Italy at Palermo. The move was finalized and officially confirmed by the Sicilian club two days later, on 28 January.

Club León

In June 2013, he moved to Club León in Mexico. In December 2013, León became champion of Liga MX Apertura 2013, being a key player for the championship and most games played during the season. Yet again, in the Clausura 2014, he was a key player the next year, when León became champions for the second year in a row making them the second Mexican team to become "bicampeones" in the 6 months modalilty tournament. (Also León wons the first "bicampeón" in the 1950s, one year tournament).

In 2005, Boselli was part of the Argentine U-20 national team that finished third in the South American Youth Championship (therefore qualifying for that year's U-20 World Cup). However, Boselli was not part of the final World Cup squad.

On 27 September 2009, Boselli was called for a local-league based Argentine national team (replacing injured Esteban Fuertes) to play a friendly match against Ghana. Three days later, on 30 September, Boselli debuted with the national team, being brought in as a substitute in the 57th minute of the match. Boselli scored his first goal for Argentina- from the penalty spot- in a 4–1 defeat to Nigeria on 1 June 2011.

International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	1 June 2011	Abuja Stadium, Abuja	Nigeria	1–4	1–4	Friendly

Club

• Copa Sudamericana (1): 2004
• Copa Libertadores (1): 2007

• Copa Libertadores (1): 2009

• FA Cup (1): 2013

• Liga MX (2): Apertura 2013, Clausura 2014

Individual

• Copa Libertadores top scorer (1): 2009 (with Estudiantes)
• Argentine Primera División top scorer (1): 2010 Clausura (with Estudiantes)
• Liga MX top scorer (2): Apertura 2014*, Apertura 2015

(*Jointly shared with Camilo Sanvezzo)