Luis Héctor Cristaldo Ruiz Díaz (born August 31, 1969, in Formosa, Argentina) is an Argentine-born Bolivian football midfielder.

Luis Cristaldo
Personal information
Full name Luis Héctor Cristaldo Ruiz Díaz
Date of birth (1969-08-31) August 31, 1969 (age 55)
Place of birth Ibarreta, Argentina
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Position(s) Defender
Youth career
Tahuichi Academy
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1992 Oriente Petrolero
1993–1998 Bolívar 127 (11)
1994Deportivo Mandiyú (loan) 12 (0)
1998–1999 Sporting Gijón 8 (1)
1999–2000 Cerro Porteño 0 (0)
2001–2006 The Strongest 107 (8)
2007–2008 Oriente Petrolero 11 (0)
2009–2010 Guabirá
2011 The Strongest
International career
1989–2005 Bolivia 93 (5)
Managerial career
2012–2013 Guabirá
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

He is Bolivia's national team record cap holder alongside Marco Sandy.

Club career

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Born in Argentina, he relocated to Santa Cruz, Bolivia at the age of 15. Cristaldo then began attending the prestigious Tahuichi football academy, and by the time he was 18 years old he made his official debut in first division. He played for Bolivian teams Oriente Petrolero (1990–92) and Bolívar (1993–98), winning 4 national titles combined during those years.

In 1998, he went abroad to play for Sporting de Gijón in Spain and later with Cerro Porteño and Sol de América in Paraguay, not to mention a previous spell he had during 1994 with Argentine club Mandiyú de Corrientes and legendary Diego Maradona as the manager.

In 2001, Cristaldo returned to Bolivia and played with The Strongest for the next six years. In 2007, during his second spell with Oriente Petrolero he called it quits, laying his football career to rest permanently after seventeen years of professional football.

International career

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Cristaldo played at the 1987 FIFA U-16 World Championship in Canada.[1]

He and Marco Sandy hold the record for the most appearances for the Bolivia national team with 93 international matches and 5 goals between 1989 and 2005, including two appearances in the 1994 FIFA World Cup.[2] Cristaldo made his international debut on September 10, 1989, in a World Cup Qualifier against Uruguay in Montevideo (2–0 loss) and equalled Sandy's record in his final match against Brazil in October 2005. He represented his country in 33 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and at the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup.[1]

Honours

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Club

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References

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  1. ^ a b Luis CristaldoFIFA competition record (archived)
  2. ^ rsssf: Bolivia record international footballers Archived 2009-06-09 at the Wayback Machine
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