FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template

Keeper Jose Luis Chilavert is hot property, whether referring to his football abilities or temper, and Paraguay’s World Cup hopes could well rest on his personal performances in France.

The Velez Sarsfield stopper has grabbed the limelight for exploits on and off the pitch, particularly his knack for scoring goals. He often takes penalties and freekicks, and scored two vital goals in their World Cup qualifying campaign, including a freekick to equalize at 1-1 in Argentina in the River Plate stadium. Chilavert even made the prophecy he would manage such a feat before the fixture.

He has scored more than 30 goals at club level and during 1997 scored four goals in 35 internationals to prove his prolific strike rate for a goalkeeper. Paraguay finished second, just a point behind Argentina, in South America’s World Cup qualifying group and much of their success is down to Chilavert’s motivating abilities.

Of course his intimidation of other teams is also probably a factor. In fact, photographers at the River Plate stadium said Argentina keeper German Burgos was visibly shaking before Chilavert scored from the dead ball move. Chilavert has a snarling bulldog face on the front of his shirt when he plays club football, symbolic of his fighting and never-say-die spirit. Sometimes that controlled aggression on the field sublimates into less disciplined emotion off it.

He once struck a journalist who suggested he had put on weight during the close season, former Argentina captain Oscar Ruggeri has also been on the receiving end of his fist, and an assault on a ball boy even landed him a three-month suspended jail sentence.