Javier Pastore life and biography

Javier Matías Pastore (born 20 June 1989) is an Argentine professional footballer who is currently contracted with Italian Serie A club Palermo. He is usually nicknamed El Flaco and, more occasionally, Huesito.

Pastore was born in Córdoba, in 1989 and developed his particular playing style by watching a popular nineties kids TV show called "cebollitas". He started his youth career in Talleres, the team he was always a fan of. Friends and family recall a peculiar talent, they say he has a gift to imitate personalities.

Career

Talleres
Pastore slowly worked his way up to the first team. In 2007, he made his debut in the Argentine 2nd division under the wing of manager Ricardo Gareca. During 2007 he only managed to play five games.

Huracán
During 2008, he was loaned to Huracán of the Argentine Primera. Pastore made his professional debut for Huracán on 24 May 2008 in a 1-0 loss with River Plate. In the Clausura 2009 championship he established himself as a regular first team player for the club under the management of Ángel Cappa. This was his breakthrough tournament, where his side narrowly missed out on the championship title. His performance against River Plate was particularly lauded where he opened the scoring with a 25 yard shot and then scored again with a piece of individual brilliance helping Huracán win 4-0 in the club's biggest win against River Plate in over sixty years.

He ended up as the team's top scorer with 7 goals and 3 assists. Pastore and team mate Matías De Federico were integral to Huracán's title challenge that season.

Palermo
On July 11, 2009 Palermo formally announced the signing of Pastore for five years until June 30, 2014, with the transfer fee being about $8 million. Before his move to Palermo, the player was also linked to number of other top European clubs, including Manchester United, FC Porto, Milan and Chelsea.

His debut was on August 15 in the Coppa Italia, while his debut in Serie A was eight days later. His breakthrough game was in October 4 against Juventus, when he assisted Cavani in a 2-0 win, appearing in all the websites and national newspapers. He scored his first Serie A goal on January 30, 2010 in a 2–4 away defeat to Bari. In his first season at Palermo, Pastore proved himself as being a promising but inexperienced youngster, playing mostly as a second half substitute under head coaches Walter Zenga and, later, Delio Rossi. He then established himself as a regular under the tutelage of Rossi, playing usually in a trequartista role behind the regular striking duo of Fabrizio Miccoli and Edinson Cavani. Thanks to his performances, all praised by fans and pundits, Palermo climbed the league table up to fourth place in March 2010.

Following a string of good performances in his first season at Italian Serie A level, Argentina head coach Diego Maradona called up Pastore for national squad duty against a Catalonia representative team for an unofficial friendly game on the 22nd December 2009. Pastore made his debut as a second half substitute scoring a goal in the process. As the game was not a FIFA recognised representative game, Pastore did not receive a cap.

He was subsequently called up by Maradona again for a friendly game against Germany, but did not get onto the pitch. His official debut was against Canada on May 25, 2010. Pastore was included by Diego Maradona in Argentina's 23-man squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

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