Cuauhtémoc Blanco Bravo (born January 17, 1973 in Mexico City), also known as Cuauh , is a Mexican professional soccer player who currently plays for Chicago Fire in Major League Soccer of US.

Blanco is the only Mexican football player with an award in a major international FIFA competition, as he won the Silver Ball and the Golden Shoe awards in the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup. He has been awarded the MVP of the Mexican First League Division five times.

Although Blanco plays mostly as an attacking midfielder, he is tied with Ronaldinho as the leading Confederations Cup goalscorer. Blanco is the second leading goal scorer for the Mexican national football team and his debut team Club América; he is also Mexico’s second top scorer in both the FIFA World Cup and the Copa Libertadores tournament.

Blanco was born and raised in a poor neighborhood of Mexico City called Tepito, where he learned to love and play the game of football in the local fields. Growing up in a rough environment as Tepito, an area with a high crime rate, Blanco developed a style of play based on creativity and aggressiveness leading him to sometimes lose his temper. Blanco made his debut in the Primera División (Mexican First Division) in 1992 at the age of 19 with Club América. In 1997, Blanco was loaned out to play with Necaxa, and then in 2000 was loaned to Real Valladolid for two years in La Liga, Blanco returned to Club América in 2002, winning the MVP award.

In May 2005, Blanco won his first club championship as a player, leading Club América to its tenth league title, when Club América defeated U.A.G. by an aggregate score of 7-4 (1-1, 6-3). In the next three consecutve years between 2005 to 2007, he was awarded the MVP.

Blanco is regarded as one of Mexico’s best football attacking midfielders and one of the league’s most prolific scorers still active, with 151 goals. He has amassed 100 caps and scored 35 goals for his country.

International Career

Blanco has played for the Mexican national football team in two World Cups including France ‘98 and Korea-Japan 2002, scoring in each one of them. He was a member of the Mexican national team that won the Confederations Cup in 1999 where he was the tournament’s leading scorer with 6 goals, including one in the final. He was awarded the “Golden Boot” and “Silver Ball” for outstanding player of the tournament. Blanco holds the record along with Ronaldinho as the highest scoring players in the Confederations Cup with 9 goals, three in 1997 and 6 in 1999. He is also one of the top scorers of the Mexican national football team; nine goals behind the top scorer Jared Borgetti.

In the selection for the final 23 man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, former Mexican national team coach Ricardo Lavolpe left Blanco out of the team. While the ostensible reason is that Blanco was frequently injured and not in good form; some people considered this to be a consequence of the previous year’s constant bickering, due to on-going personal problems between coach and player.

Blanco became part of the squad that played the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, scoring one penalty goal, and the 2007 Copa America, where he scored 2 goals also in penalty kicks.

He has since been praised for his influential performance and is now tipped to be a certain starter for the majority of Mexico’s qualifying games, mostly down to his experience and current form with Chicago Fire in the MLS. On September 13 2008, the veteran Mexican playmaker earned his 100th cap for his country in its 2-1 World Cup Qualifier victory over Canada at Tuxtla Gutierrez, coming on with only 15 seconds left in regulation.

Blanco has returned to the national team since Javier Aguirre’s arrival to the team in April 2009. He was called up for the World Cup Qualifying Match against El Salvador and Trinidad & Tobago.

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