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Fullname: Efraín Juan Gaí Juárez Valdéz
aka: Efraín Juárez
Born: 22 Feb 1988
Birthplace: Mexico City, Mexico
Signed: 17 July 2010 (from UNAM Pumas)
Left: 5 June 2012 (to Club America (Mexico))
Position: Right-back, Midfielder
Debut: Braga 3-0 Celtic, Champions League, 28 July 2010
Squad No.: 4
Internationals: Mexico
International Caps: [Complete at end of Career]
International Goals: [Complete at end of Career]

Biog

Mexican World Cup star signed in July 2010 for an undisclosed fee of around £2m on a four-year contract. Some try to make out it was £3.5m or £4.5m but that is highly unlikely.

A natural right-back also capable of playing in midfield, versatile Efrain is extremely quick. Spotted by Lennon in a pre-World Cup friendly against England and perhaps earmarked to provide pace and directness down the right flank, conspicuously lacking at Celtic since the days of Didier Agathe.

Juarez joined leading Mexican club UNAM as a 13-year-old. After winning the 2005 U17 World Cup he came to the attention of Barcelona and joined the Mexican colony at the Nou Camp in 2006. However, with Barcelona 'B' spaces at a premium he was farmed out to CF Barbate in the Andalusian regional leagues for 2006-07. This was punctuated by qualifiers for the U20 World Cup in Canada that summer, at which Mexico reached the quarter finals but Scotland bombed spectacularly.

Trials at Everton and AEK Athens followed in the second half of 2007, but were scuppered by work permit and other foreign player restrictions. So Efrain headed home and signed a one year deal with original club UNAM, spending the 2008 Clausura playing reserve team football with the club's "Morelas" side. Thereafter he was promoted to the senior team and was a regular until his departure, picking up a Clausura 2009 winner's medal. His full international debut came on 28 June 2009 and he had racked up more than 20 caps within a year to give indication of the confidence in him.

At Celtic, Juarez hit the ground running, initially being deployed in midfield and for a few games looked the sort of midfielder who could get in front of the strikers and score goals, something that had been missing since Stillian Petrov moved to Aston Villa. Unfortunately this would not last long, with Juarez losing form and his place in the team. One story posts that his loss of form occurred around the time he was disciplined by the Mexican national team for his part in organising an unauthorised post-World Cup party.

A common belief is that after we were out of Europe, after humiliating defeats to Braga (European Cup) and Utrecht (Europa League), his head went down and he wasn't interested! Doesn't speak too well of him if true. A shame as he started so well with good performances in those matches. A quick favourite with the support with some good performances when the team was unsettled and working under rookie manager Neil Lennon. It wasn't to last long and that was a disappointment.

For the remainder of the 2010/11 season Juarez would remain a peripheral figure at Celtic, unable to establish himself in the team despite availability problems at various stages in both midfield and defence. The season would end on a more positive note for Juarez however, as he was an integral part of the Mexican team which would win the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, coming from 2 - 0 down to beat the USA 3 - 2 in the final. This caught the eye of clubs abroad, and unsurprisingly he left on loan to Real Zaragoza on 26 July 2011 in hope for a full contract.

A good player and likely we never saw the best of him, but he should have put more effort into his time here. Likely didn't realise that we had so many good midfielders to take his place (surprisingly he was way back in the queue for a place), so the only opportunities if any were to be as a right-back. Overall, he wasted his opportunity with us.

He was back in January '12 after his loan move was cut short, but still no room for a first team regular start. No chance still in midfield, but we had a better developer in Matthews at right-back but it was embarrassing for Juarez to find he was even behind the much maligned Cha Du-Ri for the role. A token appearance at the end of the season was all he was worthy of.

In June 2012, Mexican side Club America announced they had bought Juarez. It was all over.

Juarez's failure at Celtic is not one that you can pin down to a single reason alone, but whatever the points the buck stops with him. He joins a very long line of Mexican players who have failed in Europe but can you argue that he had it a little easier at Celtic in the SPL compared to La Liga? He was more experienced than most of his compatriots as well who had come over to Europe.

Initially it seemed he had the making of a cult player but in time found himself cut out. His failure elsewhere on loan doesn't help his case for his own defence, but does ask questions of what difference he was expected to bring to any of the clubs.

It's too late now. We do wish him the best but in all honesty he was leaving whilst being way behind even juniors in the pecking order for first team games and no one at Celtic was too concerned about his departure. It was on the cards for too long, and Juarez had seemed too little to challenge the situation.

Promised a lot but not to be.

Playing Career

Honours with Celtic

none

KDS Honours
MOTM Winners 2010-11
28-Jul-10	Braga 3-0 Celtic	UCL 3rd Qual Rd 1st Leg
04-Aug-10	Celtic 2-1 Braga	UCL 3rd Qual Rd 2nd Leg
Aug-10	KDS Player of the Month

Pictures

• Player Pics
  

Links

• Juarez song
  

KDS

• Juarez joins (July 10)
• Juarez Leavs Celtic (June 2012)
  

Celtic capture Mexican World Cup star Efrain Juarez

(www.goal.com)
Celtic have signed 22-year-old Mexico right-back Efrain Juarez from UNAM Pumas for an undisclosed fee. Juarez, who made three appearances for Mexico during the World Cup finals, will undergo a medical in Seattle whilst documentation is completed. He played for Spanish giants Barcelona's B-team between 2006 and 2008, and helped Pumas reach fourth place in La Primera Division before heading for South Africa. Celtic manager Neil Lennon told the BBC: "We are very close to signing him and hopefully over the next few days we'll have something on that. “We're not paying massive money for him. "He's got great energy, is really comfortable on the ball and works really hard off the ball. "He's a very fit lad and I think his style will suit us, he's a hardy little guy - he can put his foot in. "I saw Juarez playing against England at Wembley before the World Cup and just kept an eye on him. "I thought he looked decent there and in the World Cup, and when the opportunity came up, we watched him again and again and asked if he would fit in to what we wanted to do here.” Lennon has been ringing the changes at Parkhead this summer, signing South Korean right-back Cha Du-Ri from Freiburg, former Cardiff midfielder Joe Ledley and ex-Aberdeen defender Charlie Mulgrew.

Celtic misfit Efrain Juarez: No-one knows why my move to Parkhead didn't work out

Jun 10 2012 Sunday Mail
MEXICAN misfit Efrain Juarez last night revealed even Dermot Desmond couldn’t work out why he flopped at Celtic.
The 24-year-old left Parkhead last week after a disastrous two-year spell to return to his homeland with Club America.
Juarez was mystified as to why his move to Celts didn’t work out and claimed majority shareholder Desmond shared his thoughts. The midfielder said: “I’m leaving with my head held high because I know I gave my best.
“I spoke to Dermot Desmond when I left and he wished things had been different because he had great hopes for me.
“Dermot said he was surprised it didn’t work out. Neil Lennon also took me aside and wished me every success in the future.
“I don’t really know what went wrong at Celtic because for the first six months I was playing and scoring goals. But my experience in Scotland has made me a better person.”