Claudio Paul Caniggia (born January 9, 1967 in Buenos Aires) is a former Argentine football (soccer) striker, a mainstay in the Argentine national team throughout the early 1990s.
On the club level, El Pájaro (The Bird) Caniggia played for River Plate (1985-88), Hellas Verona (1988-89), Atalanta (1989-92 and 1999-2000), AS Roma (1992-93), Benfica (1994-95), Boca Juniors (1995-98), Dundee (2000-01) and Rangers (2001-03).
For Argentina, Caniggia was capped 50 times, scoring 16 goals. Most of these caps came in the early 1990s, as he played for his country at the 1990 and 1994 World Cups. A refusal to cut his long hair despite the rules of national coach Daniel Passarella and a resulting prolonged absense from the national team followed. He made a brief comeback to the Marcelo Bielsa -coached squad for the 2002 World Cup, but did not play a minute. Nevertheless he did receive a red card for swearing at the referee from the bench in Argentina's last match against Sweden.
Caniggia is great friends with Argentine superstar Diego Maradona; the duo celebrated a goal with a kiss on the lips. To what Claudio's wife, model Mariana Nannis, said: "At times I believe Diego is in love with my husband. It must be the long hair and big muscles."
