Carlos Bacca

Atlético Junior

Bacca began his professional career with Atlético Junior in 2006, where he did not have many chances to play. While playing football, Bacca had a second job working as a bus driver's assistant, to earn more money since his family came from a poor background. On loan at Barranquilla FC in 2007, Bacca made 27 appearances and scored 12 goals. After that, he joined Venezuelan club Minervén on loan for a season. Bacca led the club into second place in the league, scoring 12 goals in 29 games. In 2008, Bacca rejoined Barranquilla on loan once again and was the league top scorer with 14 goals in 19 games. Bacca made his professional debut on 1 March 2009 in a 2009 Apertura match against Deportivo Pasto; with the score at 0-0, Bacca entered the game as a sub and scored two goals in 15 minutes to give his club a 2–0 victory. In his first professional season at Junior, Bacca quickly earned himself a regular first team place and was the top scorer in the 2009 Copa Colombia. One year later, in 2010, he became the winner and top goalscorer of the Categoría Primera A, repeating in 2011 as winner and top goalscorer giving Junior their sixth and seventh Colombian titles. Since making a breakthrough at Atlético Junior, Bacca had attracted clubs' interest, mostly from Europe. Many clubs in Europe like Russian side Lokomotiv Moscow and Chievo came close to Bacca's signature, but those moves were never completed. Bacca revealed that he nearly joined Lokomotiv, but his…

Bacca scored his first goal for the senior national team in his debut on 11 August 2010, putting Colombia in front against Bolivia at the Estadio Hernando Siles in La Paz; the match finished in a 1–1 draw. His next goal for Colombia came over two years later, scoring his side's second of the match in a 3–0 win over Cameroon on 17 October 2012. On 31 May 2014, Bacca scored to put Colombia ahead 2–0 against Senegal, in a match that finished 2–2. Bacca was selected to the final 23-man roster for Colombia at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil less than a week later. Bacca made one appearance in the finals, coming on as a substitute and winning a penalty in Colombia's 1–2 defeat to hosts Brazil in the quarter-finals. In a friendly match against El Salvador at the Red Bull Arena in Harrison, New Jersey on 10 October 2014, Bacca scored twice as Colombia won 3–0. In May 2015, Bacca was included in Colombia's 23-man squad for the 2015 Copa América by coach José Pékerman. After the team's second match, a 1–0 win against Brazil in Santiago on 17 June, Bacca was red carded after the final whistle for pushing over Brazilian striker Neymar, who himself was earlier sent off for deliberately kicking the ball at Pablo Armero. Bacca was given a two-match ban, while Neymar was suspended for four matches. On 25 June 2016, Bacca scored Colombia's match-winning goal against hosts the United States in a 1–0 win in the third-place match of the Copa América Centenario. In May 2018, he was named in…

During his time under manager Unai Emery at Sevilla, Bacca modified his playing style, improving his mentality, work-rate, and the defensive aspect of his game; he was also often deployed in deeper areas of the pitch, which allowed him to drop into midfield to be more involved in the buildup of plays and linkup with his teammates. This new role also gave him more opportunities to find spaces from deeper positions, lose his markers, and make attacking runs into the area, which enabled to maintain his consistent goalscoring record, despite being played further back from goal. With Milan, however, Bacca at times had a difficult relationship with his manager Vincenzo Montella playing in a more advanced and offensive role as a centre-forward, due to his low defensive and creative contribution, as well as his limited movement off the ball outside the box. Although Bacca was praised in the media for his goalscoring record, ability to make attacking runs, and his ratio of goals per minutes played at the club, often requiring few touches and chances to score, he was also criticised for the overall quality of some of his performances, in spite of his goalscoring and finishing ability. Frequent criticisms of Bacca included his tendency to mainly operate in the centre of the penalty area, not contribute to the build-up of attacking moves, and not attempt to create chances for himself; this, in turn, led him to be isolated from his team's overall play when Milan struggled to create…

Bacca was born in Puerto Colombia, a coastal town within the Barranquilla metropolitan area, to Gilberto Bacca and Eloisa Ahumada. Bacca is known to be an extremely religious person of the Evangelical Christian faith, frequently thanking God in interviews, and despite his denomination it was at one time rumored that he wanted to join Italian club Roma so that he would be close to the Pope.