Edinson Cavani · Biography

Edinson Roberto Cavani Gómez was born on 14 February 1987 in Salto, in north-western Uruguay. At 15 he moved to Montevideo to join the youth ranks of Danubio, where he developed as a centre forward. He went on to play in Serie A, Ligue 1, the Premier League, LaLiga and Argentine football.

Danubio and the move to Italy

Cavani broke into the Danubio first team and was part of the squad that won the 2006-07 Uruguayan championship. In January 2007 he was top scorer at the South American U-20 Championship, with seven goals in nine games, as Uruguay finished third. That same month Palermo completed his signing, and on 11 March 2007 he made his Serie A debut against Fiorentina. Over three and a half seasons in Sicily he went from substitute to starter, scoring 14 league goals in 2008-09 and 13 in 2009-10. He left Palermo with 37 goals in 117 competitive matches.

Napoli and the goals

In July 2010 he joined Napoli and made his debut on 19 August that year against Swedish side Elfsborg. In Naples he became one of the leading scorers in Italian football, forming an attacking trio with Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamšík. In 2012 he won the Coppa Italia and finished as the competition’s top scorer with five goals. In 2012-13 he was Serie A capocannoniere with 29 goals, six more than Antonio Di Natale. He left in 2013 with 104 goals in 138 matches, the sixth-highest total in the club’s history.

Seven seasons at Paris Saint-Germain

Paris Saint-Germain confirmed his signing on 16 July 2013. In Paris he shared the attack first with Zlatan Ibrahimović and later with Neymar and Kylian Mbappé. He won six league titles: 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20. Among other trophies, he added the 2015 Coupe de France and the 2015 and 2017 Coupes de la Ligue. After Ibrahimović left, Cavani became the first-choice number nine. In 2016-17 he scored 35 Ligue 1 goals and was named the league’s Player of the Year by the UNFP. On 27 January 2018 his 157th goal made him PSG’s all-time top scorer. When his contract ended in 2020 he had 200 goals in 301 matches. He received the Golden Foot in 2018.

Manchester United, Valencia and Boca Juniors

On 5 October 2020 he signed for Manchester United, and on 7 November he scored his first goal for the club, against Everton at Goodison Park. In 2020-21 he scored 17 goals and reached the Europa League final, which United lost to Villarreal on penalties. He left England in 2022 with 19 goals in 59 matches. He then spent a season at Valencia, scoring 7 goals in 28 matches. On 29 July 2023 Boca Juniors announced his arrival. He scored his first goal for the club against Platense on 18 August. That year he started the Copa Libertadores final, which Boca lost to Fluminense.

Uruguay national team

He made his senior debut for Uruguay on 6 February 2008 against Colombia (2-2) and scored in that match. At the 2010 World Cup he set up Luis Suárez against Mexico and scored against Germany in the third-place play-off. In 2011 he won the Copa América, Uruguay’s fifteenth continental title, coming on in the 63rd minute of the 3-0 final win over Paraguay. He played at the London 2012 Olympics as one of the squad’s three over-age players. At the 2018 World Cup he scored both goals in the 2-1 round-of-16 win over Portugal on 30 June. His last international was the 2-0 win over Ghana at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, on 2 December 2022. He announced his international retirement on 30 May 2024, with 136 caps and 58 goals.

Leaving Boca in 2026

A back injury kept him out for much of 2026. On 1 July 2026 he terminated his Boca contract, which had been due to run until December. He left the club without a trophy, after 81 competitive matches and 28 goals.