TOUCHED by tragedy, dusted with glamour, and steeped in glory... the life story of Manchester City's newest signing would be worthy of a Roque movie.

But Roque Luis Santa Cruz Santero is not just a football pin-up boy.

When he meets up with his new City team-mates in a fortnight, the Paraguayan striker will more than hold his own when the old footballers' call of 'Show us yer medals' crops up.

Indeed, if Dietmar Hamann rides off into a Munich 1860 sunset, and until Carlos Tevez and possibly Samuel Eto'o join, the new boy will have one piece of silverware which should impress and inspire his new colleagues.

Santa Cruz won a Champions League medal with Bayern Munich in 2001, to go along with his five Bundesliga titles, four German Cups and two Paraguayan league championships.

But it has not been all plain sailing for the man who was born in a hillside suburb of Asuncion on August 16, 1981.

Behind the dark good looks, the millionaire lifestyle and the glamorous wife, lies a heartache which will never go away.

The death of his younger brother Oscar in a car crash in Paraguay in January 2005 was a haunting factor in his career at Bayern going askew, and a big reason why he quit the German giants for the more homely delights of Blackburn in 2007.

Tragedy

Oscar, like Roque and his other brother Julio - a Blackburn reserve player - was a professional footballer.

And the fact that Roque was so far away when his family suffered such a tragedy, made it harder to take.

"It's beyond comparison to anything," said Santa Cruz. "If you get injured, even it takes eight months, you recover. You lose a brother, it hurts so deep that it never recovers.

"It was also painful to see how much losing him hurt my mother, so bad. We're a close family. It takes time to recover, and even when it's better, it's not the same. I guess that was also one reason later why I wasn't playing so well."

That terrible shock, coupled with a bad run of ankle and knee injuries, led to Santa Cruz losing form and his place in the Bayern side, and he jumped at the chance to join Blackburn in 2007.

He had spoken to friend and former Bayern colleague Owen Hargreaves when pondering the move, and the England midfielder had told him the Premier League was the place to be.

It was a career in need of a kick-start.

Talented

Santa Cruz's rise to the pinnacle of European football began when he was a talented nine-year-old, snapped up by local club Olimpia Asuncion, Paraguay's oldest and biggest club.

By the time he was 16, the tall, precocious youth was in the first team - and he was straight in at the deep end, his debut coming in the Super Clasico derby match against fierce local rivals Cerro Porteno, in July 1998.

Santa Cruz withstood the fiery baptism, and emerged from the flames with his reputation enhanced, helping Olimpia to league titles in his first season, and adding another the following year.

And in 1999 he was exhibiting his languid style, heading power and goal acumen to a wider audience, playing in front of the world's top scouts at the FIFA World Youth Championships.

Three goals had plenty of European scouts taking notice, and also earned him a call-up for the full Paraguay team for the 1999 Copa America.

He finished the season as Paraguay's Footballer of the Year.

His meteoric rise to international football had not gone unnoticed, and Bayern, looking to strengthen after their defeat in the 1999 Champions League final, moved in.

His eight years in the Bundesliga were a mixed bag. Within two years he had picked up a Champions League winner's medal himself, although he watched from the bench as his teammates saw off Valencia on penalties.

The honours continued to pile up, and Santa Cruz established himself as the golden boy of Paraguayan football, scoring 20 goals in 61 international appearances.

He was also becoming a cult figure in Germany, despite facing stiff competition for his place in the Bayern side. In 2004 he made a guest appearance on a rock single, `Ich, Roque' released by a German band called Sportfreunde Stiller - and it reached the top 40 in Germany and Austria.

Embarrassment

And in 2006, he was voted the sexiest man at the World Cup finals by readers of a German soccer magazine, to his intense embarrassment, and to the glee of mickey- taking teammates.

But the events of the previous year, and that fateful car crash, cast a shadow over his career, and the first of a series of knee troubles was also taking its toll.

By 2007 Santa Cruz was out of form, battling injury and behind Miroslav Klose and Luca Toni in the pecking order.

When Mark Hughes expressed an interest, Santa Cruz brought his beautiful wife Giselle and children Tobias and Fiorella, to England, with £3.5million going the other way to compensate Bayern.

Settling in Cheshire, Santa Cruz made an instant impact, scoring within minutes of making his debut as a substitute on the opening day of the 2007-08 season for Rovers against Middlesbrough.

The goals continued to flow, 23 coming in 43 games, as he bucked the trend of South American strikers coming to play in the Premier League.

City and Arsenal were among a number of clubs eyeing up the prolific newcomer, but Santa Cruz signed a new four-year deal with Rovers last summer.

Then came a difficult second season, hampered by more knee troubles and darkened by the player's growing unrest.

City made their move in the January transfer window but Blackburn, deep in the relegation mire, refused to let go.

Hughes remained patient and finally got his man this week, for a fee which will eventually rise to £17m.

It is a whole new beginning for Santa Cruz, pop singer, pin-up and Paraguayan football star.

Do you think Santa Cruz will succeed at City? Have your say.