Nicolás Otamendi

Nicolás Otamendi

Personal information
Full name	Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi
Date of birth	(1988-02-12) 12 February 1988 (age 24)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Playing position	Centre back
Club information
Current club	Porto
Number	30
Youth career
1995–2007	Vélez Sársfield
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2007–2010	Vélez Sársfield	54	(1)
2010–	Porto	28	(7)
National team‡
2009–	Argentina	15	(1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 December 2011 (UTC). † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 16:38, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Nicolás Hernán Gonzalo Otamendi (born 12 February 1988) is an Argentine football centre back who plays for F.C. Porto in the Portuguese Liga.

Club career

Vélez Sársfield

Otamendi made his debut for Vélez Sársfield on May 10, 2008 on a 2-1 home victory against Rosario Central for the 2008 Clausura tournament, under the guidance of head coach Hugo Tocalli.^[2] During Tocalli's time, Otamendi was the fifth choice as central defender, behind Mariano Uglessich, Waldo Ponce, Fernando Tobio and Marco Torsiglieri. However, his role in the first team changed during Ricardo Gareca's first season as the club's head coach, the 2009 Clausura. Otamendi replaced Waldo Ponce as the team's centre back for the third game of the tournament, after the Chilean footballer was injured while playing for his national team.^[2] Otamendi won a place as a regular starter along Sebastián Domínguez in the defense.^[2] He ended up playing 17 of the 19 games in Vélez' 2009 Clausura winning campaign.^[3]

The defender scored his first professional goal during the 2009 Apertura, in Vélez' 3-1 victory over Arsenal de Sarandí. During that season, he also debuted on an international club competition, playing the Copa Sudamericana. In recognition of his performances throughout 2009, he was chosen for the South American Team of the Year, in a traditional continent-wide journalists' poll conducted by the newspaper El País.^[4]

Porto

On August 23, 2010, Otamendi was transferred from Vélez Sársfield to Portuguese side F.C. Porto on a €4 million fee, signing a five-year contract.^[5] Vélez also retained 50% of his registration rights, and has a pre-set price of another €4 million to be excised by Porto prior to September 2011.^[6] In his first match in Portugal, Otamendi scored a goal in Porto's 2-0 victory over S.C. Olhanense. Since then, his ability to score goals has given him a reputation for doing so, especially after scoring two goals, both with his feet, in a victory against S.C. Braga.

On 6 September 2011 Porto excised the rights to sign the remain 50% rights for €4 million, made Otamendi costed Porto €8 million in total.^[7]

International career

In 2009 Otamendi was called by coach Diego Maradona for the Argentine national team to play a friendly international match against Panama.^[8] When he was called, Otamendi was 21 years old and had only played 11 professional games.^[2] On May 20 he started the game against Panama, which Argentina won 3-1. He was also called to play the World Cup qualifying matches against Colombia and Ecuador, and played as a centre back along Martín Demichelis in the second of the aforementioned. He also started in the game against Brazil, where he played along Sebastián Domínguez, his teammate in Vélez. His third start with Argentina during the World Cup qualification was in the final match, against Uruguay, where he played as a right fullback.

On May 19, 2010, Otamendi was confirmed as part of the 23 men squad to play the FIFA World Cup 2010 for Argentina.^[9] On June 22, 2010 Otamendi was in the starting eleven for the final group stage game against Greece. On the press conference after the match, coach Diego Maradona said that, in his opinion, Otamendi was the best player on the field.^[10] He also played the 90 minutes of the round of 16 game against Mexico which Argentina won by 3-1. Finally, Otamendi also started on the quarter-final match against Germany, which Argentina lost 4-0. This time his performance received criticism by the football press, as did Maradona's decision to improvise him on the right back position.^[11][12] However, after the tournament the defender expressed that he is always willing to play for his national team, even if it is not in his natural position of centre back.^[13]

Otamendi scored his first goal for Argentina in a 1–0 friendly victory over Venezuela on September 2011 at Yuva Bharati Krirangan in Kolkata by heading a corner taken by captain Lionel Messi.

Career statistics

Correct as 12 May 2012

International goals

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	September 2, 2011	Kolkata, India	Venezuela	1 – 0	1 – 0	Friendly

Honours

Vélez Sársfield

• Argentine Primera División: 1

2009 Clausura

F.C. Porto

• UEFA Europa League: 1

2010–11

• Primeira Liga: 1

2010–11

• Taça de Portugal: 1

2010–11

• Portuguese Supercup

2011

References

External links

• Profile at Vélez Sarsfield's official website (Spanish)
• Argentine Primera statistics at Fútbol XXI (Spanish)
• Nicolás Otamendi at National-Football-Teams.com

v t e Argentina squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Pozo 2 Demichelis 3 C. Rodríguez 4 Burdisso 5 Bolatti 6 Heinze 7 Di María 8 Verón 9 Higuaín 10 Messi 11 Tévez 12 Garcé 13 Samuel 14 Mascherano (c) 15 Otamendi 16 Agüero 17 Gutiérrez 18 Palermo 19 Milito 20 M. Rodríguez 21 Andújar 22 Romero 23 Pastore Coach: Maradona