Alan Gonzalo Varela (born 4 July 2001) is an Argentine professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

defensive Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

central midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

club

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

Club career

Boca Juniors

Varela joined

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

in 2012 from Barcelona Luján; a subsidiary of

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, who later became known as Barcelona Juniors following a partnership with Boca. After training with Boca's senior side during 2019, a year that also saw him sign his first professional contract, Varela made the breakthrough into

Miguel Ángel Russo Miguel Ángel Russo (born 9 April 1956) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. He is the current manager of Rosario Central. Playing career Club career Russo was a one club man; ...

's first-team in 2020. He was an unused substitute seven times in all competitions between September and December, including for the first time on 17 September for a

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

win over Libertad. Varela's senior debut came on 20 December in a

Copa de la Liga Profesional The Copa de la Liga Profesional (English: ''Professional League Cup''; officially named "Copa Diego Armando Maradona" in its first edition) is an official Argentine football cup competition. The cup was planned and organised by the "Liga Profesi ...

game with Independiente.

Porto

On 16 August 2023,

club

announced the signing of Varela on a five-year contract, for a reported fee of €8 million + €3 million in performance-related add-ons. He made his debut on 3 September, coming off the bench to replace

Stephen Eustáquio Stephen Antunes Eustáquio ( ; born 21 December 1996) is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Primeira Liga club Porto and the Canada national team. After starting out at Nazarenos, he has spent most of his club ...

at half-time in a 1–1 league draw at home against Arouca. Twelve days later, Varela made his first start for the ''Dragons'', away at

Estrela da Amadora Club Football Estrela da Amadora (), sometimes just Estrela, is a Portuguese sports club (predominantly football) based in Amadora, northwest of Lisbon. It's the successor of Clube de Futebol Estrela da Amadora, founded in 1932 and extinct in ...

, where he made a last-minute goal-line clearance to guarantee a 1–0 Porto win. On 20 January 2024, he scored his first goal for Porto, in a 5–0 league victory at home to

Moreirense Moreirense Futebol Clube is a Portuguese professional football club based in Moreira de Cónegos, Guimarães Municipality, in Minho. Founded on 1 November 1938, it plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home games at Parque de Jogos Comendador Joa ...

International career

In 2019, Varela was selected by Argentina U20 manager

Esteban Solari Esteban Andrés Solari Poggio (; born 2 June 1980) is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker, currently Manager (association football), manager of Malaysi ...

for the

COTIF Tournament COTIF may refer to: * L'Alcúdia International Football Tournament, known as COTIF, an annual international youth football competition * Convention concerning International Carriage by Rail (COTIF), a 1980 meeting and treaty that established the In ...

in Spain.

Career statistics

Honours

Boca Juniors *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA), with the aim of qual ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, COVID- ...

Supercopa Argentina The Supercopa Argentina (English: Argentine Super Cup) is an official National association football cup of Argentina organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The annual football match was played for the first time in 2012, being cont ...

Porto *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

: 2023–24

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, Alan 2001 births Living people Sportspeople from La Matanza Partido Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Argentine Primera División players Primeira Liga players Boca Juniors footballers FC Porto players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Portugal