Esteban Gabriel Orfano (born 13 January 1992) 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

right 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 ...

Club career

Orfano started his career with

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 ...

, notably featuring for their youth team at the

2011 U-20 Copa Libertadores The 2011 U-20 Copa Libertadores (known as the 2011 Copa Movistar Libertadores Sub-20 for sponsorship reasons) was the first edition of this U-20 club competition. Players born on or after 1 January 1990 were eligible to compete. The tournament wa ...

in Peru; netting once across six matches. He was promoted into their senior squad during the 2010–11 Primera División, making two appearances against

All Boys Club Atlético All Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Floresta, Buenos Aires. The institution is mostly known by its football team, which currently plays in the Primera B Nacional, the second division of the Argentine football league s ...

and

Lanús Lanús () is the capital of Lanús Partido, Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It lies just south of the capital city Buenos Aires, in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. The city has a population of 212,152 (), and the Partido de Lan� ...

under manager

Julio César Falcioni Julio César Falcioni (born 20 July 1956 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine football manager and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Playing career Club career Falcioni started his career at Vélez Sársfield in the Primera division i ...

. In January 2012, Orfano completed a loan move to Spain's Villarreal B. His debut arrived in a 0–3 defeat to

Alcorcón Alcorcón () is a city and municipality of Spain located in the Community of Madrid. as of 2020, it had a population of 172,384. Geography The municipality, largely flat, lies at an average altitude of 711 metres above sea level, with the h ...

in February, before featuring versus

Alcoyano Club Deportivo Alcoyano, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcoy, in the autonomous community of Valencia. Founded in 1928 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, holding home games in '' Estadio El Collao'', with a 4,850-seat ...

in a campaign which culminated with relegation from the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. July 2013 saw Orfano loaned to

Douglas Haig Field marshal (United Kingdom), Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, (; 19 June 1861 – 29 January 1928) was a senior Officer (armed forces), officer of the British Army. During the First World War, he commanded the British Expeditionar ...

. After scoring his first two senior goals for Douglas Haig across 2013–14 in

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, in English "National B Division", and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 37 tea ...

, Orfano joined fellow second tier team

Patronato Patronato may refer to: *Club Atlético Patronato, an Argentine football club *Patronato real, an arrangement between the Vatican and the Kingdom of Spain *Barrio Patronato, a ''barrio'' (district) in Santiago, Chile *Patronato metro station Pat ...

in July 2014. He remained for two seasons as they secured eighth and second-place finishes, with the latter securing promotion to the

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. Orfano departed Patronato soon after, but stayed in the top-flight by agreeing a loan contract with

Atlético de Rafaela Asociación Mutual Social y Deportiva Atlético de Rafaela, known simply as Atlético de Rafaela, is an Argentine sports club based in the city of Rafaela, in Santa Fe Province. The club is mostly known for its professional football team, that co ...

. One goal in eleven followed. On 18 July 2016, Orfano left Boca permanently for Instituto. He participated thirty-six times and scored six in 2016–17. Further stints in the ranks of Aldosivi, where he won promotion, and Nueva Chicago occurred between 2017 and 2018. His first goal for Nueva Chicago came on 28 September 2018 in an encounter with ex-club Atlético de Rafaela. Orfano scored a total of three times for them in 2018–19 as they reached the promotion play-offs. In July 2019, Orfano headed off to Bolivia with

Wilstermann Club Deportivo Jorge Wilstermann, known simply as Wilstermann, is a Bolivian football club from the city of Cochabamba, founded on 24 November 1949 by a group of workers of Lloyd Aereo Boliviano. It is named after Bolivian aviator Jorge Wilste ...

. He'd remain for a season and a half, netting goals against

Real Potosí Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

Oriente Petrolero Club Deportivo Oriente Petrolero () is a Bolivian football club based in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. They play at the 38,000-capacity Estadio Tahuichi Aguilera. Oriente have been Bolivian champions five times, Copa Aerosur winners two ti ...

, Royal Pari and

Aurora An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...

- all on home soil. He also featured eight times in the

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 ...

. He was released at the end of 2020.

International career

Orfano represented Argentina at U17 level. He won four caps at the 2009 FIFA World Cup in Nigeria, scoring against the

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places *Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ( ...

on the way to leaving the competition at the round of sixteen stage. At the beginning of that year, Orfano was selected as part of their squad for the

South American U-17 Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (now ...

and made five appearances. He had previous experience with the U15s.

Career statistics

Honours

;Aldosivi *

: 2017–18

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Orfano, Esteban 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from La Matanza Partido Argentine men's footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Bolivia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Bolivia Argentine Primera División players Segunda División players Primera Nacional players Bolivian Primera División players Boca Juniors footballers Villarreal CF B players Club Atlético Douglas Haig players Club Atlético Patronato footballers Atlético de Rafaela footballers Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba footballers Club Atlético Aldosivi footballers Club Atlético Nueva Chicago footballers C.D. Jorge Wilstermann players Footballers from Buenos Aires Province