Ezequiel Matías Muñoz (born 8 October 1990) is an Argentine

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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for Argentine club

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 conurbation, metropolitan area. The List of cities in Argentina, city has a populati ...

. His nickname is ''Il niño di Pergamino'' or ''El Chiquito''.

Club career

At 18 years of age, Muñoz made his league debut with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

during a 0–1 defeat to

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

during the 2009 Clausura tournament. He had, however, previously played with the team during the

2008 Copa Sudamericana The 2008 Copa Sudamericana de Clubes was the seventh edition of the Copa Sudamericana football tournament. The draw for the tournament took place on June 10, 2008 in Buenos Aires and the competition was played between July 30 and December 3. Arsen ...

. Subsequently, he suffered a

cruciate ligament Cruciate ligaments (also cruciform ligaments) are pairs of ligaments arranged like a letter X. They occur in several joints of the body, such as the knee joint, wrist joint and the atlanto-axial joint. In a fashion similar to the cords in ...

injury to his knee, which stalled his progression in the team. He returned to the field during the 2010 Clausura, during a 2–2 draw with

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its association football, football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was reco ...

. In August 2010,

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

Palermo Palermo ( ; ; , locally also or ) is a city in southern Italy, the capital (political), capital of both the autonomous area, autonomous region of Sicily and the Metropolitan City of Palermo, the city's surrounding metropolitan province. The ...

announced the signing of Ezequiel Muñoz from Boca Juniors. He made his debut with the Sicilian club on 26 August 2010, when he was picked as a starter in the return leg of the

2010–11 UEFA Europa League The 2010–11 UEFA Europa League was the second season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 40th edition overall including its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. It began on 1 July 2010, with ...

play-off round against

NK Maribor Nogometni klub Maribor () is a Slovenian professional Association football, football club based in Maribor, Slovenia. It competes in the Slovenian PrvaLiga, the top tier of the Football in Slovenia#League system, Slovenian football league system ...

. He debuted in

on 29 August 2010 against

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

. On 2 February 2015, Sampdoria confirmed that they had taken Muñoz on loan. After only four matches, on 18 July 2015 he signed a 4-year contract as a

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player or manager who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under a contract at present ...

for

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

. On 8 August 2017, Muñoz switched teams and countries again, signing a three-year deal with

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

CD Leganés Club Deportivo Leganés, S.A.D. is a professional football club based in Leganés, Community of Madrid. They currently compete in La Liga, the first tier of the Spanish league system. Leganés was officially founded 23 June 1928 and played thei ...

, for a rumoured fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists of a stylized letter E (or epsilon), crossed by t ...

2 million. Ten days later he made his debut for the club, starting in a 1–0 home win against

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

. On 12 June 2019, Munoz signed with Argentine side

. On 26 September, Munoz signed with Argentine side Independiente. On January 14, 2022, he signs a contract with

International career

In 2009, Muñoz was called by the Argentina national team coach

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

for a friendly match against

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

in a squad exclusively formed with footballers based on the Argentine league. Nonetheless, he had to be left out after suffering the cruciate ligament injury to his knee.

Career statistics

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Ezequiel 1990 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football central defenders Argentine Primera División players Boca Juniors footballers Serie A players Serie B players Palermo FC players UC Sampdoria players Genoa CFC players La Liga players CD Leganés players Club Atlético Lanús footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 21st-century Argentine sportsmen