Faryd Camilo Mondragón Alí (born 21 June 1971) is a Colombian retired 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 ...
who played as a
goalkeeper
In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...
.
Since his debut in 1993, he has played over 50 times for the
Colombia national team. He was named in the Colombia squads for the
1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to:
*1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain
*1992 Winter Olympics
)
, nations = 64
, athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women)
, events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines)
, opening = 8 ...
, two
Copa América tournaments, two
CONCACAF Gold Cup
The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...
s, and the
World Cup
A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
s of
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
,
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
and
2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
. On 24 June 2014, Mondragón made history by becoming the oldest player to play a FIFA World Cup match at the age of 43 years and 3 days, a record that was broken four years later by 45-year-old Egyptian goalkeeper
Essam El-Hadary
Essam Kamal Tawfiq El Hadary ( ar, عصام كمال توفيق الحضري; born 15 January 1973) is an Egyptian goalkeeping coach and former professional footballer.
Nicknamed the "High Dam", El Hadary spent the largest portion of his club ...
.
Club career
Born in Cali, Mondragón is of
Lebanese descent.
He began his career began at
Deportivo Cali, and he moved to
Independiente Santa Fe and then
Cerro Porteño
Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay. Its presi ...
in Paraguay. Mondragon held a contract with Cerro Porteño until May 1993.
Mondragon's deal with Cerro Porteño was a six-month loan with the option to buy for
USD
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
$700 thousand.
During his stay at Cerro Porteño, he lived in the
Hotel Excelsior
Hotel Excelsior was a hotel in Berlin, Germany. It occupied number 112/113, Königgrätzer Straße (today's Stresemannstrasse) on Askanischer Platz in the Berlin district of Kreuzberg. It was once one of the largest and most luxurious hotels in ...
in Asunción.
In the 1993 Cerro Porteño team, Mondragon was colleagued with
Paraguayans Carlos Gamarra
Carlos Alberto Gamarra Pavón () (born 17 February 1971) is a Paraguayan former professional footballer who played as a centre back. He captained the Paraguay national team at international level and was for a long time the most capped player ...
,
Francisco Arce
Francisco Javier "Chiqui" Arce Rolón (; born 2 April 1971) is a retired Paraguayan footballer and coach. He played at the right defender position, competing a total of 61 times for the Paraguay national team between 1995 and 2004. He is curre ...
,
Estanislao Struway
Estanislao Struway Samaniego (born 25 June 1968) is a Paraguayan football coach and former midfielder from who was nicknamed Taní during his career. He is the current coach of División Intermedia team Sportivo Iteño.
Club
At club level Str ...
,
Virgilio Ferreira
Virgilio Ferreira Romero (born 28 January 1973) is a retired Paraguayan footballer who played as a midfielder.
He was Paraguayan international and represented the nation in two Copa América tournaments.
Honours
Club
;Cerro Porteño
* Prim ...
,
Ecuador
Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ' ...
ian
Luis Capurro and
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
ians
Alex Rossi,
Silvio Wielewski,
Carlos Antonio Chaves
Carlos may refer to:
Places
;Canada
* Carlos, Alberta, a locality
;United States
* Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community
* Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County
* Carlos, Minnesota, a small city
* Carlos, West Virginia
;Elsewher ...
and
Luís Carlos Carvalho dos Reis. On 23 March 1993, it was announced that Mondragón would join Argentine club
River Plate when Cerro Porteño finished its participation in the
Copa Libertadores.
Following a Copa Libertadores game for Cerro Porteno against
Newell's Old Boys
Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football.
A ...
in
Rosario, Mondragon flew to
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
to sign his contract and Cerro Porteño discarded the possibility of permanently signing Mondragon cause his cost was too high.
His career took off when he joined the
Argentine first division
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish language, Spanish (Grammatical gender, masculine) or (Grammatical gender, feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be resident ...
side
Argentinos Juniors
Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of the ...
in 1993, and then made his international debut for Colombia. The following year he moved to
Club Atlético Independiente where he won, among other titles, the
1995 Supercopa Libertadores
The 1995 Supercopa Libertadores was the eighth season of the Supercopa Libertadores, a club football tournament for past Copa Libertadores winners. Independiente, who beat Flamengo 2–1 on aggregate in the final, won the competition for the secon ...
against
Flamengo
Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football ...
. Apart from some brief periods, he largely stood at the club until 2001.
He was the man behind the
FC Metz
Football Club de Metz, commonly referred to as FC Metz or simply Metz (), is a French association football club based in Metz, Lorraine. The club was formed in 1932 and plays in Ligue 2, the second division in the French football league sys ...
's escape from relegation from
Ligue 1 at the end of the 2000–01 season. However, he was convicted of using a false
Greek passport and despite the mitigating circumstances (the passport would have been provided by shysters and FC Metz had not reached the limit of players outside the EU), Mondragón was not allowed to play in France and had to leave the country.
Mondragón represented Turkish power
Galatasaray
Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club'') is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul in Turkey. Most notable for its association football department, the club also consists of various other de ...
from 2001 to 2007, where he won two
Süper Lig
The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...
titles in 2002 and 2006. He was appreciated by the fans for his many saves and his commitment to the success of the team, and also become known for his prayers before and during games. He came to the fore in many European matches and was selected Player of the week in the Champions League two times.
Mondragón transferred from
Istanbul
)
, postal_code_type = Postal code
, postal_code = 34000 to 34990
, area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side)
, registration_plate = 34
, blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD
, blank_i ...
to
1. FC Köln in May 2007. After arriving at his new club, he was forced to compete with established Köln goalkeeper
Stefan Wessels
Stefan Wessels (born 28 February 1979) is a German former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper.
Club career
Bayern Munich
Wessels was a youth team player at Bayern Munich, who progressed through the reserve team and broke into t ...
for a spot in the starting eleven. One of the reasons that he chose 1. FC Köln it was because the current coach Christoph Daum was working there. After an intense pre-season, Mondragón was named as the new number one for 1. FC Köln. This resulted in Wessels leaving the club for
Everton in England. Since Wessels departure, Mondragón established a first choice goalkeeper for the club until Mondragón was relegated to the bench after an altercation with
Zvonimir Soldo
Zvonimir Soldo (born 2 November 1967) is a Croatian football manager and a former player. During his playing career, he mostly played as defensive midfielder.
Club career
Early career
After studying law for six semesters at the University of Za ...
over his desire to go on international duty. This resulted in Mondragón being sent home from the team hotel and being replaced by young Croatian stopper
Miro Varvodić.
His contract with Köln was terminated with effect from 31 December 2010, the reason being Mondragón's desire to play in the MLS.
He spent the 2011 season with
Philadelphia Union of
Major League Soccer, where he was successful in providing leadership to a young team. On 30 January 2012, Deportivo Cali announced Mondragón had signed a one-year contract to finish his career with his original professional club. He retired after two and a half seasons back at the club.
International career
After making his debut against
Venezuela
Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...
in 1993,
Mondragón was a member of the
Colombia national teams that competed at the
1992 Summer Olympics
The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...
and the
1994
File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson ...
and
1998 FIFA World Cup. During the 1998 World Cup, he started in goal for all three of their games, including the final match against
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. Despite conceding two goals, he made some impressive saves and in doing so kept the score down to 2–0, with the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
saying that Mondragón was "single-handedly responsible for the fact that England did not run up a
". At the end of the game, Mondragón broke down in tears and
, England's goalkeeper, did his best to console him. According to German footballing legend
campaigns.