Gabriel Matías Fernández Leites (born 13 May 1994) is a Uruguayan 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

club UNAM.

Career

Fernández had youth stints with Club Atlético Pablan, Bella Vista and

Defensor Sporting Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievemen ...

, featuring for the latter at the

2012 U-20 Copa Libertadores The 2012 U-20 Copa Libertadores (known as the 2012 Copa Movistar Libertadores Sub-20 for sponsorship reasons) was the second edition of this U-20 club competition. Players born on or after 1 January 1992 were eligible to compete. The tournament ...

in Peru; where they finished as runners-up to Argentina's River Plate. On 8 January 2013, Fernández completed a loan move to fellow Primera División team Cerro Largo. He made his bow on 23 February against

Montevideo Wanderers Montevideo Wanderers Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Wanderers, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club are currently members of the Primera División and play at the Estadio Viera. Beside football, the cl ...

, which preceded his first goals arriving in March versus Progreso and

Racing Club Racing Club may refer to: Football * Racing Club Abidjan, Ivory Coast * K.R.C. Genk, Belgium * Racing Club Bafoussam, Cameroon * Racing Club Beirut, Lebanon * Racing Club de Avellaneda, Argentina * Racing Club Haïtien, Haiti * Racing Club Port ...

. Fernández returned to his parent club for 2013–14, making four appearances before leaving to join Racing Club. Braces followed in season one over

Atenas Atenas () is a district of the Atenas canton, in the Alajuela province of Costa Rica. Its urban area is referred as Atenas city. Toponymy Its name means Athens ''(Αθήνα)'', the capital of Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', offici ...

and

Sud América Institución Atlética Sud América, usually known as Sud América or just IASA, is a football club from Montevideo. They currently play in the Uruguayan Segunda Division. History Sud América has won the Uruguayan 2nd Division on 7 occasion ...

. After spending three further seasons with Racing Club, participating in forty-nine matches and netting fifteen goals, Fernández switched teams in January 2018 by agreeing to sign for

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (; English: ''Peñarol Athletic Club'') —also known as ''Carboneros'', ''Aurinegros,'' and (familiarly) ''Manyas''— is a Uruguayan sports club from Montevideo. The name "Peñarol" comes from the Peñarol neigh ...

. He scored his first goal on 24 February during a win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

, a club he later notched his first career hat-trick against in the following August on the way to Peñarol's fiftieth league title. On 26 January 2019, Fernández secured a transfer to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

side

Celta Celta is Galician, Portuguese and Spanish for the Celts. It may also refer to: * Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults (CELTA), an English teaching certificate * Celta (train), an international train service connecting Vigo and Port ...

; effective from the following July, pending the outcome of his court case. The deal was confirmed on 4 July by Celta. His debut arrived in a home defeat to

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

on 17 August. He got his opening goal for them on 24 August, scoring with a backheel flick to earn Celta a 1–0 win over

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

in La Liga. On 11 September 2020, Fernández was loaned to

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 ...

side

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

for the 2020–21 season. In 2023, Fernández joined Universidad Nacional (the Pumas) for the 2023 Apertura tournament.

Personal life

On 29 December 2018, Fernández was involved in a traffic collision in Montevideo which left Romina Fernández, 18, in a

vegetative state A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative stat ...

, he had allegedly been speeding at 60km/h in a 45

speed limit Speed limits on road traffic, as used in most countries, set the legal maximum speed at which vehicles may travel on a given stretch of road. Speed limits are generally indicated on a traffic sign reflecting the maximum permitted speed - expres ...

zone. After testifying in court in May, the judge prohibited him from leaving the country without permission; with a work-dependent

curfew A curfew is a government order specifying a time during which certain regulations apply. Typically, curfews order all people affected by them to ''not'' be in public places or on roads within a certain time frame, typically in the evening and ...

also being set. Celta, who Fernández signed a pre-contract agreement with in the subsequent January, added a clause to the transfer that would see it cancelled if he was found guilty. In June 2019, his passport was returned and a settlement was reached with Romina's family which allowed Fernández to travel to officialise his transfer to Celta.

Career statistics

Honours

Peñarol * Primera División:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

Supercopa Uruguaya The Supercopa Uruguaya (''Uruguayan Supercup'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Uruguay organised by the Uruguayan Football Association (AUF) which is played between the Primera División champions and the Torneo Intermedi ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernández, Gabriel 1994 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Men's association football forwards Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan Primera División players La Liga players Segunda División players Liga MX players Defensor Sporting players Cerro Largo F.C. players Racing Club de Montevideo players Peñarol players RC Celta de Vigo players Real Zaragoza players FC Juárez footballers Association football controversies Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico