Gastón Nicolás Fernández (born 12 October 1983) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played 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 ...

. He spent most of his senior club career in

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 ...

side Estudiantes.

Club career

Nicknamed ''La Gata'' (''The Cat''), Fernández began his professional career with River Plate. After a stint with Racing and another season back with River, in 2006 he was loaned to

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

. When the contract was finished, Monterrey declined to pay the nearly two million dollars to permanently buy Gastón, thus prompting him to return to River Plate in December 2006. However, Daniel Passarella, then River's head coach, believed that the team had enough strikers. Fernández was therefore sold to San Lorenzo de Almagro. In San Lorenzo ''La Gata'' revindictated his career. He was the leading scorer of the team that won the 2007 Clausura championship. He then spent one year in Mexico with Tigres de la UANL. In 2008, Fernández returned to Argentina to play for

Estudiantes de La Plata Club Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "Students from La Plata"), 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, wh ...

, where he finished as runner up with the team in 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 ...

. He was then a first team regular in the team that won the

2009 Copa Libertadores The 2009 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2009 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 50th edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. The ...

, where he scored the equalising goal in the second leg of the final against Cruzeiro. Subsequently, he went back to Tigres, where he helped win the 2009 SuperLiga title against Chicago Fire. In January 2010, Tigres released the Argentine winger upon his request, and Fernández returned to Estudiantes. Upon his return, Fernández helped lead Estudiantes to the 2010 Apertura tournament title. On January 15, 2014, Fernández signed with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

. On March 8, 2014, ''La Gata'' scored an equalizer goal in the 93' of his MLS debut to extend the Timbers' home unbeaten streak to sixteen. He added a second goal the following game on March 16, 2014 against the Chicago Fire to force another draw. On August 3, 2015 MLS announced that Fernández and the Timbers had mutually agreed to part ways.Portland Timbers and attacker Gaston Fernandez mutually agree to part ways
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International career

Gastón Fernández has played for several of Argentina's youth teams.

Honours

;River Plate *

: 2003 Clausura ;San Lorenzo *

: 2007 Clausura ;Tigres * North American SuperLiga:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

;Estudiantes *

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 ...

: 2010 Apertura ; Grêmio *

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

References

External links

Statistics
at Guardian Stats Centre
Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Gaston 1983 births Living people Footballers from Lanús Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Men's association football midfielders Club Atlético River Plate footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Club Universidad de Chile footballers C.F. Monterrey players Tigres UANL footballers Portland Timbers players Portland Timbers 2 players Grêmio FBPA players Liga MX players Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Major League Soccer players USL Championship players Copa Libertadores-winning players Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Brazil