Marcos Agustín Gelabert (born 16 September 1981, in

General Pico General Pico is a city located in the northeast of La Pampa Province, Argentina. It is located at above sea level and inside the region of the ''Pampa Húmeda Llana'' (Flat-Humid Pampas). It has a surface area of . With a population of 53,352 ( ...

La Pampa La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it ...

) 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 ...

who plays for Gimnasia Mendoza. His position is defensive

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 ...

Career

Gelabert started his career at Estudiantes de La Plata in the

Primera División Argentina 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, c ...

in 2001. He went on to play over 100 games for the club before he moved to Swiss Super League side

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the Swiss Super League. History Founde ...

in 2006. He became, arguably, the club's best player but after their relegation into the Swiss Challenge League at the end of the 2007–08 season he moved on. On 16 June 2008 Gelabert signed for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, a ...

penning a three-year contract. He joined Basel's first team for their 2008–09 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player who most recently coached Schalke 04. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1 July 1999 to 27 May 2009, winning ...

. To the beginning of the season Gelabert was member of the Basel team that won the

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local industry on the cultural lives of the areas residents. The tou ...

. They beat Legia Warsaw 6–1 and played a 2–2 draw with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, commonly known as Borussia Dortmund (), BVB (), or simply Dortmund (), is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its men's professional fo ...

to end the table on top slot above Dortmund and Luzern. After playing in seven test games Gelabert played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game at the Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf on 18 July as Basel won 2–1 against Young Boys. Basel joined the

2008–09 UEFA Champions League The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome on 27 May 2009. It w ...

in the second qualifying round and with an aggregate score of 5–3 they eliminated

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or simply Göteborg, is a Swedish professional football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it is the ...

. Gelabert played his first European game in a Basel shirt on 13 August in the Champions League Qualifying match draw against

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória ...

at Estádio D. Afonso Henriques. The first leg ended goalless, but with a 2–1 win in the second leg they eliminated Vitória and advanced to the group stage. Here Basel were matched with

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

and

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk ( uk, Футбольний клуб «Шахтар» Донецьк , short nickname "miners") is a Ukrainian professional football club from the city of Donetsk. In 2014, due to the War in Donbass, the club was f ...

, but ended the group in last position, winning just one point after a 1–1 draw in Camp Nou. Gelabert had five European appearances, including the game in Barcelona. Gelabert scored his first goal for his new club on 30 August in the away game at Stadion Brügglifeld as Basel won 2–0 against

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss football club based in Aarau. They play in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was formed on 26 May 1902 by workers from a local br ...

. At the end of the 2008–09 Super League season Basel were third in the table, seven points behind new champions

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

and one adrift of runners-up Young Boys. In the following season Basel joined the

2009–10 UEFA Europa League The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years. Spai ...

in the second qualifying round. Gelabert scored his first European goal in the second leg of the tie which Basel won 4–1 against Santa Coloma. Basel advanced to the group stage, in which despite winning three of the six games they ended in third position and were eliminated. They finished four points behind group winners

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

and one behind Fulham, against whom they lost 3–2 in the last game of the stage. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the

Double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

with his club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. The team won the Swiss Cup, winning the final 6–0 against Lausanne-Sport. On 14 June 2010 Gelabert left the club and transferred to

Neuchâtel Xamax , neighboring_municipalities= Auvernier, Boudry, Chabrey (VD), Colombier, Cressier, Cudrefin (VD), Delley-Portalban (FR), Enges, Fenin-Vilars-Saules, Hauterive, Saint-Blaise, Savagnier , twintowns = Aarau (Switzerland), Besançon (F ...

. During his two seasons with the team, he played a total of 105 games for Basel scoring a total of 13 goals. 46 of these games were in the Swiss Super League, six in the Swiss Cup, 11 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 40 were friendly games. He scored five goals in the domestic league, three in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. ...

and the other five were scored during the test games. In the summer of 2010, Gelabert joined Xamax, with whom he signed a three-year contract. However, this lost its validity in January 2012 after Xamax initially had its license revoked and the club then filed for bankruptcy.

Honours

Basel * Swiss Super League: 2010 * Swiss Cup: 2010 * Uhren Cup: 2008

External links

Statistics
at Guardian Stats Centre
weltfussball.de

Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelabert, Marcos 1981 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine people of Catalan descent People from General Pico Footballers from La Pampa Province Men's association football midfielders Estudiantes de La Plata footballers FC St. Gallen players FC Basel players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players Club Atlético Tigre footballers San Martín de San Juan footballers Gimnasia y Esgrima de Mendoza footballers Argentine Primera División players Swiss Super League players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland