Mariano Andrés Armentano Lepera (born 12 July 1974) is an Argentine retired

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 played as a striker. He also held

Italian nationality Italian nationality law is the law of Italy governing the acquisition, transmission and loss of Italian citizenship. Like many continental European countries it is largely based on '' jus sanguinis''. It also incorporates many elements that are ...

, although he spent most of his professional career in Spain.

Club career

Armentano was born in

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 ...

. After beginning in his country with

Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield () is an Argentine sports club based in Liniers, Buenos Aires. Its football team plays in Primera División, the highest level of the Argentine league system. Founded in 1910, the club has spent most of its histo ...

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 ...

and

Racing Club de Avellaneda Racing Club de Avellaneda, officially known as Racing Club or shortened to just Racing, is an Argentine professional sports club based in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1903, Racing has been historically considered o ...

, he had a brief stint in Switzerland. Armentano joined

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, and ...

's first team for their 1996–97 season under head coach

Karl Engel Karl (Rudolf) Engel (Birsfelden, 1 June 1923 - Clarens, Switzerland, Chernex, 2 September 2006) was a Switzerland, Swiss pianist. In 1952 Engel was awarded the second prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, Queen Elisabeth competition. ...

. After playing in one test game Armentano made his debut for his new club in the

1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup The 1996 UEFA Intertoto Cup finals were won by Silkeborg, En Avant Guingamp, and Karlsruher SC. All three teams advanced to the UEFA Cup. No English team took part in support of Tottenham Hotspur and Wimbledon initially getting banned by UEFA ...

match on 22 June 1996. It was the home game in the

St. Jakob Stadium The St. Jakob Stadium was a football stadium in Basel, Switzerland and the former home of Swiss club FC Basel. It was built in view of the 1954 FIFA World Cup, and as well as serving as a club stadium, it hosted several important matches, inc ...

as Basel played a two all draw with

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 ...

. After playing in three test games and one further UIC match, Armentano played his domestic league debut for the club in the away game in on 10 July as Basel won 1–0 against

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the dis ...

. He scored his first league goal for his club on 14 September in the home game in the

in the return match against Aarau as Basel won 2–0. Staying with the club just this one season, Armentano played a total of 38 games for Basel scoring a total of 13 goals. 25 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, one in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, four in the UIC and 8 were friendly games. He scored 2 goals in the domestic league, one in the cup, one in the UIC and the other 9 were scored during the test games. On two occasions he scored four goals. The first occasion was on 25 June 1996 in the test game against FC Deitingen as Basel won 8–0. The second was the test match on 3 October against

SV Muttenz Sportverein Muttenz, is a football club from Muttenz, Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal ...

as Basel won 5–1 and he scored the four within 21 minutes in the second half. After this Armentano returned to Vélez. Armentano then signed with

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central () is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the Englis ...

, going on to spend the following eight years in Spain, with

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Estadi ...

(two stints),

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

Algeciras CF Algeciras Club de Fútbol is a Spanish football team based in Algeciras, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1909 it plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 1, holding home matches at ''Estadio Nuevo Mirador''. History Foot ...

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), (from the 2020–21 season onwards competing under the umbrella of Unión Futbolística Cordobesa, S.A.D.) is a Spanish football club based in Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1951 as ...

and

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Lig ...

. Only with Osasuna did he play in

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 ...

, being an attacking backup; he retired in 2007, aged 33. In 2010, Armentano returned to Vélez, being appointed the club's

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

References

External links

Vélez official profile

Argentine League statistics
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Armentano, Mariano 1974 births Living people Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Italian sportspeople of Argentine descent Naturalised citizens of Italy Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine footballers Men's association football forwards Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Rosario Central footballers Swiss Super League players FC Basel players La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Elche CF players CA Osasuna players Algeciras CF footballers Córdoba CF players Rayo Vallecano players Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain