Matías Emilio Delgado (born 15 December 1982) is a retired 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 le ...

who last played as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

for Swiss

Super League The Super League (officially known as the Betfred Super League due to sponsorship from Betfred and legally known as Super League Europe), is the top-level of the British rugby league system. At present the league consists of twelve teams, of wh ...

Club

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 ...

Club career

Early career

Delgado started his career in the youth team of River Plate. He also played over 50 top division games for

Chacarita Juniors Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors (usually known simply as Chacarita) is an Argentine football club headquartered in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, while the stadium is located in Villa Maipú, General San Martín Partido of Greater Buenos Aires. ...

before deciding to test himself in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

at the age of 20.

FC Basel

Delgado transferred to

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 courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

in August 2003 signed a four-year contract. He eventually spent three years at the club, scoring 41 goals in 114 top-flight matches. During his time with RotBlau Delgado wore number 20 shirt. He played his debut match for his new club in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 3 September 2003 as he was substituted in the 68th minute. Just two minutes later he played a decisive pass to

Hervé Tum Hervé Tum (born February 15, 1979 in Yaoundé) is a Cameroonian football striker. Club career Tum played for Bursaspor in the 2007–08 season after playing for RC Strasbourg. In the 2008, he joined Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as D ...

who then scored his team's third goal as Basel beat

St. Gallen , neighboring_municipalities = Eggersriet, Gaiserwald, Gossau, Herisau (AR), Mörschwil, Speicher (AR), Stein (AR), Teufen (AR), Untereggen, Wittenbach , twintowns = Liberec (Czech Republic) , website ...

4–1. He scored his first goal for Basel on 2 October in their away win in the Stade de la Maladière (1924) as Basel beat

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 (France ...

3–1. The Super League season started impeccably, Basel won the first thirteen matches straight off. They completed the first half of the season undefeated, with seventeen wins and one draw. Basel remained in top position right up until the end of the season, thus achieving tenth championship title. At the end of the

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. Delgado had 20 league appearances scoring two goals. Delgado achieved his second championship title in the 2004–05 Super League season. During Basel's 2004–05 season he scored 11 goals in his 34 appearances. He scored one goal in the 2004–05 UEFA Cup group stage, this being the equalizer in the 1–1 draw in the

Arena AufSchalke Arena AufSchalke (), currently known as Veltins-Arena () for sponsorship reasons, is an indoor association football, football stadium in Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It opened on 13 August 2001, as the new home ground for ...

. Delgado missed out on the championship title in the 2005–06 Super League season as Basel lost the last game of the season 1–2 at home against

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

. But he achieved the top-scorer award in the

2005–06 UEFA Cup The 2005–06 UEFA Cup, the 35th edition of the UEFA Cup, was won by Sevilla, beating Middlesbrough in the final. It was the first victory for Sevilla in a European competition, and the first appearance by Middlesbrough in a European final. The ...

with 7 goals. With his 18 league goals, he was second highest scorer behind Alhassane Keita (20 goals).

Beşiktaş

On 28 June 2006 it was announced that Delgado transferred to

Beşiktaş J.K. Beşiktaş Jimnastik Kulübü (), also known simply as Beşiktaş (), is a Turkish sports club founded in 1903 that is based in the Beşiktaş district of Istanbul. The club's football team is one of the Big Three in Turkey and one of the most ...

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

for $6.5m of dollars. He declared his target was taking the place of Riquelme in the Argentina squad. He also admires the skills of fellow

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

playmaker

Pablo Aimar Pablo César Aimar (born 3 November 1979) is an Argentine former professional footballer and current assistant coach of the Argentina national team. Aimar played as an attacking midfielder. After starting his senior career at River Plate in 1 ...

. Delgado is a good playmaker, as well as a scorer. He is known for his quick and unexpected through passes and accurate long range shots. Other than that, he is an excellent user of free kicks. He has also scored a well amount of header goals to be remembered. He is a good aimer of the ball, often putting it near the pole, whether it's with his head or with his foot. He was the captain of

wearing number 10 jersey. At the end of the season 2008/2009. Delgado sustained a hard groin injury. He underwent an operation in

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 ...

and was expected to get well somewhere around the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010, sometime around the month of December or January. At that time there was a great dilemma around Delgado's contract with the club. Delgado refused to have his contract suspended. Although, the club needed a number 10 player. Delgado was blocking a transfer option for

After a lot of thinking and discussing, including bringing in Delgado's father and manager Eduardo Delgado, they finally came to a conclusion. They had his contract frozen until January 2010. The fans say about the star player: ''We believe that it is not fair for the club to do this after the great performance he has been giving. He got injured playing for the team, not playing football on the beach. But we believe that he will reclaim his club shirt after he gets well. The club can buy a lot of new players but taking his number will be a hard thing to accomplish.'' By June 2010, Delgado started to train with

again. At the beginning of 2010/2011. season Delgado was in first eleven again captaining the team on four occasions and scoring four times in the process. But

was not satisfied with him and bringing in

Guti José María Gutiérrez Hernández (born 31 October 1976), known as Guti, is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as an attacking midfielder, currently a manager. During his career, he played almost exclusively for Real Madrid ...

to the club forced Delgado to leave.

Al Jazira

Delgado signed for Abu Dhabi-based club Al Jazira on 23 August 2010 for a fee estimated around 2.250.000 €. He was given number 22 shirt. Since his arriving to the club he was almost ever present first eleven player. As usually, he played a playmaker role pulling strings in the midfield. In his first season at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium he won UAE Pro-League and UAE Predsident's Cup scoring 8 times in 27 matches. Delgado continued with his great plays in the following 2011–12 season scoring 7 times on 28 occasions and club awarded him with a new 2 years contract extension. In that season club added another UAE President's Cup to its silverware and reached Round of 16 of AFC Champions League, but could not manage to retain UAE Pro-League title. In the season 2012/2013. Delgado once again displayed his fenomenal individual performances scoring 6 times in 32 matches while making plentiful of assists (and finishing some matches with a three or four assists). However, that did not satisfied Al Jazira which decided to terminate his contract at 10 June 2013.

Return to FC Basel

On 13 July 2013 Basel announced that they had successfully arranged the return of Delgado to the club. He played his first match after his return on 11 August 2013, as he was used as a sub in the 61st minute, against

. At the end of the 2013–14 Super League season Delgado won his third league championship with Basel. Delgado scoring 2 goals and making 6 assists in 25 appearances. Basel also reached the final of the

2013–14 Swiss Cup The 2013–14 Swiss Cup was the 89th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition started on 14 August 2013 with the first game of Round 1 and ended in May 2014 with the Final. The winners of the competition qualified f ...

, but were beaten 2–0 by

after extra time. In Swiss Cup he scored once converting a penalty kick. In the 2013–14 Champions League season Basel in the

group stage A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

finished the group in third position to qualify for Europa League knockout phase and here they advanced as far as the quarter-finals. Delgado played all 6 games in the Champions League Group Stage contributing to the team with one assist. He scored two goals in first Basel's match of UEFA Europa League's Quarter-finals versus Valencia of which the first was a beautiful 20-meters placed shot. He finished the 2013/2014 season with 5 goals and 9 assists to his name in 40 matches for the club. The season 2014–15 was a very successful one for Delgado and for Basel. The Club won the championship for the sixth time in a row that season (twice in a row for Delgado) and in the

2014–15 Swiss Cup The 2014–15 Swiss Cup was the 90th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition started on 23 August 2014 with the first games of Round 1 and ended on 7 June 2015 with the Final, won by Sion. As winners of the compe ...

they reached the final. But for the third season in a row, they finished as runners-up, losing 0–3 to

FC Sion Football Club de Sion, commonly known as simply FC Sion or Sion, is a Swiss football team from the city of Sion. The club was founded in 1909, and play their home matches at the Stade Tourbillon. They have won the Swiss Super League twice, and ...

in the final. Basel entered the Champions League in the

and reached the

knockout phase A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

as on 9 December 2014 they managed a 1–1 draw at

Anfield Anfield is a football stadium in Anfield, Liverpool, Merseyside, England, which has a seating capacity of 53,394, making it the seventh largest football stadium in England. It has been the home of Liverpool F.C. since their formation in 1892. ...

against

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 ...

. But then Basel lost to Porto in the

Round of 16 A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

. Basel played a total of 65 matches (36 Swiss League fixtures, 6 Swiss Cup, 8 Champions League and 15 test matches). Under trainer

Paulo Sousa Paulo Manuel Carvalho de Sousa, CavIH (; born 30 August 1970) is a Portuguese football manager and former professional player who played as a defensive midfielder. Starting his career at Benfica, he also represented Sporting CP in his countr ...

Delgado totaled 46 appearances, 26 League, 6 Cup, 2 Champions League, as well 12 in test games. He scored 16 goals in these matches, of which 8 in the Swiss Super League, 2 in the Cup and 6 in test games. On 10 July 2015 Basel announced that Delgado was named as new captain for the 2015-16 season after

Marco Streller Marco Streller (born 18 June 1981) is a Swiss former footballer who played as a striker and is best known for his years with FC Basel and the Switzerland national team. He was the sporting director of FC Basel from June 2017 until June 2019. Sin ...

retired. On 19 August 2015, Delgado scored a penalty in a 2–2 draw against Israeli side

Maccabi Tel Aviv Maccabi Tel Aviv ( he, מכבי תל אביב) is one of the largest sports clubs in Israel, and a part of the Maccabi association. Many sports clubs and teams in Tel Aviv are in association with Maccabi and compete in a variety of sports, such ...

in the

in the first leg of the Champions League playoffs. Under trainer

Urs Fischer Urs Fischer (born 2 May 1973) is a Swiss-born contemporary visual artist living in New York City. Fischer’s practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. Education and early career Born to two doctors as the second of two children ...

Delgado won the

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

championship at the end of the 2015–16 Super League season for the fifth time On 10 December 2016 Delgado played his 250th game for Basel. and at the end of the 2016–17 Super League season for the sixth time, his Fourth in seiries. For the club this was the eighth title in a row and their 20th championship title in total. They also won 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 ...

for the twelfth time, which meant they had won the double for the sixth time in the club's history.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Club

Basel *

: 2003–04, 2004–05, 2013–14, 2014–15, 2015–16, 2016–17 *

: 2016–17 Beşiktaş JK *

Turkish Super League Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

: 2008-09 *

Turkish Cup The Turkish Cup ( Turkish: ''Türkiye Kupası'') is a football cup competition in Turkish football, run by the Turkish Football Federation since 1962. During a brief sponsorship period with Fortis, its sponsored name was ''Fortis Türkiye Kupası ...

: 2006-07, 2008-09 *

Turkish Super Cup The Turkish Super Cup ( Turkish: ''TFF Süper Kupa''), as it is currently known, is the annual super cup football match contested between the previous season's Süper Lig champions and the Turkish Cup winners in Turkey. It was originally known a ...

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

Al-Jazira Club *

UAE Pro-League The UAE Pro League ( ar, دوري المحترفين الإماراتي), known for sponsorship reasons as the ADNOC Pro League, is the top professional football league in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The first team to win the title was Al O ...

: 2010-11 *

UAE President's Cup The UAE President's Cup, or simply the President Cup, is a football tournament that takes place in United Arab Emirates, between clubs in the UAE Pro League and the UAE First Division League. The winner qualifies for the AFC Champions League. His ...

: 2010-11, 2011-12

Individual

Basel * Swiss Footballer of the Year: 2005–06 *

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store Solid, solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, porcela ...

Top Goalscorer: 2005–06

Sources and references

* All scorers 2005–06 UEFA Cup according to (excluding preliminary round) according t
protocols UEFA
+ all scorer

External links

Profile on the Swiss Football League homepageStatistics
at Guardian Stats Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Delgado, Matias 1982 births Living people Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Association football midfielders Argentine footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine Primera División players Chacarita Juniors footballers FC Basel players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Swiss Super League players Beşiktaş J.K. footballers Expatriate footballers in Turkey Süper Lig players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Al Jazira Club players UAE Pro League players