Michael Barrantes Rojas (; born 4 October 1983) is a Costa Rican 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 currently plays as a

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 ...

for Cartaginés. On 6 November 2011, he scored two goals for Aalesund in the 2011 Norwegian Cup Final, in a 2–1 win against Brann, and was awarded the

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

award. He won the

Kniksen award The Kniksen Award ( no, Kniksenprisen), established in 1990, honors the best players in the Norwegian football premiership. The award is named after the legendary Norwegian football player Roald Jensen, nicknamed "Kniksen". Categories Categor ...

as the best midfielder in the

2011 Tippeligaen The 2011 Tippeligaen was the 67th completed season of top division football in Norway. The competition began on 20 March 2011 and ended on 27 November 2011. Rosenborg were the defending champions, having secured their twenty-second League Cham ...

Career

Club career

Deportivo Saprissa

Barrantes started his professional career with his native side

A.D. Belén The terms (AD) and before Christ (BC) are used to label or number years in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. The term is Medieval Latin and means 'in the year of the Lord', but is often presented using "our Lord" instead of "the Lord", ...

in 2003. Barrantes later joined the Costa Rican side

Deportivo Saprissa Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...

after first playing two seasons for

Puntarenas F.C. Puntarenas Fútbol Club S.A.D. is a Costa Rican football club, currently competing in the Primera División de Costa Rica. The team plays its home games in the Estadio Municipal de Puntarenas Miguel Ángel "Lito" Pérez Treacy nicknamed "La Oll ...

in 2007, much to the disappointment of Puntarenas fans. The following season he secured for his team the 2008 league title when he scored the winning goal in the last playoff match against

LD Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Ala ...

. In May the following season he sustained a left knee injury that left him out for eight weeks.

Aalesunds FK

In July 2010, after delivering an impressive display during Saprissa's European tour, he was signed by Norwegian side Aalesunds FK on loan, joining his compatriot Pablo Herrera who was already at the club. After some initial hurdles with the paperwork, Barrantes quickly became a favorite both with the players and coaching staff. He received his starting debut with Aalesunds on 12 September in an away loss against

Odd Grenland Odd means unpaired, occasional, strange or unusual, or a person who is viewed as eccentric. Odd may also refer to: Acronym * ODD (Text Encoding Initiative) ("One Document Does it all"), an abstracted literate-programming format for describing X ...

, during which he caused a penalty 50 seconds into the match. And it became evident that the midfielder needed time to adjust to the European style of playing. The following season proved to be much more successful for Barrantes, as his game play not only saw him become the center piece of the Aalesunds midfield, the club also decided to make the loan-spell permanent, six months ahead of time. In the run-up to the 2011 season, Barrantes' qualities on the pitch was praised by both commentators and coaches such as

Ole Gunnar Solskjær Ole Gunnar Solskjær (; born 26 February 1973) is a Norwegian professional football manager and former player who played as a forward who last managed Premier League club Manchester United. As a player, Solskjær spent the majority of his care ...

. The high expectations were matched by at times very good performances. He was credited with orchestrating the 2–3 away win against

IK Start Idrettsklubben Start (or simply IK Start, translates to The sports club Start ) is a Norwegian football club from the city of Kristiansand that currently plays in the 1. divisjon, the second tier of the Norwegian football league system. The clu ...

, as well as the 2–0 home win against

Viking FK Viking Fotballklubb, commonly known as Viking or Viking Stavanger internationally, is a Norwegian football club from the city of Stavanger. The club was founded in 1899. It is one of the most successful clubs in Norwegian football, having won 8 ...

, where he netted the final goal. He was subsequently named

Man of the match In team sport, a player of the match or man of the match or woman of the match award is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chosen from the winn ...

in the next four consecutive AaFK matches, and the local newspaper

Sunnmørsposten ''Sunnmørsposten'' () is a newspaper published by Polaris Media in Ålesund, Norway. History and profile In its early days, ''Sunnmørsposten'' competed with several other local newspapers, including '' Aalesunds Avis'' (1917–1957), '' Aalesu ...

crowned him ''King of the midfield''. Despite a mid-table position for Aalesunds, Barrantes helped the team advance to the playoffs at the Europa league qualifiers. In addition he crowned the season with winning the domestic cup when Aalesunds beat

SK Brann Sportsklubben Brann (commonly known as Brann, and less often as SK Brann) is a Norwegian professional football club, founded 26 September 1908, from Bergen. Brann had been in the Eliteserien, Norway's Premier Division of Football, since 1987, bar ...

2–1 in the finals, with Barrantes scoring twice and securing the title. At the end of the season, he was given the award "Midfielder of the year" by

Norsk Toppfotball Norsk Toppfotball (NTF) is an interest organization for the 16 Norwegian Premier League and 16 Adeccoligaen clubs in Norway. The organization was previously known as Serieforeningen av 1972 (SF-72),Strømsgodset IF Strømsgodset IF is a Norwegian multi-sports club from Gulskogen in Drammen. It has sections for association football, handball and bandy, but is best known for the top-level football section known as Strømsgodset Toppfotball, which plays in Eli ...

. A week later, in a repeat scenario of the cup-final, Barrantes scored again against SK Brann to secure a 2–0 home win. On 15 July he again scored two goals in the home win against

Fredrikstad FK Fredrikstad Fotballklubb (also known as Fredrikstad or FFK) is a Norwegian association football, football club from the town of Fredrikstad. With nine league championships and eleven Norwegian Football Cup, Norwegian Cup wins, FFK is one of the ...

, the match Barrantes claimed, was his best match that year. He repeated the feat in the away win against Fredrikstad a month later with an impressive left-foot goal from 30 meters, and again in the home win against

Vålerenga Fotball Vålerenga Fotball () is a Norwegian association football club from Oslo and a part of the multi-sport club Vålerengens IF. Founded in 1913, the club is named after the neighbourhood of Vålerenga. Vålerenga's home ground is Intility Arena ...

with two goals on 21 October. In October with the season coming to an end, the club revealed that Barrantes had in fact been struggling with a pelvic injury throughout much of the 2012 season that kept him out of the pre-season, and that was the main reason behind his mixed success. However the club stated that when he is 100% well, he will again be the able to dominate the midfield.

Shanghai Shenxin

In June 2015, Barrantes signed for

Shanghai Shenxin Shanghai Shenxin Football Club () was a professional football club that participated in China's football league system between 2003 and 2019 under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team was based in Jinshan District, Shangha ...

Wuhan Zall

On 15 January 2016, Barrantes transferred to

China League One The Chinese Football Association China League (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (中甲联赛), is the second level of professional football in China. Above League One is the Chinese Super League. Prior to the formation of ...

side

Wuhan Zall Wuhan Yangtze River Football Club, formerly Wuhan Zall Football Club (), is a professional Chinese football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in ...

International career

Barrantes made his debut for

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

in a February 2007

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much smaller islands, it is situated south of ...

and went on to earn 54 caps, scoring four goals. He represented his country in fourteen

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches and played at the

2007 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2007 UNCAF Nations Cup was the ninth version of the biennial football tournament for the CONCACAF national teams of Central America. The event took place in San Salvador, El Salvador from February 8 to February 18, 2007. It was the second time ...

as well as the

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

and

2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 12th CONCACAF Gold Cup competition and the 22nd CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's fifty years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition began on 7 July 2013 at the ...

Career statistics

Club

International goals

:''Score and result lists Costa Rica's goals first.''

Personal life

Barrantes lives with his wife, Andrea in

Ålesund Ålesund () sometimes spelled Aalesund in English, is a municipality in Møre og Romsdal County, Norway. It is part of the traditional district of Sunnmøre and the centre of the Ålesund Region. The town of Ålesund is the administrative ...

. In August 2012, they announced that they were expecting their first child. The child, a baby boy named Arjen (after Dutch winger

Arjen Robben Arjen Robben (; born 23 January 1984) is a Dutch former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Winger (football), winger. He was known for his Dribbling#Association football, dribbling skills, speed, ball control and long ...

), was born in February 2013 in Ålesund.

Honours

Club

;Saprissa *

Liga FPD The Primera División of Costa Rica, commonly known as Fútbol de Primera División (FPD), and Liga Promerica for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional association football division in Costa Rica. It is administered by the Unión de Clubes ...

: Apertura 2008, Clausura 2010, Clausura 2018, Clausura 2020, Clausura 2021 *

CONCACAF League The CONCACAF League was an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF as its second-tier continental competition. It was announced on 8 May 2017. The competition uses a knockout cup format with each round having two leg ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

;Aalesund *

Norwegian Football Cup The Norwegian Football Cup ( no, Norgesmesterskapet i fotball for herrer) is the main knockout cup competition in Norwegian football. It is run by the Football Association of Norway and has been contested since 1902, making it the oldest football ...

(1):

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

International

;Costa Rica *

Copa Centroamericana The Copa Centroamericana (, Spanish for "Central American Cup") was the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ''Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol'' (UNCAF), the sport's Central Am ...

Individual

* Norwegian Midfielder of the Year (1): 2011

References

External links

* *
Player profile – Nacion.com

Profile
– Aalesund {{DEFAULTSORT:Barrantes, Michael 1983 births Living people Footballers from San José, Costa Rica Men's association football midfielders Costa Rican footballers Costa Rica men's international footballers 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2014 FIFA World Cup players Belén F.C. players Puntarenas F.C. players Deportivo Saprissa players Aalesunds FK players Shanghai Shenxin F.C. players Wuhan Yangtze River F.C. players Liga FPD players Eliteserien players Chinese Super League players China League One players Costa Rican expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Norway Expatriate footballers in China Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Norway Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in China Municipal Grecia players