Rolando David Zárate Riga (born 6 August 1978) is an Argentine former 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 ...
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 hist ...
, representing the club in two different spells. He made his professional debut in 1997, playing in only 17 Primera División games in his first two seasons combined.
Zárate moved to Spain in 1998, going on to remain in that country for the following four years, always on loan: he started out at
Terrassa FC
Terrassa Futbol Club is a Spanish football team based in Terrassa, Barcelona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Founded in 1906 it currently plays in Segunda División RFEF – Group 3, holding home matches at ''Estadi Olímpic de Terras ...
Vicente del Bosque
Vicente del Bosque González, 1st Marquess of Del Bosque (; born 23 December 1950) is a Spanish retired football manager and former player. He is regarded as one of the greatest managers of all time and is to date the only football manager to ha ...
to promote him to the main squad, and he scored three official goals for them (one 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' ...
and two in the
Copa del Rey
The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...
); between 2001 and 2002 he represented
Ciudad de Murcia
Club de Fútbol Ciudad de Murcia, usually abbreviated to Ciudad de Murcia, was a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the namesake autonomous community. They played at the 16,000-seater ''Estadio de La Condomina''.
Ciudad Murcia was reloca ...
and its neighbours
Real Murcia
Real Murcia Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., commonly known as Real Murcia (, "Royal Murcia"), is a Spanish football club based in Murcia, in the Región de Murcia. Founded in 1919, it currently plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2, playing ho ...
, respectively in divisions three and
two
2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultur ...
.
Zárate played with Livingston in the 2002–03 season, still owned by Vélez. He netted twice on his debut in the Scottish Premier League, a 3–2 home win against Motherwell, and eventually proved instrumental as the ''Livi Lions'' retained their division status.
Zárate's last loan would be with
Ittihad FC
Al-Ittihad Saudi Arabian Club ( ar, نادي الإتحاد العربي السعودي), referred to as Al-Ittihad, is a professional football club based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, founded in 1927. The club has spent its entire history in the to ...
Clausura
The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is divi ...
, ''Roly'' netted seven goals as his team won the national championship for the first time in seven years.
In the following years, Zárate played in Mexico for two teams, also representing
Club Atlético River Plate
Club Atlético River Plate, commonly known as River Plate, is an Argentine professional
sports club based in the Núñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1901, the club is named after the English name for the city's estuary, Río de la ...
without any impact. On 25 July 2009, he re-signed with Vélez on a free transfer after a period of trial, from Ecuador's
Barcelona Sporting Club
Barcelona Sporting Club () is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. Internationally known as Barcelona de Ecuador, in Ecuador it is simply referred as Barcelona, El Idolo (BSC) or Barce. T ...
, but was released during that year due to injury to his
spinal cord
The spinal cord is a long, thin, tubular structure made up of nervous tissue, which extends from the medulla oblongata in the brainstem to the lumbar region of the vertebral column (backbone). The backbone encloses the central canal of the sp ...
; he returned to training in early 2010 and, eventually, signed a new one-year deal.
For
2010–11
1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...
, 32-year-old Zárate joined
Club Atlético Huracán
Club Atlético Huracán () is an Argentine sports club from the Parque Patricios neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is notable for its football team, that currently plays in the Primera División, the top level of the Argentine football ...
in the top flight, for free. At the end of the campaign, the side were tied with
Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata
Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (; ''La Plata Gymnastics and Fencing Club''), also known simply as Gimnasia, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1887 as "Club de Gimnasia ...
for the second-to-last position in the relegation ranking, and thus needed to play a tiebreaker, losing it 2–0.
Following Huracán's relegation, Zárate's contract at the Parque Patricios ended and he signed with another club in the
second division
In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...
,
Defensa y Justicia
Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia, commonly known as Defensa y Justicia, is an Argentine football club from Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires, established in 1935.football agent, representing Maximiliano Romero among others and arranging his December 2017 transfer of Romero from Vélez to
PSV Eindhoven
Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...
.
International career
Zárate made his debut for
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 the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
on 9 March 2005, a
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 ...
with
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
in which the former only fielded players from the domestic league. He scored in a 1–1 draw, in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
.
Also in that year, Zárate made his second and last appearance, playing 15 minutes in a 2–1 win in Bolivia for the
2006 FIFA World Cup
The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host th ...
:''Scores and results list Argentina's goal tally first, score column indicates score after Zárate goal''.
Personal life
Zárate has three brothers, all footballers: younger Mauro and older Sergio and
Ariel
Ariel may refer to:
Film and television
*Ariel Award, a Mexican Academy of Film award
* ''Ariel'' (film), a 1988 Finnish film by Aki Kaurismäki
* ''ARIEL Visual'' and ''ARIEL Deluxe'', 1989 and 1991 anime video series based on the novel series ...
, with the first two eventually representing the Argentina national team. Rolando's son, Tobías, also became a professional footballer.