Sebastián Ariel Méndez Pardiñas (born 4 July 1977) is an

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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities o ...

and former player who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He is the current manager of

Unión de Santa Fe Club Atlético Unión (; mostly known as Unión de Santa Fe ) is a sports club from Santa Fe, the capital city of the Santa Fe Province, in Argentina. The club was founded on April 15, 1907 and plays in the Argentine Primera División. Althoug ...

. As a player, Méndez won the

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

with all three clubs he represented in his country, and also spent five seasons in Spain.

Playing career

A native of

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 ...

, Méndez started his career with Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield. He made his debut in the

Primera División 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, compos ...

on 24 July 1994 against

Deportivo Español Club Social, Deportivo y Cultural Español de la República Argentina (commonly referred to as Deportivo Español) is an Argentine sports club from the Parque Avellaneda district of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, wh ...

, aged only 17. During his tenure the club had the most sustained period of success in its history, collecting three leagues and other five international tournaments, with the player being an undisputed starter during his last six years. In January 2002, Méndez moved to Spain to play for

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues), ...

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 ...

, during the Galician team's heyday. He started rarely in his four-and-a-half-year spell (a maximum of 16 games in the 2004–05 season, with the side in

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

), but did amass 69 competitive appearances. Méndez returned to his country in 2006, signing with San Lorenzo de Almagro and helping it to the following year's Clausura tournament to conquer his fourth league title. He took part in only a few matches during 2008, however, mostly because of constant injuries and ejections. Méndez was transferred to

Club Atlético Banfield Club Atlético Banfield is an Argentine sports club based in the Banfield district of Greater Buenos Aires. It was founded on 21 January 1896, by the British–origin inhabitants of that city (mostly English, and some Scots and Irish). The club ...

for the 2009–10 campaign, and was a key member of the squad that won the 2009 Apertura, appearing in all 19 games. On 13 December 2009, the club celebrated its first-ever Argentine top flight accolade but, shortly after, he announced his retirement from football at the age of 32.

Coaching career

On 4 April 2010, Méndez returned to San Lorenzo now as a

caretaker manager In association footballing terms, a caretaker manager or interim manager is somebody who takes temporary charge of the management of a football team, usually when the regular Manager (association football), manager is dismissed or leaves for a ...

, following Diego Simeone's dismissal. On 21 December he landed his first full-time job, in another of his former clubs, Banfield, where he replaced

Julio César Falcioni Julio César Falcioni (born 20 July 1956 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine football manager and former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Playing career Club career Falcioni started his career at Vélez Sársfield in the Primera division i ...

. From late 2019 to November 2020, Méndez was

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

's assistant coach in Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata and acted as head coach in the matches Maradona could not attend. Following Maradona's death on 25 November 2020, he became Gimnasia

but resigned on the next day.

Honours

Vélez *

: Apertura 1995, Clausura 1996, Clausura 1998 *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

* Intercontinental Cup: 1994 * Copa Interamericana: 1995 *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

: 1996 *

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana ( pt, CONMEBOL Recopa Sul-Americana), known also as the Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as the Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club association football, football compe ...

: 1997 San Lorenzo *

: Clausura 2007 Banfield *

: Apertura 2009

References

External links

Argentine League statistics at Fútbol XXI
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mendez, Sebastian 1977 births Living people Argentine people of Spanish descent Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine footballers Men's association football defenders Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Club Atlético Banfield footballers La Liga players Segunda División players RC Celta de Vigo players Argentina men's international footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine football managers Argentine Primera División managers San Lorenzo de Almagro managers Club Atlético Banfield managers Club Atlético Platense managers Gimnasia y Esgrima de Jujuy managers Godoy Cruz Antonio Tomba managers Club Atlético Belgrano managers Club Deportivo Palestino managers Cúcuta Deportivo managers Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata managers Unión de Santa Fe managers Argentine expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Chile Expatriate football managers in Colombia