Gerardo Alberto Bedoya Múnera (born 26 November 1975) is a Colombian former

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 ...

and current manager. He began as a defender but he also played as a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. Nicknamed "the beast," he currently holds the record for most red cards (46) received by any player in the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...

of the game.

Club career

Bedoya started his professional career with

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several ...

in 1996. He joined Deportivo Cali in 1998 where he was part of the squad that won the league title in 1998. In 2001, Bedoya moved to

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 ...

where he played for

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 ...

, helping the club to win the

Apertura 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 ...

2001 tournament. In 2004, he joined

Colón de Santa Fe Colón may refer to: Places ;Argentina * Colón, Entre Ríos * Colón Department, Córdoba * Colón Department, Entre Ríos * Colón, Buenos Aires ;Colombia * Colón, Nariño * Colón, Putumayo * Colón Department (Colombia) ;Costa Rica * Ciu ...

and in 2005 he moved to Boca Juniors where he only played 3 games (all in the Copa Libertadores) before moving to Mexico to play for Puebla F.C. In 2005 Bedoya returned to Colombia to play for

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the oth ...

and in 2006 he joined

Millonarios Millonarios Fútbol Club is a professional Colombian football team based in Bogotá, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the El Campín stadium. Millonarios was initially created in 1937 by students f ...

. After he went for a brief time to Envigado F.C. But then joined Boyacá Chicó F.C. for the 2010 season. In 2011, Bedoya signed a one-year contract with Independiente Santa Fe. Bedoya has the ignominy of being the professional footballer with the most red cards to his name (46 red cards). In the Bogota derby between Independiente Santa Fe and

on 23 September 2012, he received his 41st red card in a professional game, being sent off for the elbow and subsequent kick to the head aimed at Millonarios player Jhonny Ramirez. The offense also got him suspended for the next 15 matches. Bedoya has been sent off multiple times since.

International career

Bedoya made his debut for the Colombia national team in the 2000 Gold Cup match against Jamaica on 12 February 2000. He scored the equalizing goal in the quarter final penalty shootout victory against the USA on 19 February, where he also earned a red card in the last minute of extra time. Bedoya was also part of the Colombia squad that won the

Copa América 2001 Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

, where he played five matches and scored a goal in the semi-finals victory against Honduras. He played all five matches at the 2003 Confederations Cup, where Colombia finished in fourth place. Bedoya was a starting player in the

2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South America) ...

, but was not called up for the 2007 Copa América. His last match for the national team was on 1 April 2009, a 2–0 loss against

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Coaching career

Following his retirement from his club career, Bedoya went into coaching. In his first position as assistant manager with Santa Fe in 2016, he was dismissed from the dugout after 21 minutes of a league fixture against Junior. That same year, he became caretaker manager of Santa Fe for one match after the departure of Alexis García, and in 2019 he was again appointed as caretaker manager of Santa Fe and soon after he was confirmed as manager on a permanent basis until the arrival of Harold Rivera. Bedoya left Santa Fe at the end of 2021 and in January 2022 he was appointed as manager of

Valledupar Valledupar () is a city and municipality in northeastern Colombia. It is the capital of Caesar Department. Its name, ''Valle de Upar'' (Valley of Upar), was established in honor of the Amerindian cacique who ruled the valley; ''Cacique Upar''. T ...

in the Colombian second tier, but was dismissed in August 2022. On 12 May 2023 he returned to Santa Fe for a third stint as caretaker, replacing Harold Rivera who had resigned the previous day.

International goals

''Colombia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Bedoya goal.''

List of career red cards

Club career

International career

Coaching career

Honours

Club

Deportivo Cali * Categoría Primera A (1): 1998 Racing Club de Avellaneda * Argentine Primera División (1): 2001-2002 Apertura Independiente Santa Fe * Categoría Primera A (1): 2012 Apertura

International

* Copa América (1): 2001

Individual

* Most football red cards received by a player (41)

References

External links

*
Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bedoya, Gerardo 1975 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Colombia men's international footballers 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 Copa América players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Deportivo Pereira footballers Deportivo Cali footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Club Atlético Colón footballers Club Puebla players Boca Juniors footballers Atlético Nacional footballers Millonarios F.C. players Envigado F.C. players Boyacá Chicó F.C. footballers Independiente Santa Fe footballers Fortaleza C.E.I.F. footballers Cúcuta Deportivo footballers Categoría Primera A players Argentine Primera División players Colombian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Copa América-winning players Men's association football midfielders Footballers from Antioquia Department