Javier Eduardo di Gregorio Hoste (born 23 January 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 ...

-born Chilean 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 le ...

who played as

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. His last club was

Deportes Melipilla Deportes Melipilla is a Chilean football club, based on Melipilla, a comune in the Santiago Metropolitan Region. It was founded on January 24, 1992, as a successor of ''Club Deportivo Soinca Bata''. The club has its classic rival, San Antonio Uni ...

, in the age,

Primera B de Chile Campeonato Primera B ( en, Chilean First B Division) is the second tier in the Chilean football league system, and is organized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. It was established in 1952 as ''Segunda División'', and later renam ...

(second-tier) member. He was member of Chile Olympic Team's 22-man squad which won a bronze medal in Sydney 2000 Olympic Games.

Club career

Early career

Di Gregorio was born to Chilean parents in the city of Mendoza in

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 ...

's homologous province. Then, he began his career in the football academy of Chilean giants

Club Deportivo Universidad Católica Club Deportivo Universidad Católica is a professional football club based in Santiago, Chile. Founded in 1937 they play in the Primera División, the top flight of Chilean football. The team has played its home games at Estadio San Carlos d ...

. Nevertheless, he left Católica for join to

Coquimbo Unido Coquimbo Unido is a Chilean football club based in the city of Coquimbo. The club was founded August 30, 1958 and will play in the Chilean Primera División on 2022. Their home games are played at the Estadio Municipal Francisco Sánchez Rumoroso ...

. In 2001, he was sent on loan to

Club Deportivo Huachipato Club Deportivo Huachipato is a Chilean football club based in Talcahuano that is a current member of the Chilean Primera División. The club was founded 7 June 1947 and plays its home games at the Estadio CAP, which has a capacity of 10,500 ...

. Three years later, after the same number of seasons defending the Coquimbo's goal, he moved to

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 ...

to play for Nacional Tijuana during the first semester, and for Atlético Mexiquense in the second semester.

Puerto Montt

In 2005, after a frustrated spell in Mexico, he returned his country and signed for top-level team

Deportes Puerto Montt Club Deportes Puerto Montt is a Chilean football club based in the city of Puerto Montt, Los Lagos Region. The club was founded on May 6, 1983, and currently plays in the Primera B de Chile, the second division of the country. Their home games a ...

. Nevertheless, on 25 July 2005, he alongside team were involved in a traffic accident when they were coming back by bus from

Talca Talca () is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, Chile, Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the ...

. He was the most damaged by the accident, having to face a six-month injury. His teammate, the Argentinian forward, Julio César Laffatigue, declared: "Thank God we are alive, because it was a terrible thing".

Deportes Temuco

After all the 2006 season without professionally play, in early 2007, he joined Primera B side Deportivo Temuco. There, he gained notoriety through the

docu-reality Factual television is a genre of non-fiction television programming that documents actual events and people. These types of programs are also described as observational documentary, fly on the wall, docudrama, and reality television. The genre ...

about the team, called ''Temuco, La Última Frontera'' (''Temuco, The Last Frontier'') which was centered in the daily live of team's coach

Eduardo Bonvallet Eduardo Guillermo Bonvallet Godoy (13 January 1955 – 18 September 2015) was a Chilean footballer who played as a defensive midfielder and later developed a sportscasting career. He was best known for his strong and rather harsh commentaries ...

, who replaced the outgoing coach, Carlos González Romero on 23 April 2007. Despite the docu-reality was centered in Bonvallet's daily life, di Gregorio became briefly famous after being called up to the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

on 15 May to face

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

, and then for being marginalized from the team after disobeying Bonvallet, after he decided to send him to the bench in a match with

Provincial Osorno Provincial Osorno is a football club based in Osorno, Los Lagos Region, Chile. The club is currently playing at the fourth tier of the Chilean football system, the Tercera División. The club were founded on 5 June 1983 and then re-founded on ...

on 26 May. That match, Temuco won by 2–1 at the Old

Estadio Municipal Germán Becker The Estadio Municipal Bicentenario Germán Becker Baechler is a stadium located in Temuco, Chile and owned by the Temuco municipality. It is the home ground of Deportes Temuco and also, the former ground of the defunct Unión Temuco football clubs ...

. On 6 June 2007, he announced his disengagement from the team. Eight years later, on 19 September 2015, for the purpose of Bonvallet's death after he committed suicide a day ago, among the memories and anecdotes that

Emol ''El Mercurio'' (known online as ''El Mercurio On-Line'', ''EMOL'') is a Chilean newspaper with editions in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Santiago edition is considered the country's newspaper of record and it is considered the oldest daily in t ...

emphasized on the part of those who were directed by Bonvallet, Luis Gabriel Valenzuela (di Gregorio's teammate in the age), remembered another tense episode which catapulted di Gregorio's marginalization: to have arrived late to train.

Retirement from football

After playing the entire 2008 season for Primera B side

, the following year he ended his career with

(team of the same category) after he was unable to find a club.

After football

In 2013, he became

Deportes Iquique Club de Deportes Iquique S.A.D.P. is a Chilean football club based in Iquique that is a current member of the Primera B. Founded in 1978, the club's home stadium is the Estadio Tierra de Campeones, which has a 13,171 capacity. Iquique has spent ...

's goalkeeping coach.

International career

After deciding to be eligible to play for Chile national team, di Gregorio joined to Chile olympic's under-23 national team to play in the 2000 CONMEBOL Men Pre-Olympic Tournament, qualifier for

Sydney Olympic Games The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

. He played all of Chile's seven matches in the Pre-Olympic Tournament, being the most important, the match where Chile, on 6 February 2000, achieved an historical 1–0 win over Argentina U-23 at

Londrina Londrina (, literally "Little London") is a city located in the north of the state of Paraná, South Region, Brazil, and is away from the state capital, Curitiba. It is the second largest city in the state and fourth largest in the southern regi ...

, which qualified the Chilean team to the Olympic Games. He didn't play any match in the Olympic Games, where Chile reached the bronze medal following beat 2–0 to United States national team in the Third Place Match held at

Sydney Football Stadium The Sydney Football Stadium, commercially known as Allianz Stadium and previously Aussie Stadium, was a football stadium in Moore Park, Sydney, Australia. Built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the stadium was Sydney's premier rect ...

. On 15 May 2007, following a five-year absence (his last call-up was in 2002 for a match against

corresponding to 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification), it was reported that di Gregorio was re-called to play a friendly match against

. Finally, on 16 May, he was sent-on in the 85' minute, replacing to

Cobreloa Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a Chilean football professional club based in Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. That competes in the Primera B. The club's home ground is the Estadio Zorros del ...

's goalkeeper, Fernando Hurtado, in a 3–0 win at

Honours

National Team

;Chile *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

(1): 2000 Sydney

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:di Gregorio, Javier 1977 births Living people Sportspeople from Mendoza, Argentina Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Argentine footballers Argentine emigrants to Chile Naturalized citizens of Chile Chilean people of Italian descent Chilean footballers Chilean expatriate footballers Chile international footballers Coquimbo Unido footballers C.D. Huachipato footballers Atlético Mexiquense footballers Puerto Montt footballers Deportes Temuco footballers Deportes Melipilla footballers Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Ascenso MX players Association football goalkeepers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Mexico Olympic bronze medalists for Chile Olympic footballers of Chile Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics