Mariano Andújar (born 30 July 1983) is an Argentine 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 plays as a

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 ...

for

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 ...

club Estudiantes.

Club career

In 2009, Andújar was the first team goalkeeper in Estudiantes'

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 ...

winning team. Andújar did not concede a single goal in any of the eight games in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

and he set a new tournament record of 800 minutes without conceding a goal, beating

Hugo Gatti Hugo Orlando Gatti (born 19 August 1944) is an Argentine former professional football goalkeeper who played in the Argentine Primera División for 26 seasons

's 767 minutes. On 24 June 2009, Italian club

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

officially announced that the club had signed the player to a four-year deal. On 24 January 2014, Napoli's official website posted that Andújar was in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

completing a medical in preparation for his move to the Italian club. Four days later, a co-ownership deal was reached, with Andújar being loaned back to Catania for the remainder of the season. He will join Napoli at the start of the 2014–15 campaign. He made his debut in Naples on 11 December 2014, in a match against Slovan Bratislava (winning 3–0), in the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Europa League Final was ...

, in the last match of the group stage. During the midway point of the 2014–15 season, Andújar secured his place in Napoli's starting lineup, thanks to good performances and the decline of Napoli first-choice keeper Rafael. On 24 April 2015, Andújar led Napoli to the Europa League semi-finals with a solid performance against VfL Wolfsburg. Napoli advanced from the tie with a 6–3 aggregate. On 9 March 2022, Estudiantes overcame Everton of Chile in the third round of the Copa Libertadores 2022, at the Sausalito Stadium, and reached 41 Copa Libertadores matches with Estudiantes' jersey. Thus, he reached the club's all-time podium in such competition, surpassing Juan Sebastián Verón's record. On Sunday, 20 March 2022, after Estudiantes' draw against Gimnasia at the Juan Carmelo Zerillo Stadium, for the Professional League Cup, Mariano Andújar became the fifth player with the highest number of appearances in the club's history, with 363 official matches played, and the first in the goalkeeper position.

International career

Andújar made his debut for the Argentina national team in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

on 6 June 2009. During the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

and

2011 Copa América The 2011 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, better known as the 2011 Copa América or the Copa América 2011 Argentina, was the 43rd edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South Americ ...

, Andújar served as understudy to

Sergio Romero Sergio Germán Romero (; born 22 February 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Boca Juniors. He has also played for the Argentina national team. Romero made his debut with Racing Club in the Argentine Pr ...

, the first choice goalkeeper for the ''Albiceleste''. In June 2014, Andújar was named in Argentina's squad for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Personal life

Facundo Andújar is Mariano's brother, he is also a professional footballer.

Honours

Estudiantes *

: 2006 Apertura *

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

Napoli *

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana ( en, Italian Super Cup) is an annual football match contested by the winners of the Serie A and the Coppa Italia in the previous season. If the same team wins both the Serie A and Coppa Italia titles in the previous seaso ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

Argentina *

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

runner-up:

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

runner-up:

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

External links

Argentine Primera statistics
*
Football-Lineups
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Andujar, Mariano 1983 births Argentine people of Spanish descent Argentine footballers Argentina international footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Association football goalkeepers Club Atlético Huracán footballers Palermo F.C. players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Catania S.S.D. players S.S.C. Napoli players Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Serie A players Expatriate footballers in Italy Footballers from Buenos Aires Living people 2010 FIFA World Cup players 2011 Copa América players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy