Claudio Matías Kranevitter (; born 21 May 1993) 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 ...

who plays 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 ...

for Argentine Primera División club River Plate.

Club career

River Plate

Born in

San Miguel de Tucumán San Miguel de Tucumán (; usually called simply Tucumán) is the capital and largest city of Tucumán Province, located in northern Argentina from Buenos Aires. It is the fifth-largest city of Argentina after Buenos Aires, Córdoba, Argentina, ...

, Kranevitter started his career at

San Martín de Tucumán Club Atlético San Martín (mostly known as San Martín de Tucumán) is an Argentine sports club founded in 1909 and based in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán, Tucumán Province. The club is notable for its football team, which currently plays i ...

's youth setup, but left the club at the age of 12 due to his family's poor financial situation. In 2007, aged 14, he joined River Plate after impressing on a trial. After being initially assigned to the reserves, Kranevitter was also a member of the under-20s during its

U-20 Copa Libertadores The Under-20 CONMEBOL Libertadores (Portuguese and Spanish: CONMEBOL Libertadores Sub-20) is the international association football club competition for teams that play in CONMEBOL leagues. It was created by Manuel Burga Seoane and the Peruvian ...

winning campaign in 2012. On 2 December of that year he made his first team debut, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 home win against

Lanús Lanús () is the capital of Lanús Partido, Buenos Aires Province in Argentina. It lies just south of the capital city Buenos Aires, in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area. The city has a population of 212,152 (), and the Partido de Lan� ...

. Kranevitter was promoted to the main squad by new manager

Ramón Díaz Ramón Ángel Díaz (born 29 August 1959) is a former Argentine footballer and the current manager of Saudi Professional League club Al Hilal. He played for River Plate as a striker, and coached it for three tenures, winning eight titles. ...

. Initially a backup to

Leonardo Ponzio Leonardo Daniel Ponzio (born 29 January 1982) is an Argentinian former footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder. After starting out at Newell's Old Boys in 2000, he went on to spend his professional career with Zaragoza and Rive ...

and Cristian Ledesma, he appeared in 30 matches during the 2013–14 season, 16 as a starter, overcoming the latter midway through the campaign. In September 2014, already a regular starter, Kranevitter suffered a

metatarsus The metatarsal bones, or metatarsus, are a group of five long bones in the foot, located between the tarsal bones of the hind- and mid-foot and the phalanges of the toes. Lacking individual names, the metatarsal bones are numbered from the me ...

injury, being ruled out until the following year. In October, however, he trained with

crutches A crutch is a mobility aid that transfers weight from the legs to the upper body. It is often used by people who cannot use their legs to support their weight, for reasons ranging from short-term injuries to lifelong disabilities. History Crutc ...

and returned to action in late November, being utilized in both legs of

2014 Copa Sudamericana Finals The 2014 Copa Sudamericana Finals were the two-legged final that decided the winner of the 2014 Copa Sudamericana, the 13th edition of the Copa Sudamericana, South America's secondary international club football tournament organized by CONMEBOL. ...

Atlético Madrid

On 25 August 2015,

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' ...

side Atlético Madrid reached an agreement with River for the sale of Kranevitter, for a rumoured fee of

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

8 million. He was officially announced three days later, being immediately loaned back to River until December. Assigned to the main squad in January 2016, Kranevitter was handed the 8 shirt. He made his debut in the main category on 14 February, coming on as a substitute for goalscorer

Fernando Torres Fernando José Torres Sanz (; born 20 March 1984) is a Spanish football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the current manager of Atlético Madrid Juvenil A. Due to his consistent goalscoring rate as a young player, ...

in a 1–0 away win against Getafe CF.

Sevilla (loan)

On 7 July 2016, Kranevitter was loaned to fellow top-tier club

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA E ...

, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long deal.

Zenit

On 8 August 2017, he moved to the

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; russian: Российская премьер-лига; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is the top division professional association football league in Russia. It was established at the end of 2001 ...

club FC Zenit Saint Petersburg, signing a 4-year contract. He joined his former River Plate teammates Sebastián Driussi and Emanuel Mammana at the club. On 24 January 2020 Zenit confirmed that Kranevitter left the club.

Monterrey

On 26 January 2020, Kranevitter joined Liga MX club Monterrey.

Return to River Plate

On 12 December 2022, Kranevitter returned to River Plate, signing a 3-year contract.

International career

Kranevitter represented

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 ...

at under-20 level in 2013 South American Youth Football Championship. He appeared in three matches, all as a starter, as his side was knocked out in the group stage. On 24 August 2015, Kranevitter was called up to the main squad for two friendlies against Bolivia and

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 ...

as a replacement to injured Lucas Biglia. He made his full international debut on 4 September, starting in a 7–0 routing of the former at the

BBVA Compass Stadium Shell Energy Stadium (formerly BBVA Compass Stadium, BBVA Stadium, then PNC Stadium) is an American multi-purpose stadium located in Houston, Texas that is home to Houston Dynamo FC, a Major League Soccer club, the Houston Dash of the Nation ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

. Kranevitter was nominated in the 2016 Copa América squad and was part of the Argentine side that ran to

the final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

. He was subbed on in the 57th minute of

against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

, which Chile won 4–2 on penalties.

Style of play

Mainly a

, Kranevitter excels at breaking up play, shielding the defense and dictating the tempo and speed the team plays at. Although not very physical, he is known for his usually clean and well-timed tackles and his good defensive positioning. Kranevitter is often compared to

Javier Mascherano Javier Alejandro Mascherano (born 8 June 1984) is an Argentine professional football coach and former player who is the head coach of the Argentina national under-20 team. As a player, he played as a centre-back or defensive midfielder, most not ...

, due to both being River Plate youth graduates and having the same playing style.

Personal life

Kranevitter also played

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

during his youth, and stated that he "would be a golfer if he hadn't chosen football".

Career statistics

Club

Notes

International

Honours

River Plate * Argentine Primera División: 2014 Final * Copa Sudamericana:

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 ...

* Recopa Sudamericana: 2015 * Copa Libertadores: 2015 * Suruga Bank Championship: 2015 *

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

Zenit *

: 2018–19, 2019–20 * Russian Cup: 2019–20 Monterrey *

Copa MX The Copa MX (formerly called Copa Tower Monterrey, Copa Eliminatoria, Copa México and Copa Corona MX (for sponsorship reasons)) was a Mexican football cup competition that was established in 1907. After a lengthy hiatus that began in 1997, it wa ...

: 2019–20 * CONCACAF Champions League:

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Argentina * Copa América 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 of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

Individual * Copa Libertadores Team of the Year: 2015

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kranevitter, Matias 1993 births Living people Footballers from San Miguel de Tucumán Argentine people of Volga German descent Argentine men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético River Plate footballers La Liga players Atlético Madrid footballers Sevilla FC players Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's international footballers Copa América Centenario players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain FC Zenit Saint Petersburg players Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Russian Premier League players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Russia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico C.F. Monterrey players Liga MX players