Nicolás Alejandro Frutos Cortino (born 10 May 1981) is an Argentine football coach and retired player. A striker during his playing career, he is an assistant coach for Major League Soccer club

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Santa Fe, Frutos started playing for

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. Althou ...

and was later bought by San Lorenzo. Later, Spanish club

Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, on the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife), the most populous city in the auto ...

signed him, but after an unsuccessful season of only one goal Argentina's

Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata (; ''La Plata Gymnastics and Fencing Club''), also known simply as Gimnasia, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the city of La Plata, Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1887 as "Club de Gimnasia ...

brought him back. He again found his level, catching Independiente's attention, whom he joined for the Apertura 2004, scoring 19 goals in 28 matches. Frutos was as of 23 October 2005 the top scorer of the Apertura 2005 with nine goals in 11 matches, but he lost that position because he was not able to play for Independiente for the rest of the season.

Anderlecht

Frutos obtained a transfer from Independiente on 21 October 2005 but was only allowed to play for Anderlecht starting in January 2006. In his first season with

R.S.C. Anderlecht ; french: Les Mauves et Blancs) , short name = R.S.C.A. , founded = , ground = Constant Vanden Stock Stadium , capacity = 22,500 , owntitle = Chairman , owner = Wouter Vandenhaute , manager = Brian Riemer , ...

, he scored nine goals in the second half of the season and won the

2005–06 Belgian First Division The 2005–06 season of the Belgian Jupiler League began on August 5, 2005 and ended on May 5, 2006. Anderlecht won the title on the last day of competition. Promoted teams These teams were promoted from the second division at the start of th ...

. The 2006–07 season yielded more goals for Frutos, as he scored 17 goals in 27 appearances in both the Jupiler League and the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. His goal-scoring was sorely missed in the early part of the 2007–08 season, until his return in the 2–2 draw against

Roeselare Roeselare (; french: Roulers, ; West Flemish: ''Roeseloare'') is a Belgian city and municipality in the Flemish province of West Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Roeselare proper and the towns of Beveren, Oekene and Rumbeke. Th ...

, where he was a substitute and scored the goal that leveled the match. Frutos also scored two goals against

Hapoel Tel Aviv FC Hapoel Tel Aviv Football Club ( he, מועדון כדורגל הפועל תל אביב , ''Moadon Kaduregel Hapoel Tel Aviv)'' is an Israeli football club based in Tel Aviv that competes in the Israeli Premier League. The club's traditional hom ...

in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

group stage. At the start of the 2009–10 season, he scored a goal against

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

side

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Demir Grup Sivasspor due to sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish sports club based in Sivas. The primary department of the club is men's football. Formed in 1967, its football department competes in Süper Lig, as of 201 ...

during the third-round qualifying match for the

after coming on as a substitute.

Retirement

Frutos announced his retirement from professional football on 29 March 2010 at the age of 28 due to tendinopathy of the

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus ( ...

, which prevents him from playing at a competitive level.

Coaching career

One day after his retirement, it was announced that Frutos would work as a scout for his last club,

. In 2011 he worked for

as a coordinator for the youth teams and manager of their reserve team. He left his position in June 2013. In 2015, he was a part of the technical staff at Club Olimpia. On 1 January 2016, Frutos returned to Anderlecht and took charge of the U19 team. On 18 September 2017, he was appointed as caretaker manager for the first team. He was in charge for four games, getting three victories and one defeat, before a new manager was appointed on 3 October 2017. On 3 January 2019, he was appointed as manager of San Luis de Quillota. After adding just four points out of 18 possible, he was fired on 2 April 2019. In February 2021, Frutos was appointed assistant coach of

Honours

* Belgian First Division A: 2006, 2007, 2010 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2008 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( nl, Belgische Supercup, ; french: Supercoupe de Belgique; german: Belgischer Fußball-Super Cup), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian First Division A champio ...

: 2006, 2007

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frutos, Nicolas 1981 births Living people Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Argentine footballers Argentine football managers Footballers from Santa Fe, Argentina Association football forwards Unión de Santa Fe footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Nueva Chicago footballers UD Las Palmas players Club de Gimnasia y Esgrima La Plata footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers R.S.C. Anderlecht players Argentine Primera División players Segunda División players Belgian Pro League players Argentina under-20 international footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Belgium Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Belgium R.S.C. Anderlecht non-playing staff R.S.C. Anderlecht managers San Luis de Quillota managers D.C. United non-playing staff Belgian Pro League managers Primera B de Chile managers Argentine expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Paraguay Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay Expatriate football managers in Belgium Expatriate football managers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Expatriate soccer managers in the United States Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States