Sergio Ángel Berti (born 17 February 1969) is an Argentine retired 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 ...

, nicknamed ''La Bruja'', who played as a

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 boundarie ...

Club career

Born in

Villa Constitución Villa Constitución is a city in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, and the head town of the Constitución Department. It is located on the south-western banks of the Paraná River between the courses of the Arroyo Pavón and the Arroyo del ...

, Santa Fe, Berti began his career in 1988 with popular club Boca Juniors. In 1990, he found his way out of ''la Bombonera'' in a transfer to fierce rival River Plate. The red stripe was indeed the club he spent most of his career with, not to mention short spells in between for

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

and

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

. At River, Berti lived the golden era winning five titles including three domestic tournaments, the

Copa Libertadores 1996 The 1996 edition of Copa Libertadores was the 37th in the tournament's history. Twenty-one teams participated in the competition. Club Atlético River Plate, River Plate, of Argentina, won the tournament for their second time. The tournament began ...

and the 1997 Supercopa Sudamericana. In 1999, Mexican club América acquired total ownership of his rights. In the Copa Libertadores 2000, when América came to visit his former club Boca Juniors for the first leg match of the semifinals, just minutes before the start of the game Berti withdraw from playing, arguing being scared for the safety of his family and himself based on the chants of the

Barra Barra (; gd, Barraigh or ; sco, Barra) is an island in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, and the second southernmost inhabited island there, after the adjacent island of Vatersay to which it is connected by a short causeway. The island is name ...

of Boca Juniors. America lost that game 4–1 and Berti never played again with America. In 2001 Berti returned to Argentina and signed for recently promoted team Huracán. The following year, he had a brief stint at

Barcelona SC Barcelona Sporting Club () is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. Internationally known as Barcelona de Ecuador, in Ecuador it is simply referred as Barcelona, El Idolo (BSC) or Barce. T ...

of Ecuador. His career came to an abrupt end in 2002 at the Scottish Premier League side Livingston after spitting at teammate Richard Brittain, during a pre-season friendly.

International career

Berti was capped in 22 matches and scored one goal for

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 ...

, including two appearances during the 1998 FIFA World Cup and converting his penalty in the shoot-out against England in the Second Round. He was also a member of the national team that participated in

Copa América 1995 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 ...

and

Copa América 1997 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 Ass ...

References

External links

Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Berti, Sergio 1969 births Living people People from Constitución Department Association football midfielders Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine footballers Boca Juniors footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Serie A players Parma Calcio 1913 players La Liga players Real Zaragoza players Liga MX players Club América footballers Al Ain FC players Club Atlético Huracán footballers Barcelona S.C. footballers Livingston F.C. players UAE Pro League players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players Argentina international footballers Argentine Primera División players Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate footballers in Italy Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador Expatriate footballers in Ecuador Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Scotland Expatriate footballers in Scotland Sportspeople from Santa Fe Province