Gastón Nicolás Fernández (born 12 October 1983) is an Argentine former 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 lea ...

who played as a

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. He spent most of his senior club career in

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

side Estudiantes.

Club career

Nicknamed ''La Gata'' (''The Cat''), Fernández began his professional career with River Plate. After a stint with

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and another season back with River, in 2006 he was loaned to

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

. When the contract was finished, Monterrey declined to pay the nearly two million dollars to permanently buy Gastón, thus prompting him to return to River Plate in December 2006. However,

Daniel Passarella Daniel Alberto Passarella (born 25 May 1953) is an Argentine former Association football, footballer and Manager (association football), manager, who is considered one of the greatest Defender (association football), defenders of all time. As a ...

, then River's head coach, believed that the team had enough strikers. Fernández was therefore sold to

San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

. In San Lorenzo ''La Gata'' revindictated his career. He was the leading scorer of the team that won the 2007 Clausura championship. He then spent one year in Mexico with

Tigres de la UANL Tigre ("Tiger" in various languages), Tigres or El Tigre may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Le Tigre, an American rock band ** ''Le Tigre'' (album) * '' El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera'', a Nickelodeon animated TV series ** ''El Ti ...

. In 2008, Fernández returned to Argentina to play for

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

, where he finished as runner up with the team in the

2008 Copa Sudamericana The 2008 Copa Sudamericana de Clubes was the seventh edition of the Copa Sudamericana football tournament. The draw for the tournament took place on June 10, 2008 in Buenos Aires and the competition was played between July 30 and December 3. Arsen ...

. He was then a first team regular in the team that won the

2009 Copa Libertadores The 2009 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2009 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 50th edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. The ...

, where he scored the equalising goal in the second leg of the final against Cruzeiro. Subsequently, he went back to Tigres, where he helped win the 2009 SuperLiga title against Chicago Fire. In January 2010, Tigres released the Argentine winger upon his request, and Fernández returned to Estudiantes. Upon his return, Fernández helped lead Estudiantes to the 2010 Apertura tournament title. On January 15, 2014, Fernández signed with

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club

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Timbers have p ...

. On March 8, 2014, ''La Gata'' scored an equalizer goal in the 93' of his MLS debut to extend the Timbers' home unbeaten streak to sixteen. He added a second goal the following game on March 16, 2014, against the Chicago Fire to force another draw. On August 3, 2015, MLS announced that Fernández and the Timbers had mutually agreed to part ways.

International career

Gastón Fernández has played for several of

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

's youth teams.

Honours

;River Plate *

: 2003 Clausura ;San Lorenzo *

: 2007 Clausura ;Tigres *

North American SuperLiga The SuperLiga was an annual association football competition in North America between four clubs from the Major League Soccer (United States and Canada) and four clubs from the Primera División (Mexico), the top professional league in each count ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

;Estudiantes *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

: 2010 Apertura ; Grêmio *

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

;Portland Timbers *

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

References

External links

Statistics
at Guardian Stats Centre * at Fútbol XXI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Gaston 1983 births Living people Footballers from Lanús Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Men's association football midfielders Club Atlético River Plate footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Club Universidad de Chile footballers C.F. Monterrey players Tigres UANL footballers Portland Timbers players Portland Timbers 2 players Grêmio FBPA players Liga MX players Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Major League Soccer players USL Championship players Copa Libertadores–winning players Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Brazil 21st-century Argentine sportsmen