Martín Horacio Herrera (born 13 September 1970) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), 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 i ...

Club career

Boca Juniors

Born in

Río Cuarto, Córdoba Río Cuarto is a city in the provinces of Argentina, province of Córdoba Province (Argentina), Córdoba, Argentina. Located in the south of the province, it has about 157,000 inhabitants () and is an important commercial and agricultural hub. Ove ...

, Herrera started his senior career with Argentine giants

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in 1991 after signing from his local club

Estudiantes de Río Cuarto Asociación Atlética Estudiantes (usually known as Estudiantes de Río Cuarto) is an Argentinian sports club located in the city of Río Cuarto, Córdoba Province. Although many sports are practised at the club, it is mostly known for its footb ...

. During his tenure, he played understudy to the likes of

Carlos Navarro Montoya Carlos Fernando Navarro Montoya (born 26 February 1966) is a retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Born in Colombia, Navarro Montoya represented the Colombia national team three times, and gained Argentine citizenship later in his care ...

; on 16 May 1993, in a reserve game against

Club Atlético Independiente () is an Argentine professional sports club, which has its headquarters and stadium in Avellaneda, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. The club is best known for its Association football, football team, which plays in the Argentine Primera Divi ...

, a clash with an opponent resulted in head trauma, a depressed cheekbone, orbital fracture and torn ligaments, which sidelined him for nine months.Se despidió Martín Herrera, una de las mayores figuras del fútbol riocuartense en su historia (Farewell to Martín Herrera, one of the greatest symbols of Río Cuarto football)
Telediario Digital, 21 April 2008

Journeyman

Subsequently, Herrera joined

Club Atlético Atlanta Club Atlético Atlanta is an Argentine sports club from the Villa Crespo district of Buenos Aires. Nicknamed ''Los Bohemios'' ('The Bohemians'), Atlanta is mostly known for its association football, football team, although the institution also h ...

of the

Primera B Metropolitana Primera B Metropolitana is one of two professional leagues that form the third level of the Argentine football league system. The division is made up of 17 clubs mainly from the city of Buenos Aires and its metropolitan area, Greater Buenos Aires ...

. He then had brief spells with Deportivo Toluca FC (Mexico) and

Ferro Carril Oeste Club Ferro Carril Oeste, known simply as Ferro Carril Oeste or familiarly, Ferro, is an Argentine sports club from the neighbourhood of Caballito, Buenos Aires. Although many activities are hosted by the club, Ferro is mostly known for its assoc ...

, leaving the latter after not being paid for several months.

Alavés

On 8 July 1999, Herrera moved to the Spanish

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

after signing a three-year contract with

Deportivo Alavés Deportivo Alavés, S.A.D. (; ''Sporting Alavés''), usually known as Alavés, is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Álava, in the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of the Basque ...

for 200 million pesetas. He was an undisputed starter in his first year, being awarded the

Ricardo Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy () is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper '' Marca'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.Similar to goals against average in ice hockey or earned run average in b ...

with only 37 goals conceded (all 38 matches played),Martín Herrera reivindica a los porteros secundarios (Martín Herrera stakes a claim for supporting goalkeepers)
El País, 22 May 2000 which was good enough to

qualify Qualification may refer to: Processes * Qualifications-Based Selection (QBS), a competitive contract procurement process established by the United States Congress * Process qualification, ensures that manufacturing and production processes can ...

to the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

after the sixth-place finish. Herrera continued to be first choice for the

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

in the following season, but was also briefly suspended by the

Royal Spanish Football Federation The Royal Spanish Football Federation (; RFEF) is the governing body of football in Spain. Founded on 29 September 1913, it is based in La Ciudad del Fútbol of Las Rozas de Madrid, Las Rozas, a municipality near Madrid. RFEF organizes the natio ...

for allegedly holding a false

Italian passport An Italian passport () is issued upon request to an Italian nationality law, Italian citizen for the purpose of international travel. It is valid for 10, 5 or 3 years, depending on the applicant's age. Its Biometric passports, biometric version ...

. He later succeeded in proving his origins, and helped his team reach the final of the UEFA Cup on 16 May 2001, a 5–4

extra time Overtime (OT) or extra time (ET) is an additional period of play to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played only if the game is required t ...

loss against

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

after an own

golden goal The golden goal is a sports rule used in association football, Australian rules football, bandy, field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, and rugby league to decide the winner of a match (typically a knock-out match) in which scores are equal at the ...

Fulham

In May 2002, Herrera agreed to a three-year deal at

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

. A backup to

Edwin van der Sar Edwin van der Sar (; born 29 October 1970) is a Dutch association football, football executive and former professional player who played as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper. He was most recently the chief executive of AFC Ajax, A ...

and

Maik Taylor Maik Stefan Taylor (born 4 September 1971) is a former Northern Ireland national football team, Northern Ireland international association football, football goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper and, since July 2022, goalkeeping coach a ...

, he only made his

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

debut on 24 February 2003 in a 1–1 away draw to

Tottenham Hotspur Tottenham Hotspur Football Club, commonly referred to as simply Tottenham (, , , ) or Spurs, is a professional Association football, football club based in Tottenham, North London, England. The club itself has stated that it should always ...

as a substitute, after Taylor was

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

. Herrera's second and final competitive appearance took place on 16 March 2003, when he started in the 2–2 draw against

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

Craven Cottage Craven Cottage is a football stadium in Fulham, West London, England, which has been the home of Fulham F.C. since 1896.According to the club'official website The ground's capacity is 29,589; the record attendance is 49,335, for a game agains ...

Estudiantes LP

Herrera returned to his country and its Primera División on 17 July 2003, being loaned to

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 ...

. Initially a starter, he lost his spot to

Mariano Andújar Mariano Andújar (born 30 July 1983) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career In 2009, Andújar was the first team goalkeeper in Estudiantes' Copa Libertadores winning team. Andújar did not co ...

after being sent off in a 0–2 loss at Boca Juniors in September 2006, never being selected again by manager

Diego Simeone Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970), nicknamed "El Cholo" (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He has been the manager of club Atlético Madrid since December 2011 mak ...

before terminating his contract the following month; nonetheless, he was part of the squad that won that year's Apertura championship, defeating the same opposition in the championship playoff.Argentina 2006/07
at

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

Estudiantes RC

After one year out of football, the 37-year-old Herrera returned to activity with his first club Estudiantes Río Cuarto. He retired in 2009.

Honours

Toluca *

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

: 1998 Torneo Verano Estudiantes La Plata *

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 ...

: 2006 Apertura Individual *

: 1999–2000

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Martin 1970 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Footballers from Río Cuarto, Córdoba Men's association football goalkeepers Argentine Primera División players Estudiantes de Río Cuarto footballers Boca Juniors footballers Club Atlético Atlanta footballers Ferro Carril Oeste footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Liga MX players Deportivo Toluca F.C. players La Liga players Deportivo Alavés players Premier League players Fulham F.C. players Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in England Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in England