Nicolás Alejandro Frutos Cortino (born 10 May 1981) is an Argentine

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and retired player. A striker during his playing career, he is an assistant coach for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

club D.C. United.

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, Argentina, Santa Fe, the capital city of the Santa Fe Province, in Argentina. The club was founded on 15 April 1907. Unión is mostly known for its asso ...

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, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...

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, he scored nine goals in the second half of the season and won the 2005–06 Belgian First Division. 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 (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

. 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 (; ; ) 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. The name of the city is derived from two ...

, where he was a substitute and scored the goal that leveled the match. Frutos also scored two goals against Hapoel Tel Aviv FC in 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 ...

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

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), also known as Trendyol Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Turkey and the highest level of the Turkish football league system. In the 2023–2024 season, twen ...

side

Sivasspor Sivasspor Kulübü, known as Net Global 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 has competed in Süper Lig since t ...

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 calcane ...

, 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 Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement ** Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom ** Scouts BSA, sect ...

for his last club, R.S.C. Anderlecht. 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 Club Olimpia is a Paraguayan professional sports club based in the city of Asunción. It promotes the practice of various sports, with most importance given to the football, rugby and basketball sides, football being the most successful. Fou ...

. On 1 January 2016, Frutos returned to

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

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 San Luis de Quillota is a Chilean professional football club based in Quillota, that competes in the Primera B. The club's home stadium is the Estadio Bicentenario Lucio Fariña. Managers Interim coaches appear in italics. * Frank Powell (19 ...

. 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 D.C. United.

Honours

Belgian First Division A The Belgian Pro League (; ; ), officially the Jupiler Pro League () for sponsor Jupiler, is a professional association football league in Belgium and the highest level of the Belgian football league system. Contested by 16 clubs from the 2023– ...

: 2006, 2007, 2010 *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (; ; ) is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed ...

: 2008 *

Belgian Super Cup The Belgian Super Cup ( ; ; ), ''Pro League Supercup'', is a Belgian club competition played as a single match between the Belgian Pro League champions (also received the Super Cup host) and the Belgian Cup winners. If both teams are the same, ...

: 2006, 2007

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frutos, Nicolas 1981 births Living people Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Argentine men's footballers Argentine football managers Footballers from Santa Fe, Argentina Men's association football forwards Unión de Santa Fe footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Club Atlético 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 men's under-20 international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's 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 coaches in the United States Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United States 21st-century Argentine sportsmen