Raúl Marcelo Bobadilla (born 18 June 1987) is a 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 plays as a striker for Swiss club

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

. Born in Argentina, he plays for the Paraguay national team.

Career

Early career

Bobadilla originally started out at River Plate but moved to Concordia Basel in the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

for the

2006–07 Swiss Challenge League The 2006–07 Swiss Challenge League was the fourth season of the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of the Swiss football league pyramid. It began on 21 July 2006 and ended on 26 May 2007. The champions of this season, Neuchâtel Xamax, earne ...

season.

Murat Yakin Murat Yakin ( ; born 15 September 1974) is a Swiss football coach and former player. He is the manager of the Switzerland national team. In 2021, following stints as manager at Swiss clubs including Basel, Grasshoppers and Sion, he was appoint ...

was trainer at that time and for Bobadilla this was a very successful season. He scored 18 goals in 28 League games and finished third in the goal scorer list at the end of the season. Yakin left Concordia and went to

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

as assistant trainer to

Hanspeter Latour Hanspeter Latour (born 4 June 1947) is a Swiss football manager and former goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designa ...

for the 2007–08 Super League season and took Bobadilla with him. Bobadilla continued his good goalscoring form, becoming their first choice striker. Bobadilla finished in second place of the goal scorer list at the end of the season and was shortlisted in the Final 4 players for the Swiss League player of the year for the 2007–08 season, which was ultimately won by

Hakan Yakin Hakan Yakin (; born 22 February 1977) is a Swiss professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Swiss Challenge League side FC Schaffhausen. He spent the majority of his ...

. Bobadilla signed for

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

on 11 June 2009 but returned to Switzerland in 2012 to play for Bern's

BSC Young Boys Berner Sport Club Young Boys (YB by short abbreviation, ) is a Swiss professional sports club based in Bern, Switzerland. Its first team has won 17 Swiss league championships and eight Swiss Cups. YB is one of the most successful Swiss footbal ...

Basel

On 3 January 2013,

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

announced that Bobadilla signed a contract until 2017. He joined Basel's first team during the winter break of their 2012–13 season under head coach

. After playing in four test games, in the last of which he was injured, he made his league debut for Basel on 1 April in the 4–0 away win against

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

being substituted in during the 77th minute of the game. He scored his first goal for his new club in the home game in the

St. Jakob-Park St. Jakob-Park () is a Swiss sports stadium in Basel. It is the largest football venue in Switzerland and home to FC Basel. "Joggeli", as the venue is nicknamed by the locals, was originally built with a capacity of 33,433 seats. The capacity w ...

on 1 June 2013. It was the only goal of the game as Basel won 1–0 against St. Gallen. At the end of the Swiss Super League season 2012–13 he won the Championship title with the team. In the

2012–13 Swiss Cup The 2012–13 Swiss Cup was the 88th season of Switzerland's annual football cup competition. The competition commenced on 14 September 2012 with the first game of Round 1 and ended on 20 May 2013 with the Final. The winners of the competition, Gr ...

Basel reached the final, but were runners up behind Grasshopper Club, being defeated 4–3 on penalties, following a 1–1 draw after extra time. In the

2012–13 UEFA Europa League The 2012–13 UEFA Europa League was the 42nd season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 4th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The final was played at the Amsterdam Are ...

, Basel advanced as far as the

semi-finals A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, ...

, there being matched against the reigning

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 ...

holders Chelsea. Chelsea won both games advancing 5–2 on aggregate, eventually winning the competition. Soon after the start of the next season, Bobadilla was caught speeding with his Maserati, driving with 111 km/h in a 50 km/h zone. On 15 August it was announced that Bobadilla would leave Basel. During his short period with the club, Bobadilla played a total of 25 games for Basel scoring three goals. 13 of these games were in the

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

, one in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, one in the Champions League and ten were friendly games. He scored two goals in the domestic league and the other was scored during the test games.

Augsburg

On 15 August 2013, FC Augsburg announced that Bobadilla signed a contract until 30 June 2016. On 9 May 2015, Bobadilla scored the only goal as Augsburg won away at

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, who had already won the league title, a back-heel after a cross from

Pierre-Emile Højbjerg Pierre-Emile Kordt Højbjerg (born 5 August 1995) is a Danish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder and vice captain for club Olympique de Marseille, Marseille and Captain (association football), capt ...

, who was on loan from the opponent. In the 14th minute, he had been fouled by goalkeeper

Pepe Reina José Manuel "Pepe" Reina Páez (; born 31 August 1982) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. The son of famed Barcelona and Atlético Madrid goalkeeper Miguel Reina, Pepe Reina began his career with the Barce ...

for a penalty, resulting in Reina's dismissal, but

Paul Verhaegh Paul Johannes Gerardus Verhaegh (born 1 September 1983) is a former Dutch professional Association football, footballer who played as a right-back. Club career Verhaegh began his career at PSV Eindhoven, making 33 league appearances while on lo ...

's shot hit the post with

Manuel Neuer Manuel Peter Neuer (; born 27 March 1986) is a German professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for and captain (association football), captains club FC Bayern Munich, Bayern Munic ...

taking over in goal. Bobadilla finished the 2014–15 season as Augsburg's top-scorer with 10 goals in all competitions.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

On 17 August 2017, after 4 years in Augsburg, Bobadilla returned to Borussia Mönchengladbach on a two-year contract.

Argentinos Juniors

Bobadilla returned to Argentina after spending one year with Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Guarani

On 27 December 2019, Bobadilla was loaned to

Club Guaraní Club Guaraní is a Paraguayan professional 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 ...

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

's Primera División.

Return to Schaffhausen

On 11 January 2024, Bobadilla returned to

FC Schaffhausen FC Schaffhausen is a Swiss Association football, football team from the town of Schaffhausen. The club set to plays in the Promotion League from 2025–26, the third tier of Swiss football after relegation from Challenge League (Switzerland), Ch ...

in Switzerland.

Aarau

On 27 June 2024, Bobadilla signed with

Controversy

On 29 December 2020, after scoring and giving his team a 3–2 win, Bobadilla was threatened with a ban for partially exposing his genitals during a goal celebration.

International career

On 9 February 2015, it was reported by D10 and ABC Color that Bobadilla had begun the process of taking up Paraguay's nationality in order to represent the Paraguay national team, by way of his Paraguayan parents. On 11 March, he received his first call-up to the team, for friendlies later that month against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

and

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, making his debut in a 0–0 draw in San José. On 28 May 2015, Bobadilla was included in Paraguay's 23-man squad for the

2015 Copa América The 2015 Copa América was the 44th edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South America, and took place in Chile between 11 June and 4 July 2015. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, ...

by coach

Ramón Díaz Ramón Ángel Díaz (; born 29 August 1959) is an Argentine Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player. Díaz notably played for Club Atlético River Plate, River Plate as a Forward (association fo ...

. He started in the team's opening 2–2 draw against

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 ...

in La Serena.

Honours

;Basel *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

runner up:

References

External links