Rodrigo Braña (born 7 March 1979) is a former

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

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 ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. His last team was Estudiantes (LP) of the

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 ...

Career

Braña started his career playing for

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

in the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, (English "National B Division"), and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 38 team ...

(Argentine second division). He has had three different spells with the club, which alternated between the second and the top division. Braña had a short spell with

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (, , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or RCD Mallorca, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Palma de Mallorca, ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

where he played for their B team between 1998 and 1999. Braña also had a short spell with Argentine club

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 ...

in 2001. In 2005, Braña joined Estudiantes, where he has become an idol for the

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

club. The two biggest highlights of his career to date have been winning the Apertura 2006 and the

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 ...

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 ...

with Estudiantes. Braña was a key figure on the Estudiantes team that won its first Argentine League title in 23 years after a 2-1 playoff victory against

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 ...

to decide the winner of the Apertura 2006 champions. "El Chapu" won many accolades for his contribution to the championship winning team; he was selected as the third best player of the Apertura 2006 tournament by Argentine sports newspaper Olé. The only players that finished above him in the list were teammates Mariano Pavone and Juan Sebastián Verón. He has formed a formidable partnership in the center of midfield with Veron in recent seasons. In 2008, he formed part of the team that finished as runners-up in

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. Braña was then a regular player in the team that won

. His typical speed, stamina, and defensive skills in the midfield were key factors in Estudiantes' lifting the continental championship for the first time in 39 years. After the Libertadores victory, he faced a serious offer from Mexican club

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 ...

to take him to play in Mexico. Braña eventually decided to stay with Estudiantes, a decision that was rewarded with his first-ever call up to the Argentina national team on 1 September 2009. Braña retired at the end of the 2018–19 season.22-5: RODRIGO BRAÑA SE DESPIDIÓ DE ESTUDIANTES
infocielo.com, 22 May 2019

International appearances and goals

Honors

;Estudiantes *

(2): 2006 Apertura, 2010 Apertura *

(1):

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brana, Rodrigo 1979 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Quilmes Atlético Club footballers Unión de Santa Fe footballers RCD Mallorca B players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players Argentine Primera División players Primera Nacional players Footballers from Berazategui Partido Argentina men's international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain