Mariano Andújar

Mariano Andújar

Personal information
Full name	Mariano Gonzalo Andújar
Date of birth	30 July 1983 (1983-07-30) (age 28)
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.94 m (6 ft 4 1⁄2 in)
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Catania
Number	21
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
2001–2006	Huracán	60	(0)
2005–2006	→ Palermo (loan)	11	(0)
2006–2009	Estudiantes	104	(0)
2009–	Catania	77	(0)
National team‡
2009–	Argentina	8	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 7 October 2011. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 7 October 2011

Mariano Gonzalo Andújar (born 30 July 1983 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine football goalkeeper. He currently plays for Calcio Catania in the Italian Serie A.

Club Career

Club Atlético Huracán

Andújar started his career with Club Atlético Huracán in 2001, at the mere age of 18. In his first season with the club, the young shot-stopper played within the team's youth squad, and in his second season, he was promoted to the senior squad and racked up 7 first team appearances. Two years after his arrival, the club was relegated to the Argentine 2nd division but he decided to stay with the club, and in his third season with the team, Andujar managed to make 17 league appearances. Andujar then broke into the team's starting line-up for the 2004–2005 Argentine season, and made 36 starting appearances in the league alone. His impressive league form led to speculation of a transfer to bigger Argentine clubs, or a move abroad, as a host of European clubs scouted the young keeper.

U.S. Città di Palermo

In the summer of 2005 Andújar was signed on loan by Italian Serie A club U.S. Città di Palermo. Upon his arrival, he was initially supposed to be the third goalkeeper behind Matteo Guardalben and Nicola Santoni, however, the Sicilian side, underwent hefty changes in the goalkeeping position over the January transfer window. After making just 11 and 7 appearances in all competitions respectively, Santoni and Guardalben were both sold during the winter market. Federico Agliardi and Cristiano Lupatelli were brought in as replacements, with the former making 17 appearances and the latter 16 appearances in all competitions. With all this, Andújar played a total of 11 league matches, 7 UEFA Cup matches and had 3 Coppa Italia matches, and Palermo sported 5 different starting goalkeepers over the course of the season. Despite a decent first season in Serie A, the Argentine keeper, returned to Club Atlético Huracán, but was sold instantly to Estudiantes de La Plata.

Estudiantes

Andújar returned to Argentina in 2006 to play for Diego Simeone's Estudiantes de La Plata. He played 16 games in the Apertura 2006 campaign conceding only 9 goals. Estudiantes ended the season with the tightest defence, conceding only 13 goals in their 19 games. The Apertura 2006 ended with Boca Juniors and Estudiantes tied on 44 points, forcing a championship playoff game. With Andújar as goalkeeper, Estudiantes won the playoff 2–1 to claim their first league title in 23 years. In the entirety of the season, Andujar managed 34 league appearances, and followed that up with an additional 36, the following season. In 2009 he was the first team goalkeeper in the Copa Libertadores winning team. Andújar did not concede a single goal in any of the 8 games in La Plata and he set a new tournament record of 800 minutes without conceding a goal, beating Hugo Gatti's 767 minutes.^[1] His final game with the club was their 2–1 win in the second leg of the final away at Cruzeiro, as he ended his campaign with 34 league appearances, as a winner of the Copa Libertadores 2009. Following his spell with the club, Andujar was heavily linked to a return to the Serie A, with Sicilian giants, Calcio Catania.

Calcio Catania

On 24 June 2009, Calcio Catania officially announced that the club had signed the player to a 4-year deal, following much speculation.^[2] He joined the Serie A club after the Libertadores season, and instantly seeded as the first choice goalkeeper, putting both Tomas Kosicky and Andrea Campagnolo to the bench. During the 2009–10 Serie A campaign, Andujar managed to make 35 league appearances, and allowed just 41 goals, in a season that saw the Sicilian club reach a record points total in the history of their Serie A statistics, and also managed a respectable 12th place league finish. The club notably defeated Serie A giants Juventus FC, Inter Milan, AC Milan, ACF Fiorentina, and Sicilian rivals and former club Palermo, throughout the campaign. In his second season with Catania, the Argentine International retained his starting position and started all but one of Catania's 38 matches in Serie A. He has made 77 total league appearances for the Sicilians.

International career

In June 2009 he was called up by Diego Maradona for the national team for the South American World Cup Qualifiers. He made his debut on 6 June 2009 home game against Colombia in a slim 1–0 win, gaining his first clean sheet. He was also selected for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

International appearances

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Final Score	Result	Competition
1.	June 6, 2009	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Colombia	1–0	win	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)
2.	June 10, 2009	Quito, Ecuador	Ecuador	2–0	Lost	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)
3.	August 12, 2009	Moscow, Russia	Russia	2–3	win	Friendly
4.	September 5, 2009	Rosario, Argentina	Brazil	1–3	Lost	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)
5.	March 26, 2011	East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States	United States	1–1	Draw	Friendly
6.	March 29, 2011	San José, Costa Rica	Costa Rica	0–0	Draw	Friendly
7.	October 7, 2011	Buenos Aires, Argentina	Chile	4–1	Win	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier
8.	October 11, 2011	Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela	Venezuela	1–0	Lost	2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier

Honours

Estudiantes de La Plata

• Primera Division Argentina: Apertura 2006
• Copa Libertadores: 2009

References

1. ^ Copa Libertadores review at fifa.com
2. ^ "Andujar al Catania" (in Italian). calciocatania.net. 24 June 2009. http://www.calciocatania.net/comunicati/comunicati.php?id=16594. Retrieved 24 June 2009. 

External links

• (Spanish) Argnetine Primera statistics
• ESPN statistics
• Statistics at Football-Lineups
• Mariano Andújar – FIFA competition record

Persondata
Name	Andujar, Mariano Gonzalo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	30 July 1983
Place of birth	Buenos Aires, Argentina
Date of death
Place of death