Álvaro Rafael González Luengo (; born 29 October 1984), nicknamed "Tata" is a former Uruguayan 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

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 ...

. A Uruguayan international on 72 occasions since 2006, he represented his nation for one

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

and three

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

tournaments.

Club career

Defensor

González started his career in 2003 with

Defensor Sporting Club Defensor Sporting Club is a sports club based in Montevideo, Uruguay. Founded in 1913, Defensor has several sports sections, with football and basketball being the most important and the ones in which the club has achieved significant achievement ...

in Uruguay. He represented the side until 2007, playing 122 games with 8 goals in all competitions.

Boca Juniors

In August 2007, he was transferred to the giant club

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 the

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 ...

team he played until 2009 scoring one goal against Vélez Sarsfield and winning the 2008 Apertura and the

2008 Recopa Sudamericana The 2008 Recopa Sudamericana (officially the 2008 Recopa Visa Sudamericana for sponsorship reasons) was the 16th Recopa Sudamericana, an annual football match between the winners of the previous season's Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana comp ...

Nacional

In 2009, he returned to

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

but now playing for

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

Lazio

In August 2010, he signed a three-year contract with Italian club

Lazio Lazio ( , ; ) or Latium ( , ; from Latium, the original Latin name, ) is one of the 20 Regions of Italy, administrative regions of Italy. Situated in the Central Italy, central peninsular section of the country, it has 5,714,882 inhabitants an ...

. He made his

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

debut on 22 September 2010 against

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

. Álvaro González scored his first Serie A goal vs

Brescia Brescia (, ; ; or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the region of Lombardy, in Italy. It is situated at the foot of the Alps, a few kilometers from the lakes Lake Garda, Garda and Lake Iseo, Iseo. With a population of 199,949, it is the se ...

and celebrated his goal by mimicking a phone call back to Uruguay by taking out his right boot. The 2012–13 season saw González as a protagonist in Lazio coach Petković's eyes, where he had been among the most consistent and played players. Petković played González in numerous roles in the 2012–13 season, from defensive midfielder to full back and right midfielder. Together with the national team, Álvaro González played over 50 games in the 2012–13 season proving his durability, consistency and also goal scoring where he managed to get on the scoresheet in Serie A,

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

and in the

Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

Loan to Torino

On 1 February 2015, Torino announced the signing of González on a six-month loan with a buyout clause.

Loan to Atlas

On 21 August 2015, Mexican side

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

announced the signing of González on a full year loan with a buyout clause.

International career

González has won 49 caps for the

Uruguay national football team The Uruguay national football team (), nicknamed ''La Celeste'' ("The Sky Blue") and ''Los Charrúas'' ("The Charrúa, Charrúas"), have represented Uruguay in international men's Association football, football since their first international m ...

. His debut for ''La Celeste'' came against

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

in May 2006. After playing for the team during 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying, he was omitted from the squad which went on the finish fourth in the tournament finals. In 2011, he won the

playing four matches, including the final against

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 ...

. He went on to represent his country at the

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup was the ninth FIFA Confederations Cup, which was held in Brazil from 15 to 30 June 2013 as a prelude to the 2014 FIFA World Cup. The most recent winners of the six continental championships appeared in the tourn ...

, and made 12 appearances during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign. On 2 June 2014, he was named in Uruguay's squad for the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

finals. He appeared as a second-half substitute in the team's opening match – a 3–1 defeat to

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 ...

Fortaleza Fortaleza ( ; ; ) is the state capital of Ceará, located in Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeastern Brazil. It is Brazil's 4th largest city—Fortaleza surpassed Salvador, Bahia, Salvador in 2022 census with a population of slightly over 2.4 mi ...

Career statistics

Club

''Statistics accurate as of match played 1 October 2019.''

International

:Source:

International goals

, - , 1, , 2 September 2011, ,

Metalist Oblast Sports Complex "Metalist" Oblast Sports Complex (), which includes the Metalist Stadium (), is a multi-use stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine. It is used chiefly for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Metalist 1925 Kharkiv. The stadium, which was a venu ...

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, , , , 1–1, , 2–3 (W), , Friendly , - , 2, , 14 August 2013, ,

Miyagi Stadium , the for sponsorship reasons, is an athletic and football stadium in the town of Rifu in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. The stadium's capacity is 49,133. The crescent-shaped roof extending past the edge of the stadium is meant to evoke images of ...

Rifu is a town located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the town had an estimated population of 36,014, and a population density of 800 persons per km2 in 13,568 households. The total area of the town is . Rifu is known for its nashi pears. Recently, ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, , , , 4–1, , 4–2 (W), , Friendly , - , 3, , 18 November 2014, ,

Estadio Monumental David Arellano The Estadio Monumental is a association football, football stadium in Macul, south-east of the centre of the Chilean capital Santiago. It serves as the home ground of Colo-Colo, and on occasions also for other clubs and the national football team ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, , , , 2–1, , 2–1 (W), , Friendly

Honours

Club

;Boca Juniors * Primera División: 2008 Apertura *

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

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 ...

;Lazio *

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 ...

International

;Uruguay *

2011 Copa América The 2011 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, better known as the 2011 Copa América or the Copa América 2011 Argentina, was the 43rd edition of the Copa América, the main international association football, football tournament for national ...

: Winner

References

External links

* at Fútbol XXI * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Alvaro Rafael 1984 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Men's association football wingers Defensor Sporting players Boca Juniors footballers Club Nacional de Football players SS Lazio players Torino FC players Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Argentine Primera División players Uruguayan Primera División players Serie A players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy 2011 Copa América players 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players Copa América–winning players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina