Augusto Martín Batalla Barga (born 30 April 1996) is an Argentine 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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for Spanish club

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

. He is a former

Argentina U20 The Argentina national under-20 football team is the representative of Argentina in FIFA-sponsored tournaments that pertain to that age level. Argentina is the most successful nation in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, winning the competition a record si ...

's international.

Club career

Batalla is product of the River Plate academy, which he joined as a five-year old. In 2015, River Plate accepted a loan offer from

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

for Batalla with the option of a permanent move. However, Batalla turned down the move to Real Madrid for personal reasons. He made his first-team debut in 2016 and was promoted by Manager

Marcelo Gallardo Marcelo Daniel Gallardo (; born 18 January 1976) is an Argentine football manager and former professional player who is the current head coach of River Plate. During his playing career, Gallardo was an attacking midfielder and playmaker. He wa ...

as first-choice goalkeeper after Marcelo Barovero left the club. Batalla remained as the club's first choice goalkeeper, initially impressing, winning the

2015–16 Copa Argentina The 2015–16 Copa Argentina was the seventh edition of the Copa Argentina, and the fifth since the relaunch of the tournament in 2011. The competition began on January 29, 2016. Defending champions Boca Juniors were eliminated by Rosario Central ...

and the 2016 Recopa Sudamericana titles, before losing his place after errors and the signing of German Lux in June 2017. After falling further down the pecking order after the signing of

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 ...

goalkeeper

Franco Armani Franco Armani (; born 16 October 1986) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Goalkeeper (association football), goalkeeper for Argentine Primera División club Club Atlético River Plate, River Plate, which ...

in January 2018. On 5 January 2018, Batalla signed a one-year loan deal with fellow

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 ...

side

Atlético Tucumán Club Atlético Tucumán (mostly known as Atlético Tucumán) is an Argentine football club based in the city of San Miguel de Tucumán of Tucumán Province. Although several sports are practised at the club, Atlético is mostly known for its footba ...

. After impressing and helping the club progress in 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 ...

, On 25 June, Batalla announced on his social media he would be leaving Atlético Tucumán from his loan spell early. On 3 January 2024, Batalla joined Spanish

club

Granada Granada ( ; ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada (Spain), Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence ...

on loan for the remainder of the season, with the option to make the move permanent. On 23 August, after suffering relegation, he moved to fellow league team

also in a temporary deal. On 20 March 2025, Rayo bought Batalla permanently, with the player agreeing to a contract until 2030.

International career

He has represented Argentina at various youth levels, including winning

South American Under-17 Football Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 17, is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly cre ...

in 2013 for the Argentina U17 's where he won the Best goalkeeper of the

's and he also won the

South American Youth Football Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as South American U-20 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 20, is a South American football tournament organized by the CONMEBOL for South American national teams of men under age o ...

for the

in 2015.

Career statistics

Honours

Club ;River Plate *

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 ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

: 2015–16 ;Argentina U17 *

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

;Argentina U20 *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Individual *

Team of the Season:

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Batalla, Augusto 1996 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Province Argentine men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Atlético Tucumán footballers Club Atlético Tigre footballers Unión La Calera footballers O'Higgins F.C. footballers San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Granada CF footballers Rayo Vallecano players Argentine Primera División players Chilean Primera División players La Liga players Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 21st-century Argentine sportsmen