Carlos Alberto Gamarra Pavón () (born 17 February 1971) is a Paraguayan former 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 centre back. He captained the Paraguay national team at international level and was for a long time the most capped player in Paraguayan football history, having made 110 international appearances and scoring 12 goals. Throughout his career, Gamarra was known for his leadership, physical strength, ability in the air, heading accuracy, and outstanding tackling skills, which made him one of the most respected defenders in South America. Gamarra appeared for the Paraguay national team 110 times, scoring 12 goals, from 1993 to 2006, representing the team at 10 major tournaments and captained the squad during the latter part of his career. He is the second most capped player of the national team, his record being broken by Paulo da Silva in 2013. Gamarra appeared for Paraguay at three

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

tournaments (

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

), five

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 (

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

and

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

), and twice at the Summer Olympic Games (

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

and

, with Paraguay claiming Silver Medals in the latter). Gamarra was named as the Paraguayan Footballer of the Year in 1997 and 1998, and was also included in the 1998 FIFA World Cup Team of the Tournament.

Club career

Born in Ypacarai, Gamarra began his club career playing for

Cerro Porteño Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan Association football, football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero (Asunción), Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Paraguayan Primera División, Primera División titles ...

in his home country in 1991, and went on to win the Paraguayan national championship with Cerro in 1992. He moved to Independiente for the 1992–93 football season in Argentina, but stayed only briefly before moving back to Cerro Porteño. In 1995, Gamarra joined Internacional in Brazil, where his profile grew, eventually resulting in the naming of him as Paraguayan Footballer of the Year in 1997 by the Paraguayan newspaper '' Diario ABC Color'' (an achievement which Gamarra repeated in 1998). He moved to S.L. Benfica for the Portuguese 1997–1998 season, before returning to Brazil, this time with SC Corinthians, where he won Serie A Brazilian Championship in 1998. After finishing the 1999 Brazilian football season with Corinthians, he moved to the Spanish league, after the Brazilian club agreed with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

for 9 million

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in June 1999. Atlético were surprisingly relegated in 2000, and Gamarra briefly moved back to Brazil, this time joining

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; ), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian multi sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea. It was founded and named after the Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Flamengo n ...

. In the 2001–02 season Gamarra returned to Europe and played on loan for AEK Athens in Greece. There he played in 24 league games and won the

Greek Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

. On the back of his World Cup performance in 2002, he joined Internazionale in Italy's

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 ...

for the 2002–03 season. In his first pre-season, he scored the winning goal in the Pirelli Cup final against Roma. Inter finished the season as runners-up in the league, with Gamarra making 14 appearances. His next season at the club was less successful, as Inter finished fourth in the league, and Gamarra made only 10 appearances. He remained at Inter for the 2004–2005 season, but after another season largely spent on the bench he joined the Brazilian side Palmeiras in July 2005. In 2007, Gamarra decided to return to Paraguay to end his football career and signed for Olimpia. Gamarra decided to retire after the 2007 season.

International career

Gamarra's first international cap came against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

on 27 March 1993, a 2–1 loss for Paraguay. Gamarra made his first big impact in international football during Paraguay's campaign at

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

, in the second round of which Paraguay were knocked out by

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(the eventual winners). Gamarra played in all four of Paraguay's games, garnering great respect for his defensive skills, and did not concede a single foul in any of his side's matches.

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

named him as part of the All-Star team of the

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. At the

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in South Korea and Japan, Paraguay were once again knocked out in the second round. Gamarra played every single minute of Paraguay's campaign, and again completed his side's participation without conceding a foul. Gamarra captained the Paraguay side to a

silver medal A silver medal, in sports and other similar areas involving competition, is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, ...

in the

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, losing 1–0 to

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 the final. On 4 August, before the Summer Olympics began, he played in a preparation game against the

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

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in the city of

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, resulting in a 5–0 defeat. In the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Gamarra was the first player in the tournament to score an

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, from an incoming free kick from

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in his team's opening match against

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, which eventually led to England's 1–0 win. (Scored after just three minutes, this became the fastest World Cup finals own goal in history, until 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 ...

where Sead Kolašinac scored just after two minutes playing for Bosnia and Herzegovina against Argentina in the group stages.) During the

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, Gamarra announced his retirement from the Paraguay national team.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Paraguay U23's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gamarra goal.''

Honours

Cerro Porteño * Paraguayan League: 1992, 1994 * Torneo República: 1991 Internacional *

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho (English: Gaúcho Championship), officially named as Campeonato Gaúcho de Futebol Série A and commonly known as the Gauchão or the Gauchão Ipiranga (company), Ipiranga for sponsorship reasons, is the top-flight profess ...

: 1997 Corinthians * Campeonato Brasileiro: 1998 *

Campeonato Paulista The Campeonato Paulista Série A1, commonly known as Campeonato Paulista, nicknamed Paulistão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Run by the São Paulo State Football Federation (FPF), ...

: 1999 Flamengo *

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro State Championship), also commonly known as the Cariocão, is the top-flight professional state football league in the Br ...

: 2001 *

Copa dos Campeões Copa dos Campeões (Portuguese for Brazilian Champions Cup) was a Brazilian football competition, organized by the Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF), contested by the best teams from each one of the regional cups. The Copa dos Campeões wi ...

: 2001 AEK Athens *

Greek football Cup The Greek Football Cup (), commonly known as the Greek Cup or Betsson Greek Cup for sponsorship reasons is a Greek football competition, run by the Hellenic Football Federation. The Greek Cup is the second-most important domestic men's footba ...

: 2002 Internazionale *

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 ...

: 2005 Paraguay * Silver medal, Olympic Games: 2004 Individual *

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South America Ideal Team of the Year: 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000, 2005 * Paraguayan Footballer of the Year: 1997, 1998 *

: All-star team 1998 * 1998 Best Defender

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

* Campeonato Brasileiro Série A Team of the Year:

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* Bola de Prata: 1995, 1996, 1998, 2005

References

External links

International statistics
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gamarra, Carlos 1971 births Living people Footballers from Central Department Paraguayan men's footballers Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Footballers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Paraguay Olympic silver medalists for Paraguay Club Atlético Independiente footballers Argentine Primera División players Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Inter Milan players Serie A players Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players CR Flamengo footballers SC Internacional players SE Palmeiras players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Atlético Madrid footballers La Liga players S.L. Benfica footballers Primeira Liga players AEK Athens F.C. players Super League Greece players Club Olimpia footballers Cerro Porteño players Paraguayan Primera División players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1993 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2004 Copa América players 2006 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football central defenders Paraguay men's international footballers Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Greece Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain FIFA Men's Century Club Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics 21st-century Paraguayan sportsmen