Chathura Gunaratne Wellala Hettige (; born 8 September 1982), better known as Chathura Gunaratne, is an

association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

er from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

. Chathura plays in

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

and has played for eleven clubs in Sri Lanka as well as the

Sri Lanka national football team The Sri Lanka national football team ( ''Shri Lanka Papandu Kandayama'', ''Ilaṅkai Tēciya Kālpantu Aṇi'') represents Sri Lanka in Association football and is administered by Football Federation of Sri Lanka, the governing body of footba ...

Club career

Gunaratne began his career with Negombo Youth in the 2005–06 season. That season, the club won the

Kit Premier League The S1 League (; ), or simply S1, also known as Sri Lanka Champions League, is the second tier division of the Sri Lankan football league system. It was succeeded by the professional Sri Lanka Super League which serves as the first division. Unt ...

, Sri Lanka's top division, topping "Segment A" before defeating Blue Star in the overall final. Gunaratne stayed with Negombo for the 2006–07 season, but they failed to emulate the success of the previous season, finishing in third place in the split league and losing to Blue Star in the overall semi-finals. However, Negombo won the 2007 Holcim FA Cup, defeating Saunders 3-0 in the final. Chathura scored Negombo's second goal. Despite winning two trophies in two seasons at Negombo Youth, Gunaratne moved on to Ratnam Sports Club, the 2006–07

champions. His decision proved to be successful, as Ratnam won the league again in 2007–08, defeating Saunders 2-1 in the final. However, the midfielder returned to Negombo Youth ahead of the 2008–09 season. Negombo finished as runners-up of "Segment A" in the league but were eliminated in the semi-finals by Gunaratne's former club Ratnam SC. Gunaratne left Negombo at the end of the 2008–09 season to join another Negomobo-based club in Don Bosco SC, who had just finished second in "Segment B". Don Bosco topped "Segment B" in the 2009-10 Kit Premier League, but lost out in the semi-finals where they were defeated by Air Force. Chathura opened the scoring with a goal in first-half injury time, but two late goals from Air Force saw Don Bosco eliminated. Don Bosco SC won the first united

in 2010–11, winning thirteen of their twenty-two games. The club also reached the final of the

Sri Lanka FA Cup The Sri Lanka FA Cup is an annual knockout cup competition in Sri Lankan football. It is the oldest association football competition in Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka FA Cup is organised by the Football Federation of Sri Lanka. Previous winners Cey ...

, but were beaten 2-0 by Sri Lanka Army SC.

International career

Gunaratne first played for

in 2006, coming on as a substitute four times. He played two games in 2007, starting both, before making eight appearances in 2008. In 2009 Gunaratne played ten games for Sri Lanka, scoring two goals, including three appearances in the

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that were categorised as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. It was created by former AFC president Mohammed ...

in April, where Sri Lanka defeated

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

and

Chinese Taipei "Chinese Taipei" is the term used in various international organizations and tournaments for groups or delegations representing the Republic of China (ROC), a country commonly known as Taiwan. Due to the One China principle stipulated by the ...

before drawing with

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. In 2010 Gunaratne played in the February

matches against

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

and

Bangladesh Bangladesh, officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, eighth-most populous country in the world and among the List of countries and dependencies by ...

, scoring Sri Lanka's second goal against Bangladesh in a 3-0 win. In 2011, Gunaratne featured in Sri Lanka's 1-1 draw with the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

in a

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 ...

qualifier on 29 June, scoring his country's goal and the match's first goal on 43 minutes.Sri Lanka vs. Philippines - 29 June 2011 - Soccerway
/ref> He then played in the away qualifier against the Philippines on 3 July 2011 which Sri Lanka lost 4-0. He gave away the penalty that led to the Philippines' final goal.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gunaratne, Chathura Living people 1982 births Sri Lankan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Sri Lanka men's international footballers Ratnam SC players Sri Lanka Football Premier League players Sportspeople from Matara, Sri Lanka