Chathura Gunaratne Wellala Hettige ( si, වෙල්ලාල හෙට්ටිගේ චතුර ගුණරත්න; 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 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is t ...

er from

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

. Chathura plays in

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

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

Sri Lanka national football team The Sri Lanka national football team ( si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාපන්දු කණ්ඩායම, ta, இலங்கை தேசிய கால்பந்து அணி) represents Sri Lanka in Association football an ...

Club career

Gunaratne began his career with Negombo Youth in the 2005–06 season. That season, the club won the Kit Premier League, 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 Ratnam SC is a Sri Lankan professional football club based in Colombo, that competes in the Sri Lanka Champions League, the top flight of Sri Lankan football. The club was founded in 1950. The team includes national player Kasun Jayasuriya, a ...

, the 2006–07 Kit Premier League 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 Kit Premier League in 2010–11, winning thirteen of their twenty-two games. The club also reached the final of the Sri Lanka FA Cup, 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 was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. "Vision Asia", created by former AFC president, ...

in April, where Sri Lanka defeated

Brunei Brunei ( , ), formally Brunei Darussalam ( ms, Negara Brunei Darussalam, Jawi alphabet, Jawi: , ), is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo in Southeast Asia. Apart from its South China Sea coast, it is completely sur ...

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 th ...

before drawing with

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

. In 2010 Gunaratne played in the February

matches against

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

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, with a population exceeding 165 million pe ...

, 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 (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

in a

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting rig ...

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 footballers Association football midfielders Sri Lanka international footballers Ratnam SC players Sri Lanka Football Premier League players