Daniel Fonseca Garis (born 13 September 1969) is a Uruguayan former

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 ...

and a current football agent. A former forward, throughout his playing career, he played for Uruguayan side Nacional, as well as

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

clubs

Cagliari Cagliari (, , ; ; ; Latin: ''Caralis'') is an Comune, Italian municipality and the capital and largest city of the island of Sardinia, an Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region of Italy. It has about 146,62 ...

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

, Roma,

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

, and

Como Como (, ; , or ; ) is a city and (municipality) in Lombardy, Italy. It is the administrative capital of the Province of Como. Nestled at the southwestern branch of the picturesque Lake Como, the city is a renowned tourist destination, ce ...

, and Argentine side River Plate, winning titles with both Nacional and Juventus. At international level, he represented

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 ...

on 30 occasions between 1990 and 1997, scoring 11 goals, and also took part at the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

and the

1995 Copa América The 1995 Copa América football tournament was staged in Uruguay. The host country, Uruguay, won it for a record-tying 14th time by beating Brazil 5–3 in the penalty shootout after a 1–1 draw in the final. All 10 CONMEBOL members took part, w ...

, winning the latter tournament.

Club career

Fonseca, nicknamed ''el castor'' ("the beaver"), started his football career at Nacional, his local team in

, in 1988. He played 14 games in two years and scored 3 goals. In 1990, he moved to

, scoring 17 goals in 50 appearances, playing mostly on the left rather than in his more habitual central position. In 1992

signed him and Fonseca managed a more impressive strike rate, scoring 31 goals in two seasons in Naples, including 5 goals in a 5–1 win against

Valencia Valencia ( , ), formally València (), is the capital of the Province of Valencia, province and Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, the same name in Spain. It is located on the banks of the Turia (r ...

in the first knock-out round of the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

on 16 September 1992. His form and performances drew attention from Roma, who promptly signed him in 1994. During his time with Napoli, he would occasionally put on the socks of the Uruguay national team, which is a shade lighter in colour than Napoli's socks, saying that they would bring him good luck. However, his three seasons (from 1994 to 1997) were far from successful. Fonseca usually played as a second striker, supporting 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 ...

centre forward Abel Balbo, but, because of the many injuries he suffered, he played discontinuously.

signed Fonseca in 1997, but he was once again played out of position on the left wing, as he had been at Cagliari and Roma. His goalscoring record in

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 ...

was very good considering he was not always a first choice player with Roma and Juventus. Fonseca was always regarded as a "super sub", and scored several important goals coming off the bench. During his time with the Turin club, he won one

title, a Champions League runner-up medal and the

Supercoppa Italiana The Supercoppa Italiana, also known as the Italian Super Cup, is an annual super cup tournament in Italian football. Founded in 1988 as a two-team competition, it has featured four teams since 2023 (the winners and runners-up of the previous ...

. Injuries ruled him completely out of the 1999–2000 season, (aside from an

match against

Levski Sofia PFC Levski Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia, which competes in the First League, the top division of the Bulgarian football league system. The club was founded on 24 May 1914 by a group of high sc ...

on 4 November 1999, which ended in a 1–1 home draw, and 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 ...

match against Napoli on 16 December 1999, which ended in a 1–0 home win), which saw him transferred to River Plate in Argentina. There, he infamously played only during the club's 2000 pre-season. His only match was a pre-season encounter against archrivals

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 ...

, and Fonseca helped his club to earn a win by scoring the final penalty in the shootout. A few days later, Fonseca would resign from his contract and join

in 2001. He retired in 2003 after the coach told him that he was no longer a part of the first team's plans.

International career

Fonseca represented 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 ...

on 30 occasions between 1990 and 1997, scoring 11 goals. He was a member of the team that took part at the

, scoring in injury time in the final group game against South Korea, and was also in the squad that won the

Style of play

Fonseca was a quick, opportunistic, and hard-working striker, with good

dribbling In sports, dribbling is maneuvering a ball by one player while moving in a given direction, avoiding defenders' attempts to intercept the ball. A successful dribble will bring the ball past defenders legally and create opportunities to score. As ...

skills, vision, and a powerful shot from distance. This made him capable of both scoring goals and creating chances for teammates. A versatile and well-rounded attacker, Fonseca was also effective in the air, and was capable of playing in several offensive positions. His pace, technique, defensive work-rate, and passing ability meant he could play on the left wing, as well as in a central role, or even in a more creative role as a second striker alongside or behind another striker. He was also an accurate

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

and set-piece taker. Despite his ability, however, he was also injury prone.

After football

Fonseca currently works as a football agent, and has represented several of his compatriots, including Martín Cáceres, Fernando Muslera, and

Luis Suárez Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, Inter Miami. Known for his go ...

Personal life

Daniel is the father of footballers Nicolás Fonseca and Matías Fonseca.

Controversies

In April 2016, he was named in the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers () are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) published beginning April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 offshore entities. These document ...

Career statistics

International

:''Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Fonseca goal.''

Honours

;Nacional *

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 ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana () was an international association football, football competition endorsed by CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACAF ...

Primera División Uruguaya Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air Primera Air Scandinavia Aktieselskab, A/S, was a Denmark, Danish airline owned by Primera Travel Group. It provided scheduled and charter passenger services from Northern Europe to mo ...

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 ...

;Juventus *

: 1997–98 *

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 ...

Runner-up:

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 ...

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

Runner-up: 1997–98 *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

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 ...

;International ;Uruguay *

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 ...

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 ...

References

External links

* *
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fonseca, Daniel Uruguayan men's footballers Italian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Club Nacional de Football players Uruguayan Primera División players Cagliari Calcio players SSC Napoli players AS Roma players Juventus FC players Club Atlético River Plate footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Como 1907 players Serie A players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1995 Copa América players 1969 births Living people Copa América–winning players People named in the Panama Papers Footballers from Montevideo 20th-century Italian sportsmen 20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina