Fernando Gabriel Cáceres (born 7 February 1969) is an Argentine retired 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 ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. He played for several clubs in the Primera División and

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

during his professional career, spending 11 years in the latter competition and appearing in 340 games. Cáceres represented

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

at the

1994 World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

and two

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

tournaments.

Club career

Born in

San Isidro, Buenos Aires San Isidro is a city in Greater Buenos Aires. It is located 27.9 km from the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires (CABA). It ranks as the province's most affluent neighborhood. History In 2007, San Isidro celebrated its 300 years of existence wit ...

, Cáceres began playing professional football at

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of th ...

. In 1991 he was transferred to

Club Atlético River Plate Club Atlético River Plate, commonly known as River Plate, is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Núñez neighborhood of Buenos Aires. Founded in 1901, the club is named after the English name for the city's estuary, Río de l ...

where he won his first title, the 1991 ''Apertura''. Cáceres then moved to Spain to play for

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at La ...

, where he won the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

and the

UEFA Cup Winners' Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tourn ...

the following year. An undisputed starter from the beginnings, he played 124 official games in three seasons. Cáceres returned to Argentina for a brief spell at

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, before moving back to Spain in late 1996 and sign for

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the S ...

, where he stayed until the end of the 1997–98 campaign. He joined

RC Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues) ...

aged almost 29, helping to the

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and

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine European cuisine co ...

consolidation. In six seasons with the club he played 218 matches in all competitions, scoring five goalsFernando Gabriel Cáceres – Defensor (Fernando Gabriel Cáceres – Defender)
; at Independiente 1905 most notably contributing 33 appearances in 2002–03 as his team qualified for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

for the first time ever. In January 2005, after a four-month spell with

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), (from the 2020–21 season onwards competing under the umbrella of Unión Futbolística Cordobesa, S.A.D.) is a Spanish football club based in Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1951 as ...

in the Segunda División, Cáceres returned to his country once again after signing with

Club Atlético Independiente Club Atlético Independiente () is an Argentine professional sports club, which has its headquarters and stadium in the city of Avellaneda in Greater Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera Divisi� ...

, joining a select group of players who played for River Plate, Boca Juniors and Independiente. In 2006 he rejoined Argentinos Juniors, the club where he began his career 20 years earlier, seeing out his career at 38.

International career

Cáceres won the

South American Under-17 Football Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) 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 created FIFA U-16 World Cup (no ...

in 1985. At full international level, he earned 24

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for the Argentina national team, and was also part of the squad that won the

1993 Copa América The 1993 Copa América was the 36th Copa América, CONMEBOL's association football, football tournament for national teams. It was held in Ecuador between 15 June and 4 July. All 10 CONMEBOL members took part, but for the first time two nations f ...

and the one that took part in the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national association football, soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the countr ...

Personal life

On 1 November 2009, Cáceres was shot in the head in an attempted robbery while driving his car in a Buenos Aires suburb. He was kept in a drug induced coma for eight weeks. Cáceres got out of the coma on 29 December, moving to a hospital in Ciudadela, where he began to slowly recover.

Honours

River Plate *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). T ...

: Apertura 1991 Zaragoza *

: 1993–94 *

: 1994–95 Celta *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from la, Inter, 'between' + german: toto, ' betting pool'),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. often abbreviated and more known in the German-speaking world as UI Cup and originally called the International F ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Argentina *

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peace ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Caceres, Fernando 1969 births Living people People from San Isidro, Buenos Aires Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Sportspeople from Buenos Aires Province Argentine footballers Association football defenders Argentine Primera División players Argentinos Juniors footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Boca Juniors footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Real Zaragoza players Valencia CF players RC Celta de Vigo players Córdoba CF players Argentina youth international footballers Argentina international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1993 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players Copa América-winning players Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Shooting survivors