Gerónimo Rulli (; born 20 May 1992) is an Argentine footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Spanish club Villarreal and the Argentina national team.

Club career

Estudiantes

Born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. According to the , it has a population of 654,324 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 787,294 inhabitants. It is located 9 kilometers (6 miles) inland from th ...

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

, Rulli graduated from local Estudiantes' youth setup, being promoted to the first-team squad in 2012, being initially assigned as a backup to Justo Villar and

Agustín Silva Agustín Silva (born 28 June 1989) is an Argentine football goalkeeper currently playing for Macará Macará is a city in the Loja Province of Ecuador. It is the seat of the Macará Canton and is on the border between Ecuador and Peru. The pop ...

. On 8 April 2013, after profiting from Villar's departure to

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

and Silva's injury, he played his first match as a professional, starting in a 0–1 loss at Arsenal de Sarandí. Rulli appeared in further 11 matches during the campaign, and established a record of 588 minutes without suffering a goal. He appeared in all league matches in 2013–14, overtaking Silva in the pecking order.

Real Sociedad and loan to Montpellier

On 24 July 2014 Rulli was loaned to La Liga's

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

for one year from Deportivo Maldonado, which bought the player's rights a month earlier. He made his debut for the club on 28 August, starting and being replaced in the 85th minute of a 0–3 away loss against Krasnodar in the

2014–15 UEFA Europa League The 2014–15 UEFA Europa League was the 44th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the sixth season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. The 2015 UEFA Europa League Final was ...

due to an ankle injury. Rulli returned to action in November, and made his debut in the main category of Spanish football on 20 December 2014, starting in a 1–1 away draw against Levante. On 4 January of the following year, he made several key saves which granted the ''Txuri-urdin'' a 1–0 home win against Barcelona. On 4 July 2015, Rulli's loan was extended for a further year. On 19 July 2016, Rulli was signed by Premier League side

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

for £4 million. He was shortly afterwards loaned back to Real Sociedad, before moving permanently in January 2017. On 14 August 2019, Rulli joined

Ligue 1 Ligue 1, officially known as Ligue 1 Uber Eats for sponsorship reasons, is a French professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the French football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. A ...

club

Montpellier Montpellier (, , ; oc, Montpelhièr ) is a city in southern France near the Mediterranean Sea. One of the largest urban centres in the region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania, Montpellier is the prefecture of the Departments of ...

on a season-long loan with the option to make the transfer permanent.

Villarreal

On 4 September 2020, after his loan ended with Montpellier, Rulli agreed to a four-year deal with Villarreal. In his first season, manager Unai Emery preferred to play

Sergio Asenjo Sergio Asenjo Andrés (; born 28 June 1989) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays for Real Valladolid as a goalkeeper. He started his professional career with Valladolid in 2007, making 47 senior appearances in his first spell. He t ...

in goal in the league, and Rulli in the Europa League. He made his league debut for the club on 21 April in a 2–1 loss at Deportivo Alavés, having been chosen to prepare for the European semi-final against

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. On 26 May 2021, Rulli scored the winning penalty kick and then saved David de Gea's penalty in his side's 11–10 penalty shoot-out victory over

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

in the final of the

2020–21 UEFA Europa League The 2020–21 UEFA Europa League was the 50th season of Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 12th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Villarreal defeated Manchester United i ...

after the game finished 1–1 at extra-time to win the first European title for Villarreal. In the second leg of the

2021–22 UEFA Champions League The 2021–22 UEFA Champions League was the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion Clubs' Cup to the UEFA Champions League. Real Madrid ...

semi-finals, Villarreal was leading 2–0 against Liverpool in the first half to level the tie 2–2 on aggregate. In the second half, he made goalkeeping errors and conceded three goals, in which his team eventually lost 3–2 in the

Estadio de la Cerámica Estadio de la Cerámica, formerly and informally called El Madrigal (), is a football stadium in Villarreal, Spain, used since 1923. It is currently the home venue of Villarreal CF of La Liga, the highest football league in Spain. The stadium has ...

, and was knocked out of the competition.

International career

On 20 March 2015, Rulli was called up to the Argentina national team for the matches against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

and Ecuador, but he did not play in either fixture. In 2016, Rulli was included in the preliminary squad for Copa América Centenario but was eventually excluded. Rulli was chosen as the overage player for the Argentina under-23 squad at the 2016 Olympic tournament in Brazil. He played all three games in a group stage elimination, and filled in for the suspended

Víctor Cuesta Víctor Leandro Cuesta (born 19 November 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a central defender for Bahia. Club career Born in La Plata, Cuesta joined Arsenal Sarandí as a youth player, progressing to the senior team ...

as captain in the last of those, a 1–1 draw with

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

. After

Jorge Sampaoli Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya (; born 13 March 1960) is an Argentine football coach who is currently manager for Sevilla of La Liga. Sampaoli started out as a youth player and eventually switched to management after a severe injury. Sampaoli star ...

took charge in May 2017, Rulli was consistently called up to Argentina's senior squad, but did not play. Under manager

Lionel Scaloni Lionel Sebastián Scaloni (; born 16 May 1978) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who currently coaches the Argentina national team. A versatile player, he operated as a right-back or right midfielder. Born in Puj ...

, he made his first team debut against

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

on 8 September 2018, in a 3–0 friendly win in Los Angeles. On 1 June 2022, Rulli remained as an unused substitute as Argentina won 3–0 against reigning European Champions Italy at Wembley Stadium in the

2022 Finalissima The 2022 Finalissima ( es, Finalísima; ) will be the third edition of the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, a football match between the winners of the previous South American and European championships. The match will feature Italy, winners of U ...

. He was named in Argentina's final 26-man squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup is an international association football, football tournament contested by the men's national teams of FIFA's member associations. The 22nd FIFA World Cup is taking place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022 ...

in Qatar by Scaloni. He did not play a single minute in the tournament as Argentina won the World Cup by defeating France 4–2 in a penalty shoot-out to win the final.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Villarreal * UEFA Europa League:

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

Argentina * FIFA World Cup:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions The CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions, previously known officially as the European/South American Nations Cup and commonly as the Artemio Franchi Cup, is an official intercontinental football match organised by CONMEBOL and UEFA and contested by ...

Individual *

Ubaldo Fillol Award The Ubaldo Fillol Award (from the Spanish: ''Premio Ubaldo Fillol''), was a football award that went to the goalkeeper with the lowest goals-to-games ratio of each tournament of the Argentine Primera División. The award was created by Argentine ...

: 2014 Torneo Final * UEFA Europa League Squad of the Season:

References

External links

Real Sociedad official profileESPN Deportes profile
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rulli, Geronimo 1992 births Living people Footballers from La Plata Argentine footballers Association football goalkeepers Argentine Primera División players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers La Liga players Real Sociedad footballers Villarreal CF players Manchester City F.C. players Ligue 1 players Montpellier HSC players Argentine expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in France Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in France Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics 2022 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup-winning players Olympic footballers of Argentina Argentina international footballers UEFA Europa League winning players