Gustavo Antonio Varela Rodríguez (born 14 May 1978) 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 ...

. He was a versatile right sided player who also could "be played as a lone striker, behind the front two" or at the heart of midfield.

Career

Varela started his career in

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 ...

in Uruguay, and played between 2002 and 2008 for

FC Schalke 04 Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as Schalke 04 (), and abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional sports club from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is best known for its football team, ...

in Germany. After his contract with Schalke 04 expired in January 2009, Varela returned to

. Varela transferred to Argentina to play for recently promoted

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

in the

2010–11 Argentine Primera División season The 2010–11 Primera División season was the 120th season of top-flight professional football in Argentina. A total of 20 teams competed in two championships —the Apertura and Clausura— over the course of the season, which starte ...

International career

Varela made 24 appearances for 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 ...

, and was a participant at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

Honours

Schalke 04 *

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 ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

DFB-Ligapokal The DFL-Ligapokal (, officially Premiere Ligapokal , previously DFB-Ligapokal ) or the ''German League Cup'' was a German association football, football competition that took place before the start of the Bundesliga season, featuring the top five t ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

References

External links

* * * Living people 1978 births Men's association football midfielders Uruguayan men's footballers Club Nacional de Football players FC Schalke 04 players Quilmes Atlético Club footballers C.A. Cerro players Uruguay men's international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2004 Copa América players Uruguayan Primera División players Bundesliga players Argentine Primera División players Expatriate men's footballers in Germany Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Montevideo 20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina {{Uruguay-footy-midfielder-1970s-stub