Marcelo Adrián Carrusca (; born 1 September 1983), is an Argentine-Australian former 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 lea ...

who played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

, and is the current Head of Junior Development for

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

. Born in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

, Carrusca started his professional career at

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

before moving to Turkish side

Galatasaray Galatasaray Spor Kulübü (, ''Galatasaray Sports Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Galatasaray and familiarly as Cimbom, is a Turkish sports club based on the European side of the city of Istanbul including basketball, wheelchair ...

in 2006. After spending a season on loan for Mexican club

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

, Carrusca returned to Estudiantes in 2009, playing one further season at the club and one on loan at Banfield. After one season with

San Martín de San Juan Club Atlético San Martín, mostly known as San Martín de San Juan, is an Argentine football club from the city of San Juan. The team currently plays in the Argentine Liga Profesional de Futbol, the first division of the Argentine football league ...

, Carrusca moved to

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

club

in 2012, where he played for five seasons. Carrusca has represented Argentina under-20, including in the victorious

2003 South American U-20 Championship The 2003 South American Youth Championship (Sudamericana sub-20) is a football competition contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in Uruguay between 4 and 28 January 2003, it was the 21st time the com ...

team and the

2003 FIFA World Youth Championship The 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship was the 14th FIFA World Youth Championship. It took place in United Arab Emirates between 27 November and 19 December 2003. Brazil claimed their fourth title, becoming the first country to simultaneously ho ...

. He obtained Australian citizenship in 2017.

Club career

Carrusca is a product of

's youth divisions. He made his first appearance for the club in 2001, and played 103 league games (12 goals) for the team until 2006. On 27 July 2006 he signed for Turkish club

, opting for a five-year contract worth around €1.8 million. He played one year for the club, but on 25 July 2007 Galatasaray manager Karl Heinz Feldkamp reported officially that he did not wish to keep Carrusca on the team and asked the board to sell him in order to open space for a new foreign transfer. After lack of first team appearances in Galatasaray, he was loaned for one year to

Mexican Primera División Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...

team

for 2008–09 football season. He then re-joined Estudiantes to play with the team during the 2009-10 Argentine Primera División season and the

2009 FIFA Club World Cup The 2009 FIFA Club World Cup (officially known as the FIFA Club World Cup UAE 2009 presented by Toyota for sponsorship reasons) was a football tournament played from 9 to 19 December 2009. It was the sixth FIFA Club World Cup and was played in Ab ...

. On 8 July 2010, Carrusca joined Banfield on loan from Estudiantes to replace recently transferred left winger

James Rodríguez James David Rodríguez Rubio (born 12 July 1991) is a Colombian professional Association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or Winger (association football), winger for Liga MX club Club León, León and Captain (associ ...

Adelaide United

On 3 August 2012, it was announced Carrusca had agreed to sign with

club

on an undisclosed two-year contract. Carrusca scored a goal and assisted a further two in a

man of the match In team sport, a player of the match award (also known as man of the match or woman of the match) is often given to the most outstanding player in a particular match. This can be a player from either team, although the player is generally chose ...

performance during Adelaide United's 4–2 home win over

Melbourne Victory Melbourne Victory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Melbourne, Victoria. Competing in the country's premier men's competition, the A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL), Victory ...

on 7 December 2012, in Round 10 of the A-League. On 23 May 2017, Carrusca became an

Australian citizen The primary law governing nationality of Australia is the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, which came into force on 1 July 2007 and is applicable in all states and territories of Australia. All persons born in Australia before 20 August 198 ...

, and can be included as a non-visa player in the A-League. In July 2017 it was confirmed that Carrusca would not re-sign with Adelaide under new coach

Marco Kurz Marco Kurz (born 16 May 1969) is a German Association football, football manager and former player who played as a Defender (association football), defender. He last managed Australian side Melbourne Victory FC, Melbourne Victory. Playing career ...

Melbourne City

On 12 September 2017, A-League club Melbourne City announced it had signed Carrusca on a one-year deal.

Western Sydney Wanderers

On 11 January 2018, Carrusca and Melbourne City mutually terminated his contract, and he signed for

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

until the end of the

2017–18 A-League The 2017–18 A-League was the 41st season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 13th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season began on 6 October 2017 and ended with the Grand Final on 5 May 2018. Sydney FC won the A-Le ...

season.

Retirement

In May 2019, Carrusca announced his retirement from playing to focus on coaching. He now runs his own academy in Adelaide for children and young players.

International career

Carrusca played as an U-20 Argentina international. He scored 2 goals in 16 appearances and was a member of the Argentina Under-20 team at the

Honours

Galatasaray *

Turkish League Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

: 2007–08 Adelaide United * A-League Championship: 2015–16 * A-League Premiership: 2015–16 *

FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Argentina * CONMEBOL U-20 Championship:

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 ...

Individual * A-League PFA Team of the Season:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

, 2013–14, 2014–15 * A-League All Star:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Notes

References

External links

* at Fútbol XXI
Statistics
at

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carrusca, Marcelo 1983 births Living people Footballers from La Plata Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Galatasaray S.K. footballers Cruz Azul footballers Club Atlético Banfield footballers San Martín de San Juan footballers Argentine Primera División players Liga MX players Süper Lig players Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Adelaide United FC players Melbourne City FC players Western Sydney Wanderers FC players A-League Men players A-League Men All-Stars National Premier Leagues players Argentine emigrants to Australia Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football midfielders Naturalised soccer players of Australia Marquee players (A-League Men) West Adelaide SC players 21st-century Argentine sportsmen