Marcelo Ramón Elizaga Ferrero (born April 19, 1972) is an

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 ...

-born, naturalized

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian former

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He played for Deportivo Quito in the Ecuador Serie A and the Ecuador national team.

Club career

Elizaga started his career in 1992 for Nueva Chicago in the Argentine 2nd division. In 1998, he transferred to

Club Atlético Lanús Club Atlético Lanús () is an Argentina, Argentine sports club based in Lanús, a city of the Buenos Aires Province. Founded in 1915, the club's main sports are association football, football and basketball. In both sports, Lanús plays in Arge ...

in the Primera Division Argentina. In 2000, he joined Quilmes Atlético Club in the 2nd division and helped them gain promotion to the Primera. Since transferring to Emelec he has received awards including Goalkeeper of the Year in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009 from the Ecuadorian Championship. Elizaga became a citizen of

after declaring his intention of playing in the international stage. He has also stated that he has a love for his new country.

Emelec

He arrived to

in 2004 as one of four foreign players signed by Emelec for that season. He immediately started showing great goalkeeping skills and despite or because Emelec's poor season he quickly became a fan favourite thanks to his performances for the club, and he won his first award of many for best goalkeeper of the year in Ecuador. He was ratified in the club for the next season and once again he became Emelec's best player helping the club avoid relegation for the second season in a row, and winning his second best goalkeeper of the year award in a row. Six years later he remains in the club despite many opportunities to leave and he is its captain and fan favourite. He has openly declared his intentions of retiring playing for Emelec, but not before winning a title with the club, he was very close in 2006 when Emelec finished second behind El Nacional and in 2009 when they finished third in the Ecuadorian tournament. In 2010, Elizaga helped Emelec to qualify to that year's final matches against LDU Quito, but controversially was sent to the bench in this two matches by the team's manager Jorge Luis Sampaoli. Emelec could not score more than two goals in the final match, so Liga won the championship (Emelec lost the away match 2–0, so had to win at least 2–0 to secure penalty definition, but only scored one goal). On 30 December 2010, Elizaga left Emelec and signed with Deportivo Quito for one season, a transfer that was met with lot of surprise specially by Emelec's fans.http://www.eluniverso.com/2010/12/30/1/1372/klimovicz-queda-emelec-elizaga-ira-d-quito.html> In December 2011, Elizaga won the national championship with his new club Deportivo Quito, winning the title against his past team Emelec, playing the two finals and keeping a clean sheet.

International career

He made his international debut in May 2007 with

against

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. They later tied 1–1. Selected for the

2007 Copa América The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The c ...

, he demonstrated superb goalkeeping skill during Ecuador's final match against giants

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

keeping the score level until

Robinho Robson de Souza (; born 25 January 1984), known as Robinho (), is a Brazilian former professional association football, footballer and convicted rapist who played as a Forward (association football), forward. In 1997, at 12 years of age, Robin ...

's penalty. They were eliminated 1–0. Elizaga later got called up for the 3rd and 4th rounds of the FIFA World Cup Qualification in the CONMEBOL region against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. Elizaga kept the Peruvians off the scoreboard until he was substituted off. He did not receive a call up for a while but is being put back on the line-up and has demonstrated good showings including Ecuador's victory over Colombia at

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and primarily hosted sporting events and ...

, where he stopped a penalty kick as well as the rebound. He continually receives call-ups for the national team, often as a back-up for José Francisco Cevallos. In June 2009, he started in World Cup qualifiers against

and

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

in place of the injured Cevallos. During those matches, he helped the squad earn crucial points for qualification, including a clean-sheet against Argentina in which he saved a penalty kick against

Carlos Tevez Carlos Alberto Tevez (; né Martínez; born 5 February 1984) is an Argentine professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player. A dynamic forward (association football), forward in his prime, Tevez ...

during the first half of the match. He also performed strongly during a decisive match against

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 ...

, but conceded a penalty kick (converted by Diego Forlan) after bringing down an Uruguyan striker in the last minutes of the game, resulting in a 1–2 loss. In 2011, he was called up once again to guard Ecuador's goal posts, this time during the

Copa America Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was a United States law, law in the United States, United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of ...

played in Argentina.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Elizaga Ferrero, Marcelo Ramon 1972 births Living people Argentine emigrants to Ecuador Footballers from Morón Partido Ecuadorian men's footballers Ecuador men's international footballers Argentine Primera División players Ecuadorian Serie A players Club Atlético Nueva Chicago footballers Club Atlético Lanús footballers Quilmes Atlético Club footballers C.S. Emelec footballers S.D. Quito footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Ecuador Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador 2007 Copa América players 2011 Copa América players Men's association football goalkeepers Argentine men's footballers