Marcos Agustín Gelabert (born 16 September 1981, in

General Pico General Pico is a city located in the northeast of La Pampa Province, Argentina. It is located at above sea level and inside the region of the ''Pampa Húmeda Llana'' (Flat-Humid Pampas). It has a surface area of . The city was founded on Novem ...

La Pampa La Pampa () is a sparsely populated province of Argentina, located in the Pampas in the center of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise San Luis, Córdoba, Buenos Aires, Río Negro, Neuquén and Mendoza. History In ...

) is an Argentine

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 plays for Gimnasia Mendoza. His position is defensive

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

Career

Gelabert started his 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 ...

in the

Primera División Argentina Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

in 2001. He went on to play over 100 games for the club before he moved to

Swiss Super League The Super League (also known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a professional association football league in Switzerland and the highest level of the Swiss football league system. It has been played in its current fo ...

side

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in continental Europe after Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. The tea ...

in 2006. He became, arguably, the club's best player but after their relegation into the

Swiss Challenge League The Challenge League (known as the Dieci Challenge League for sponsorship reasons) is the second-highest tier of the Swiss football league system and lower of two professional leagues in the country. Ten teams play in the Challenge League; the wi ...

at the end of the 2007–08 season he moved on. On 16 June 2008 Gelabert signed for

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss professional Association football, football club based in Basel, in the Basel-Stadt, Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been List of Swiss footba ...

penning a three-year contract. He joined Basel's first team for their 2008–09 season under head coach

Christian Gross Christian Jürgen Gross (born 14 August 1954) is a Swiss football manager and former player. He played as a sweeper and central midfielder. Gross was manager of Basel from 1999 to 2009, winning four Swiss Super Leagues and four Swiss Cups. As ...

. To the beginning of the season Gelabert was member of the Basel team that won the

Uhrencup The Uhrencup is a association football, club football tournament, held annually in Grenchen and Biel/Bienne, Biel in Switzerland. The Uhrencup is seen as a testament to the major influence that is exercised by the local watchmaking industry on the ...

. They beat

Legia Warsaw Legia Warszawa (), commonly referred to as Legia Warsaw or simply Legia, is a professional football club based in Warsaw, Poland. Legia is the most successful Polish football club in history, winning a record 15 champions titles, a record 2 ...

6–1 and played a 2–2 draw with

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

to end the table on top slot above Dortmund and

Luzern Lucerne ( ) or Luzern ()Other languages: ; ; ; . is a city in central Switzerland, in the Languages of Switzerland, German-speaking portion of the country. Lucerne is the capital of the canton of Lucerne and part of the Lucerne (district), di ...

. After playing in seven test games Gelabert played his domestic league debut for his new club in the away game at the

Stade de Suisse, Wankdorf Wankdorf Stadium () is a football stadium in Bern, Switzerland. The second largest all-seater football stadium in Switzerland, it is the home ground of BSC Young Boys. It was also one of the venues for UEFA Euro 2008. History The present-da ...

on 18 July as Basel won 2–1 against Young Boys. Basel joined the

2008–09 UEFA Champions League The 2008–09 UEFA Champions League was the 54th edition of Europe's premier club football tournament and the 17th edition under the current UEFA Champions League format. The final was played at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome, Italy, on 27 May 2009. ...

in the second qualifying round and with an aggregate score of 5–3 they eliminated

IFK Göteborg Idrottsföreningen Kamraterna Göteborg (officially IFK Göteborg Fotboll), commonly known as IFK Göteborg, IFK (especially locally) or Blåvitt, is a Swedish professional Football team, football club based in Gothenburg. Founded in 1904, it ...

. Gelabert played his first European game in a Basel shirt on 13 August in the Champions League Qualifying match draw against

Vitória de Guimarães Vitoria or Vitória may refer to: People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Sofia Vitória (bor ...

Estádio D. Afonso Henriques The Estádio D. Afonso Henriques (') is a association football, football stadium in the city of Guimarães, Portugal. The stadium is home of Guimarães's most successful team, Vitória Guimarães, Vitória de Guimarães, presently competing in th ...

. The first leg ended goalless, but with a 2–1 win in the second leg they eliminated Vitória and advanced to the group stage. Here Basel were matched with

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

and

Shakhtar Donetsk Football Club Shakhtar Donetsk () is a Ukrainian professional Association football, football club that was based in the city of Donetsk until 2014 when, due to the War in Donbas (2014–2022), War in Donbas, the club was forced to move to Lvi ...

, but ended the group in last position, winning just one point after a 1–1 draw in

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

. Gelabert had five European appearances, including the game in Barcelona. Gelabert scored his first goal for his new club on 30 August in the away game at

Stadion Brügglifeld Stadion Brügglifeld is a multi-purpose stadium in Aarau, Switzerland. It is primarily used for football matches and is the home stadium of FC Aarau. The current capacity is 9,249 seats, which include 1499 covered seats. 1,187 covered seats ar ...

as Basel won 2–0 against

FC Aarau FC Aarau is a Swiss professional football club based in Aarau. Founded in 1902, the club competes in the Swiss Challenge League, the second tier of Swiss football after being relegated from the Swiss Super League. History FC Aarau was form ...

. At the end of the 2008–09 Super League season Basel were third in the table, seven points behind new champions

Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...

and one adrift of runners-up Young Boys. In the following season Basel joined the

2009–10 UEFA Europa League The 2009–10 UEFA Europa League was the first season of the UEFA Europa League, Europe's secondary club football tournament organised by UEFA. The competition was previously known as the UEFA Cup, which had been in existence for 38 years. Spai ...

in the second qualifying round. Gelabert scored his first European goal in the second leg of the tie which Basel won 4–1 against Santa Coloma. Basel advanced to the group stage, in which despite winning three of the six games they ended in third position and were eliminated. They finished four points behind group winners

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

and one behind

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

, against whom they lost 3–2 in the last game of the stage. At the end of the 2009–10 season he won the

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

with his club. They won the

League League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

Championship title with 3 points advantage over second placed Young Boys. The team won the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup competition that has been organised annually since 1925–26 season by the Swiss Football Association. The Swiss Cup final is usually the most important game of the year with a high attendance. The co ...

, winning the final 6–0 against Lausanne-Sport. On 14 June 2010 Gelabert left the club and transferred to

Neuchâtel Xamax Neuchâtel (, ; ; ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel. Since the fusion in 2021 of the municipalities of Neuchâtel, Corcelles-Cormondrèche, Peseux, and Valangin, the city has ap ...

. During his two seasons with the team, he played a total of 105 games for Basel scoring a total of 13 goals. 46 of these games were in the

, six in the

, 11 in the UEFA competitions (Champions League and Europa League) and 40 were friendly games. He scored five goals in the domestic league, three in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

and the other five were scored during the test games. In the summer of 2010, Gelabert joined Xamax, with whom he signed a three-year contract. However, this lost its validity in January 2012 after Xamax initially had its license revoked and the club then filed for bankruptcy.

Honours

Basel *

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

* Uhren Cup: 2008

External links

Statistics
at Guardian Stats Centre
weltfussball.de

Profile at FC Basel

Profile at Swiss Football League Website

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gelabert, Marcos 1981 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine people of Catalan descent People from General Pico Footballers from La Pampa Province Men's association football midfielders Estudiantes de La Plata footballers FC St. Gallen players FC Basel players Neuchâtel Xamax FCS players Club Atlético Tigre footballers San Martín de San Juan footballers Gimnasia y Esgrima de Mendoza footballers Argentine Primera División players Swiss Super League players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland 21st-century Argentine sportsmen