Mario Eduardo Cuenca (born 6 March 1975) is an Argentine former professional

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 ...

er who played as a

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 ...

Career

Cuenca was born in Del Campillo,

Córdoba Province Córdoba Province may refer to: * Córdoba Province, Argentina * Córdoba Province (Colombia) * Province of Córdoba (Spain) Córdoba (; also called Cordova in English) is one of the 50 provinces of Spain, in the north-central part of the Autonom ...

. He started his career with

Talleres de Córdoba Club Atlético Talleres (; ), mostly known simply as Talleres ( in Rioplatense Spanish, Rioplatense accent and or in Cordobés Spanish, Cordobés accent; ), is an Football in Argentina, Argentine professional sports club based in the city of C ...

in 1995. He was part of the team that won the

Primera B Nacional Primera Nacional (usually called simply Nacional B, (English "National B Division"), and known as Primera B Nacional until the 2019–20 season) is the second division of the Argentine football league system. The competition is made up of 38 team ...

in the 1997–98 season, winning promotion to the Primera División. In 1999, he was again part of the Talleres team that won the

Copa CONMEBOL The Copa CONMEBOL () was an annual football cup competition organized by CONMEBOL between 1992 and 1999 for South American football clubs. During its time of existence, it was a very prestigious South American club football contest, similar to the ...

, the only international title in the club's history. In 2002 Cuenca moved to

Racing Club de Avellaneda Racing Club () is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Avellaneda, Argentina. They compete in the Argentine Primera División, Primera División, the top tier of Argentine football league system, Argentine f ...

, and in 2006 he moved to Arsenal where he established himself as the first team goalkeeper. On 14 November 2007, he had a good performance against River Plate in the semi-finals of the

Copa Sudamericana 2007 The 2007 edition of the Copa Sudamericana was played by 34 teams; 30 teams from the CONMEBOL and 4 teams from the CONCACAF. CONMEBOL organized the tournament and invited three North American clubs which were the best three of the CONCACAF Champi ...

. He made a number of saves during the game, saved two penalties in the penalty shootout and scored the winning penalty, to send Arsenal to their first ever major final.

Honours

Talleres *

: 1997–98 *

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

Arsenal de Sarandí *

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Suruga Bank Championship The J.League Cup / Copa Sudamericana Championship was an annual intercontinental football match held in Japan, contested by the reigning champions of the J.League Cup and the Copa Sudamericana. The tournament was previously officially called the ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

External links

* at Futbol XXI
Mario Cuenca at Football Lineups
1975 births Living people Footballers from Córdoba Province, Argentina Argentine men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Copa Sudamericana–winning players Talleres de Córdoba footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Arsenal de Sarandí footballers {{Argentina-footy-goalkeeper-stub