Matías Alejandro Laba (born 11 December 1991) 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 ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Unión La Calera Unión La Calera is a Chilean football club based in La Calera and competes the Primera División de Chile. It was founded as Club de Deportes La Calera on 26 January 1954, after the merger of three teams from the city: ''Condor'', ''Calera Come ...

Club career

Laba started his professional career playing for

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was recognized as one of th ...

in the 2011 Clausura, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–1 draw with Vélez Sársfield. During his first season with the first team, he played a total 14 league games, plus another 4 in the

2011 Copa Libertadores The 2011 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2011 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, South America's premier international club football tournam ...

. After weeks of speculation, it was officially announced on 26 April 2013 that Laba had signed with

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BM ...

as a young designated player, the transfer fee was undisclosed but believed to be in the range of $1.5 million. Laba made his debut for Toronto in a 1–0 away loss to

Colorado Rapids The Colorado Rapids are an American professional soccer club based in the Denver metropolitan area. The Rapids compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 1995, as part of the Anschutz Corporation, ...

on 4 May 2013. Laba scored his first goal with Toronto on 4 August 2013, in the second minute of the match against

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

, the match ended in a 1–0 away victory. After the signings of Designated Players Jermain Defoe, Michael Bradley, and Gilberto, Toronto was above the league limit of three DPs, and were forced to move Laba. On 25 February 2014, Laba was traded by Toronto to the

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

for future considerations. Laba scored his first goal for Vancouver in a Voyageurs Cup match vs. FC Edmonton, tucking away the loose ball after a goal mouth scramble. His first MLS goal with Vancouver came against

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at ...

on 18 July 2015. Collecting the ball from midfield, the defense applied no pressure to Laba, allowing him too fire a shot into the bottom corner from 25 yards. He also led MLS in successful tackles in the 2014 season. In April 2017, Laba gave Vancouver Whitecaps a 4–2 victory over

LA Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pla ...

after scoring the last two goals of the match. On 26 January 2018, Laba signed with

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). T ...

side Estudiantes. In 2019, he joined

in the

Chilean Primera División The Chilean Primera División (English: First Division) is the top-tier league of the Chilean football league system. It is organized by the '' ANFP''. The league is known as the Campeonato AFP PlanVital for sponsorship reasons. Format As of the ...

, making a total of 26 appearances, including four matches in the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American fo ...

. In January 2020, he returned to the Argentine top tier, signing with

Defensa y Justicia Club Social y Deportivo Defensa y Justicia, commonly known as Defensa y Justicia, is an Argentine football club from Florencio Varela, Buenos Aires, established in 1935.

. In November 2020, he returned to Unión La Calera. He left the club at the end of January 2022, after signing with Argentine club Central Córdoba SdE.

International career

In July 2011, Laba was selected to represent the Argentina national under-20 football team at the

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when ...

Honours

Argentinos Juniors *

: Clausura 2010 Argentina *

Pan American Games The Pan American Games (also known colloquially as the Pan Am Games) is a continental multi-sport event in the Americas featuring summer sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The competition is hel ...

Runner-up: 2011 Vancouver Whitecaps FC *

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is contes ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laba, Matias 1991 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Men's association football midfielders Pan American Games medalists in football Pan American Games silver medalists for Argentina Footballers at the 2011 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Designated Players (MLS) Argentinos Juniors footballers Toronto FC players Vancouver Whitecaps FC players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Unión La Calera footballers Defensa y Justicia footballers Central Córdoba de Santiago del Estero footballers Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Major League Soccer players Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Canada Expatriate footballers in Chile Expatriate soccer players in Canada