Roberto Carlos Abbondanzieri (also spelled Abbondancieri, born 19 August 1972), nicknamed El Pato (''The Duck''), is an Argentine 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 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 ...

. He spent most of his career for the

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

in his homeland, as well as

Getafe Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

. After his retirement, he took up coaching. Abbondanzieri earned 49 caps for the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team (), nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' (), represents Argentina in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino ( ...

from 2004 to 2008, playing at two

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 ...

tournaments and the

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Bouquet, Santa Fe, Abbondanzieri's professional debut took place on 6 December 1994 at Santa Fe's

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central (), more commonly referred to as Rosario Central, or simply Central, is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on 24 December 1889, ...

, with whom he would soon after winning the 1995

CONMEBOL Cup The Copa CONMEBOL () was an annual Association football, 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 c ...

. He played with the club until 1997, when he moved to Boca Juniors to be the reserve goalkeeper. Abbondanzieri trained in the shadow of Óscar Córdoba until the

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

n goalie suffered an injury during the

Clausura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is ...

tournament of 1999. However, Abbondanzieri himself then suffered a shoulder injury during a match against River Plate, and the club's third-choice goalkeeper, Cristian Muñoz, took his place. When he recovered from his injury Abbondanzieri was once again Córdoba's understudy until February 2002, when Córdoba moved to

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

club

Perugia Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...

. Abbondanzieri changed his name in July 2002 from Abbondancieri, a misspelling that arose at Argentinian customs when his grandfather immigrated there, to the original spelling that he uses today. The name change was prompted by Italian citizenship concerns in the case of his transfer to the European football leagues. He was named South American Goalkeeper of the Year in 2003.Sporting Life
Until September 2006, when Boca achieved their third

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

, he held the Boca Juniors record of 14 titles, surpassed later by

Guillermo Barros Schelotto Guillermo Barros Schelotto (; born 4 May 1973) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a forward. He is the current manager of Vélez Sarsfield. Barros Schelotto played 16 years of his professional career in the Argent ...

Getafe

In June 2006, after weeks of speculation, Abbondanzieri signed a three-year contract with Spanish

first division 1st Division or First Division may refer to: Military Airborne divisions *1st Parachute Division (Germany) *1st Airborne Division (United Kingdom) * 1st Airmobile Division (Ukraine) * 1st Guards Airborne Division Armoured divisions *1st Armoure ...

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

, claiming that "it's the right time for me to go to Europe". In his debut season in the Spanish league, he won the

Ricardo Zamora Trophy The Zamora Trophy () is a football award, established by Spanish newspaper '' Marca'' in 1958. The award goes to the goalkeeper who has the lowest "goals-to-games" ratio.Similar to goals against average in ice hockey or earned run average in b ...

to the best goalkeeper, after conceding only 30 goals in 37 matches. On 10 April 2008, in a

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

quarterfinal second-leg match against

Bayern Munich Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, ), commonly known as Bayern Munich (), FC Bayern () or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, ...

, Abbondanzieri made a vital error in extra time, failing to hold a routine ball from a distant free kick. The ball slipped under his legs while in the six-yard box, allowing Bayern striker

Luca Toni Luca Toni (; born 26 May 1977) is an Italian former professional footballer who played as a striker. A prolific goalscorer, Toni scored over 300 goals throughout his career, and is one of the top-five highest scoring Italians in all competition ...

to tap the ball into the back of the net. Bayern was still in deficit of goals on aggregate, as the score was 2–3 after the goal (3–4 on aggregate), but only five minutes later, Bayern would level the score at 3–3 (4–4 on aggregate) and allow themselves passage to the UEFA Cup semifinals via the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the team that ...

Return to South America

Abbondanzieri continued with Getafe for the first half of the 2008–2009 season, but at his request was transferred back to Boca Juniors for the 2009 Clausura tournament. "El Pato" was again Boca's number one and competed in the Clausura, although Boca only finished in 14th. He also participated in the Copa Libertadores, where Boca fell to Defensor Sporting of Uruguay in the round of 16. On 16 February 2010, Internacional signed the Argentine goalkeeper "Pato" from

. Abbondanzieri retired on 18 December after the match against Seongnam for the third place of

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

. Internacional won 4–2.

International career

As a youth, Abbondanzieri represented Argentina in the 1989 FIFA U-17 World Championship. Since then, he became a continuous presence in Boca's goal and, in June 2004, he became the goalkeeper for the Argentina national team and has since played in the Copa América 2004 and the South American Qualification for the

. On 6 May 2006, he was named as a definite squad member for the

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the event in July 2000. Teams represe ...

by coach José Pekerman. On 30 June 2006, he was injured in the World Cup quarter-finals against hosts

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, after Argentina had taken a 1–0 lead. German striker

Miroslav Klose Miroslav Josef Klose (, ; born Mirosław Marian Klose; 9 June 1978) is a German professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who currently serves as head coach of 1. FC Nürnberg. A Forward (as ...

jumped up high for a header while running and collided with Abbondanzieri, with Klose's right leg hitting the Argentinian keeper in the chest. Klose, who had looked sideways to watch for the ball in the moments leading up to the collision and thus may not have seen Abbondanzieri, received no penalty. Abbondanzieri continued at first but had to be carried off on a stretcher some minutes later, to be replaced by

Leo Franco Leonardo "Leo" Neoren Franco (born 20 May 1977) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. After starting out at Independiente in 1995, he went on to spend the vast majority of his career in Spain, playing 328 L ...

, who later failed to save Klose's equalizing strike in the 80th minute, and the four penalty kicks in the ensuing

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pe ...

, which Argentina lost 2–4. He continued to be Argentina's first choice goalkeeper under Alfio Basile following the 2006 World Cup. He played all six games at 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 ...

in Venezuela as Argentina reached the final, only to lose to Brazil 3–0. He remained Basile's goalkeeper through the early stages of qualifying for the

2010 World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

in South Africa but was forced out injured during a 1–1 draw at home to Paraguay. After recovering from his injury, Basile had been replaced by

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

, who left Abbondanzieri off the squad.

Coaching career

In November 2012, Abbondanzieri was named as assistant to his former Boca teammate

Martín Palermo Martín Palermo (; born 7 November 1973) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a striker. He was recently the manager of Olimpia. Palermo played mainly as a forward for Boca Juniors. A prolific goalscorer, he is Bo ...

when he was hired by Godoy Cruz. In April 2014, the pair and Rolando Schiavi took the same job at

Arsenal de Sarandí Arsenal Fútbol Club (), usually referred as Arsenal de Sarandí , or simply Arsenal, is an Argentine sports club from the Sarandí district of Avellaneda Partido, Greater Buenos Aires. The football team currently plays in Primera Nacional, t ...

. Abbondanzieri and Palermo moved to Chile to manage

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile currently participating in the Primera División de Chile. History Foundation, Amateur Era and First seasons ...

in May 2016. On 28 November 2020, Abbondanzieri was appointed as assistant coach at Chilean club

Curicó Unido Curicó Unido is a football club based in Curicó, Maule Region, Chile. They currently play in the Primera B de Chile, the second level of the Chilean football system. They are currently managed by Héctor Almandoz. History Curicó Unido was f ...

, once again under

. However, at the end of May 2021, Abbondanzieri announced that he would step back from football to spend more time with his family.Abbondanzieri dejó a Palermo y se alejó del fútbol: "Me perdí muchas cosas de la vida"
tycsports.com, 24 May 2021

Personal life

Abbondanzieri shares his nickname with another renowned Argentine goalkeeper,

Ubaldo Fillol Ubaldo Matildo Fillol (; born 21 July 1950), nicknamed ''el Pato'' (in English: "the Duck"), is an Argentine football coach and former goalkeeper. He took part in the 1974, 1978 (where he won the championship with his team and was voted Best Goa ...

Career statistics

Club

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year

Honours

Rosario Central *

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 ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

Boca Juniors * Primera División: 1998 Apertura, 1999 Clausura, 2000 Apertura, 2003 Apertura, 2005 Apertura, 2006 Clausura *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

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 ...

, runner up:

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

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 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

Internacional *

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 ...

Individual *

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

Best goalkeeper in South America 2003 *

Best goalkeeper 2005 *

Best Player of the Final 2005 *

, best goalkeeper of

: 2006–07 * Top 10 Goalkeeper of the 21st Century (

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

): 2001–2011

References

External links

fifaworldcup profile
* at Fútbol XXI
Guardian statisticsIMDB profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbondanzieri, Roberto 1972 births Living people Argentina men's international footballers La Liga players Getafe CF footballers Rosario Central footballers Boca Juniors footballers Copa Sudamericana–winning players SC Internacional players Men's association football goalkeepers 2004 Copa América players 2006 FIFA World Cup players People from Belgrano Department, Santa Fe Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentine men's footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate football managers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain Argentine Primera División players Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Argentine football managers Footballers from Santa Fe Province 21st-century Argentine sportsmen