Roberto Damián Colautti ( he, רוברטו דמיאן קולאוטי; born 24 May 1982) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

-Israeli former professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He began his career in Argentina with

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, and joined the Israeli club Maccabi Haifa in 2004. He became an

Israeli citizen Israeli citizenship law details the conditions by which a person holds citizenship of Israel. The two primary pieces of legislation governing these requirements are the 1950 Law of Return and 1952 Citizenship Law. Every Jew in the world h ...

in 2007, on account of marrying an Israeli in 2005. He was promptly selected for the Israel national team, for which he won 21 caps over the next four years, scoring six goals. Colautti played for the German team

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e. V. Mönchengladbach, commonly known as Borussia Mönchengladbach (), Mönchengladbach () or Gladbach (; abbreviated as Borussia MG, BMG), is a professional Association football, football club based in ...

from 2007 to 2010, and then returned to Israel with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He moved to Cyprus in 2013 to join Anorthosis Famagusta; after a single season he joined AEK Larnaca. He left Larnaca in 2015.

Early and personal life

Colautti was born in Córdoba, Argentina, to a

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

family of Italian descent. He acquired an Israeli citizenship in 2007, two years after marrying his Israeli girlfriend Alvit Strauss (sister of Israeli goalkeepers

Sagi Strauss Sagi Strauss ( he, שגיא שטראוס; born 29 June 1976) is a retired Israeli association footballer. Strauss has been transferred or loaned to a new team before almost every season of his professional career. Early and personal life Strau ...

and Ram Strauss) and on account of their marriage. They have four daughters.

Club career

Maccabi Haifa

Colautti joined Israeli team Maccabi Haifa from

in 2004. In his first season with Maccabi he was the top scorer in the 2004–05 Israeli Premier League with 19 goals from 30 appearances in Haifa's championship season. In the

2005–06 Israeli Premier League The 2005–06 Israeli Premier League season saw Maccabi Haifa win their third consecutive title. It took place from the first match on 26 August 2005 to the final match on 14 May 2006. Two teams from Liga Leumit were promoted at the end of the pre ...

, Colautti was the league's second top scorer with 13 strikes from 28 matches in Haifa's successful title defence. He was also involved in their victory in the 2005–06 Toto Cup. In the

2006–07 Israeli Premier League The 2006–07 Israeli Premier League season began on 26 August 2006. It was scheduled to begin a week before, but was then postponed due to the 2006 Lebanon War.

, Colautti scored seven times in 32 matches, where Haifa finished the league in fifth place. In the first round of the

2006–07 UEFA Cup The 2006–07 UEFA Cup was the 36th UEFA Cup, Europe's second-tier club football tournament. On 16 May 2007, at Hampden Park, Glasgow, Scotland, Sevilla won their second consecutive UEFA Cup, defeating Espanyol 3–1 on penalties after the match ...

, Roberto Colautti scored Maccabi Haifa's third goal against Litex Lovech, giving the Israeli side a 4–2 aggregate victory. Then, in the group stage, Colautti secured a 3–1 victory over the French side AJ Auxerre at home, scoring Maccabi Haifa's third goal in the 58th minute, with Colautti rounding the Auxerre goalkeeper Fabien Cool, before slotting the ball home from a tight angle. Arguably Colautti's and Maccabi Haifa's most important goal, however, was his equalizer against

AS Livorno Calcio Unione Sportiva Livorno 1915 (formerly A.S. Livorno Calcio, commonly known as Livorno), is a semi-professional Italian football club based in Livorno, Tuscany. They compete in Serie D, the top tier of semi-professional Italian football after t ...

Livorno Livorno () is a port city on the Ligurian Sea on the western coast of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of 158,493 residents in December 2017. It is traditionally known in English as Leghorn (pronou ...

, Italy. In the second half, deep into injury time, in the 93rd minute, he dispatched Gustavo Boccoli's cross with a close-range header to deny Livorno a win, ending the match with a result of 1–1. The goal in the second leg of the Round of 32 encounter with PFC CSKA Moscow, in the 14th minute, proved to be the winning goal, with Maccabi Haifa having drawn the first leg in Vladikavkaz, Russia, 0–0. Colautti's goal sent Maccabi Haifa through against CSKA, the team that had won the UEFA Cup only two years previously. Colautti played 90 league matches for Maccabi Haifa, scoring 39 goals. He won two championship titles with The Greens and was a key part of their successful UEFA Cup campaign.

Borussia Mönchengladbach

He joined second-division German side

on 1 August 2007 for an undisclosed fee, and dealt with injuries for most of this season. He did however manage to score 3 goals in his 10 appearances. Mönchengladbach finished first in the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

to gain promotion to the Bundesliga for the 2008–09 season. Colautti's second season at Borussia Park was again interrupted by injuries, and Colautti only played 24 Bundesliga matches out of a possible 34; of which ten were starts. He did score a crucial goal for Mönchengladbach on 10 May 2009 against

Schalke Fußballclub Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04 e. V., commonly known as FC Schalke 04 (), Schalke 04 (), or abbreviated as S04 (), is a professional German football and multi-sports club originally from the Schalke district of Gelsenkirchen, North Rh ...

in the 90th minute to score a valuable 1–0 win in his side's fourth last league match of the season. This was the Israeli forward's only goal of the season; although he did score two goals in an 8–1 victory over VfB Fichte Bielefeld in a DFB Pokal tie. This late strike proved to be instrumental in securing Borussia's survival in the Bundesliga, as they finished one point clear of being forced to play-off for their position in the league, and just two points ahead of Karlsruher SC, who finished bottom.

Maccabi Tel Aviv

On 29 March 2010, he signed a contract with Maccabi Tel Aviv and returned to Israel in July that year. On 1 August 2010, Colautti scored his first goal at Maccabi Toto Cup win against Maccabi Netanya. His first season in yellow was a tough one after the club underperformed and Colautti himself struggled to score. He lost his place with the first 11 and remained a substitute for the rest of the season. After all, Colautti managed to score nine league goals for Maccabi and an overall of 13 goals in 40 appearances during the season.

AEK Larnaca

Colautti joined AEK Larnaca on 28 June 2014, signing a one-year deal, with the possibility to extend the contract. His league debut came on 24 August 2014 in a 5–2 victory against

Apollon Limassol Apollon Limassol FC ( el, Απόλλων Λεμεσού, ''Apollon Lemesou'') is a Cypriot sports club, based in Limassol. It has football, basketball and volleyball teams. Founded in 1954, Apollon FC currently plays in the Cypriot First Divisi ...

, where he scored his first goals, a brace.

International career

On 2 September 2006, Colautti made his debut for the

Israel national football team The Israel national football team ( he, נבחרת ישראל בכדורגל, ) represents Israel in international football, and is governed by the Israel Football Association (IFA). Israel's national team is the direct successor of the M ...

, having received clearance from

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

only two days before the match. His debut saw Israel defeat Estonia 1–0 in Tallinn, Estonia. Colautti scored the only goal of the match in the 9th minute. He has scored a brace against Croatia and further goals against Andorra,

Macedonia Macedonia most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a traditional geographic reg ...

and another goal against Estonia. All of his goals have come in Israel's UEFA Euro 2008 qualifiers; in his first seven matches, he had six international goals to his name. Colautti was granted full Israeli citizenship along with Toto Tamuz (originally from Nigeria), after their respective applications were approved by the Minister of Internal Affairs Roni Bar-On in 2007.Boker (2007)
Bar-On approves citizenship for soccer players Tamuz and Colautti

Haaretz ''Haaretz'' ( , originally ''Ḥadshot Haaretz'' – , ) is an Israeli newspaper. It was founded in 1918, making it the longest running newspaper currently in print in Israel, and is now published in both Hebrew and English in the Berliner f ...

, 26 June. Accessed 9 July 2007.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Israel's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Colautti goal''.

Honours

Club

Boca Juniors *

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). Th ...

: 2003 Apertura Maccabi Haifa * Israeli Premier League: 2004–05, 2005–06 * Toto Cup: 2005–06 Borussia Mönchengladbach *

: 2007–08 Maccabi Tel Aviv * Israeli Premier League:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Individual

* Israeli Premier League Top goal scorer: 2004–05

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Colautti, Roberto Damian Living people 1982 births Footballers from Córdoba, Argentina Association football forwards Israeli footballers Argentine footballers Israel international footballers Boca Juniors footballers FC Lugano players Club Atlético Banfield footballers Maccabi Haifa F.C. players Borussia Mönchengladbach players Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Anorthosis Famagusta F.C. players AEK Larnaca FC players Cypriot First Division players Argentine emigrants to Israel Israeli people of Italian descent Naturalized citizens of Israel Argentine people of Italian descent Argentine Primera División players Israeli Premier League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Israeli expatriate footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Germany Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Germany Israeli expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Germany Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Argentine Christians Israeli Christians