Esteban Fuertes

Esteban Fuertes

Fuertes in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Esteban Óscar Fuertes
Date of birth	(1972-12-26) 26 December 1972 (age 51)
Place of birth	Coronel Dorrego, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Centre forward
Youth career
	Independiente
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1992	Independiente	1	(0)
1992–1993	El Porvenir	26	(17)
1993–1995	Los Andes	68	(31)
1995–1996	Platense	29	(9)
1996–1997	Racing Club	33	(8)
1997–1999	Colón	62	(23)
1999	Derby County	8	(1)
2000	Colón	18	(17)
2000	Lens	26	(7)
2001–2002	Tenerife	26	(5)
2002–2003	River Plate	34	(12)
2003–2006	Colón	81	(35)
2007	Universidad Católica	35	(19)
2008–2012	Colón	122	(63)
2013	Sport Boys	11	(3)
Total		577	(250)
International career^‡
2009	Argentina	1	(0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 22:03, 16 October 2013 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18:20, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Esteban Óscar Fuertes (born 26 December 1972) is an Argentine former footballer.

Club career

In July 1999, Fuertes was purchased for £2.3m by Jim Smith, manager of Derby County in England. He scored two early goals, including the winner against Everton in the league.^[1] and another against Swansea City in the League Cup.^[2] However, weeks later, he was refused entry back into Britain when immigration officials discovered that his Italian passport was forged. Derby were able to sell him on to Lens in France for £2.8m.^[3]

Fuertes retired from professional football on 25 June 2012 in a match against Banfield, scoring two goals.^[4] A year following his retirement, Fuertes signed a six-month contract for Bolivian side Sport Boys which had been recently promoted to the Liga de Fútbol Profesional Boliviano.^[5] He officially retired on 6 December 2013 after eleven appearances and three goals scored for the club.^[6]

International career

On 20 May 2009, Fuertes made his international debut in a friendly match against Panama aged 36, making him the oldest player ever to make his debut for the Argentina national team.^[7] The Argentina team made up of players based in the Primera División Argentina won the game 3–1.

References

1. Andrews, Phil (28 August 1999). "Fuertes arrives with perfect timing". The Independent. London. Retrieved 6 November 2009.
2. "Sport: Football Everton slain by Oxford". BBC. 23 September 1999. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
3. News of the World 8 December 2002 The bung busters demanded to see every letter, fax and document involving Derby's foreign transfers
4. Fuertes' last professional match. Archived 30 June 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Diario Olé (in Spanish)
5. El Bichi Fuertes retorna al fútbol en el recién ascendido Sport Boys at bolivia.com (in Spanish)
6. Se acaba la era 'Bichi' Fuertes en Sport Boys at elsol.com.bo (in Spanish)
7. El "Bichi" Fuertes se convirtió en el jugador "más viejo" en debutar en la Selección Archived 16 February 2010 at the Wayback Machine at El Argento (in Spanish)

External links

• Statistics at Irish Times at the Wayback Machine (archived 13 July 2011)
• Esteban Fuertes at BDFA (in Spanish)
• Esteban Fuertes – Argentine Primera statistics at Fútbol XXI (in Spanish) at the Wayback Machine (archived 8 April 2009)
• Esteban Fuertes at Soccerway
• Esteban Fuertes at Soccerbase