Gabriel Heinze

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Gabriel Heinze
Personal information
Full name	Gabriel Ivan Heinze
Date of birth	19 April 1978 (1978-04-19) (age 30)
Place of birth	Crespo, Argentina
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Left-back, Centre-back
Club information
Current club	Real Madrid
Number	16
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996–1997 1997–2001 1998–1999 2001–2004 2004–2007 2007–	Newell's Old Boys Real Valladolid → Sporting CP (loan) Paris Saint-Germain Manchester United Real Madrid	08 (0) 54 (1) 05 (1) 99 (4) 52 (1) 20 (1)
National team2
2003–	Argentina	43 (2)
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 18 May 2008. 2 National team caps and goals correct as of 23 May 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Gabriel Ivan Heinze (born 19 April 1978 in Crespo, Entre Ríos Province) is an Argentine footballer of Volga German descent, who plays for Real Madrid as a left-back.

Contents 1 Club career 1.1 Early career 1.2 Paris Saint-Germain 1.3 Manchester United 1.4 Real Madrid 2 International career 3 Honours 3.1 Manchester United 3.2 Real Madrid 3.3 Argentina 4 Playing career (all competitions) 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Early career

Heinze began his career in his home country with Newell's Old Boys in Rosario. Following attention from various European clubs, he then signed for Real Valladolid. After just one season with the Spanish club, he was loaned to Sporting in Portugal, though he would return and spend a further two years in Spain.

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[edit] Paris Saint-Germain

At the close of the 2001 season, he moved to Paris Saint-Germain and here he enjoyed more than 119 appearances and 19 goals in the three years he stayed, winning the French Cup in 2004.

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In June 2004, Heinze joined Manchester United for a fee of £6.9m.^[1]

[edit] Manchester United

He marked his debut for United in September 2004 with a goal in a 2–2 draw against Bolton Wanderers and immediately established himself as United's first choice left-back. Heinze's play was regularly lauded by United fans with the familiar chant of "Ar-gen-tina!"^[2] Heinze was voted Manchester United fans' player of the year for the 2004–05 season, becoming the first South American player to win the award.^[3]

Heinze was injured in a UEFA Champions League match with Villarreal on 13 September 2005 and was out of first-team action for the rest of the 2005–06 season. He made a comeback with the reserve team in April 2006, but a minor injury picked up in his third game back prevented him making a first-team appearance before the end of the campaign, and this appeared to have ended his chances of representing Argentina in the 2006 World Cup in Germany. However, national coach José Pekerman called Heinze up into his 23-man squad for the finals. The long term consequence of Heinze's injury was that Manchester United had recruited Patrice Evra as Heinze's replacement at left back and, after Heinze's return from injury, he was unable consistently to retain the left back position. Unwilling to be merely a squad player Heinze sought guaranteed first team football elsewhere.

Heinze's last season with Manchester United was the 2006–07 season. He scored his first goal of the season in the FA Cup fifth round replay against Reading, in a 3–2 win to United on 27 February 2007.^[4] Due to United's injury problems, with the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidić and Gary Neville being unavailable, Heinze was used as a centre-back partnering Wes Brown. He was made captain of United for their last two games of the 2006–07 season, away to Chelsea,^[5] and at home to West Ham.

On 21 July 2007, a bid in the region of £6.8 million from Liverpool was rejected by United, amid complaints by Sir Alex Ferguson as to the conduct of the player's agent.

[edit] Real Madrid

On 22 August 2007, Heinze joined Real Madrid on a four year deal, for a reported £8 million fee.^[6] He debuted on September 2 against Villarreal coming on as a substitute for Raúl. Intermittently troubled by injury and playing out of position in the center of defence, Heinze has nevertheless made a significant impact on Real Madrid's 2007-8 campaign in which he helped the club win La Liga in his debut season in the Spanish capital.

[edit] International career

In total, Heinze has won 40 caps for Argentina, first representing them in April 2003 against Libya.^[7] His late arrival can be somewhat attributed to his leaving Argentina before establishing himself as a player. He won a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics football tournament with the Argentine team.

He appeared in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, following an injury earlier that year. Argentina made it through to the quarter-finals, but were unable to capitalize on their 1–0 lead, and Germany equalized with just minutes to go to take it to extra-time and penalties. Heinze did not take a penalty, but could only sit in tears as Jens Lehmann saved Roberto Ayala and Esteban Cambiasso's penalties.^[8]

He played for Argentina in Copa América 2007. He scored a goal from a Juan Román Riquelme free kick in the semi-final against Mexico helping his team win 3–0^[9] and continuing to the final match loss against Brazil.

[edit] Honours

[edit] Manchester United

• Premier League: 2006-07
• League Cup: 2006
• FA Cup Runner-up: 2005, 2007

[edit] Real Madrid

• La Liga: 2007-08

[edit] Argentina

• Olympic Gold medal: 2004 Athens
• Copa América Runner-up: 2007

[edit] Playing career (all competitions)

Season	Club	Games	Goals
1997–98	Newell's Old Boys	8	0
1997–98	Real Valladolid	0	0
1998–99	Sporting (loan)	5	1
1999–00	Real Valladolid	18	0
2000–01	Real Valladolid	36	1
2001–02	Paris Saint-Germain	37	0
2002–03	Paris Saint-Germain	39	2
2003–04	Paris Saint-Germain	33	2
2004–05	Manchester United	33	1
2005–06	Manchester United	6	2
2006–07	Manchester United	36	1
2007–08	Real Madrid	26	1

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Gabriel Heinze at Real Madrid C.F. Official club website
• Gabriel Heinze career stats at Soccerbase
• Statistics
• Club and National team history

Gabriel Heinze international tournaments v • d • e Argentina squad - 2004 Copa América 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala • 3 Sorín • 4 Quiroga • 5 Mascherano • 6 Heinze • 7 Saviola • 8 Zanetti • 9 Figueroa • 10 D'Alessandro • 11 Tévez • 12 Cavallero • 13 Placente • 14 Rodriguez • 15 Fernández • 16 L.González • 17 M.González • 18 K.González • 19 Delgado • 20 Medina • 21 Rosales • 22 Coloccini • Coach: Bielsa v • d • e Argentina squad - 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala • 3 Sorín • 4 Coloccini • 5 Cambiasso • 6 Heinze • 7 Saviola • 8 Mascherano • 9 Crespo • 10 Riquelme • 11 Tévez • 12 Franco • 13 Scaloni • 14 Palacio • 15 Milito • 16 Aimar • 17 Cufré • 18 Rodríguez • 19 Messi • 20 Cruz • 21 Burdisso • 22 González • 23 Ustari • Coach: Pekerman v • d • e Argentina squad - Copa América 2007 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala • 3 Díaz • 4 Ibarra • 5 Gago • 6 Heinze • 7 Palacio • 8 Zanetti • 9 Crespo • 10 Riquelme • 11 Tévez • 12 Carrizo • 13 González • 14 Mascherano • 15 G.Milito • 16 Aimar • 17 Burdisso • 18 Messi • 19 Cambiasso • 20 Verón • 21 D.Milito • 22 Orión • Coach: Basile

v • d • e Real Madrid C.F. – current squad 1 Casillas • 2 Salgado • 3 Pepe • 4 Ramos • 5 Cannavaro • 6 Diarra • 7 Raúl • 8 Gago • 9 Soldado • 10 Robinho • 11 Robben • 12 Marcelo • 13 Codina • 14 Guti • 15 Drenthe • 16 Heinze • 17 van Nistelrooy • 18 Saviola • 19 Baptista • 20 Higuaín • 21 Metzelder • 22 Torres • 23 Sneijder • 24 Balboa • 25 Dudek • Coach: Schuster

Persondata
NAME	Heinze, Iván Gabriel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Heinze, Gabriel
SHORT DESCRIPTION	footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	1978-4-19
PLACE OF BIRTH	Crespo, Argentina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH