Nicolás Medina

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Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Argentina
Men's Football
Gold	2004 Athens	Team Competition

Nicolás Rubén Medina (born February 17, 1982 in Buenos Aires) is an Argentine footballer currently playing for Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata.

Medina started his career for Argentinos Juniors. In 2001, Medina signed for English FA Premier League team Sunderland A.F.C. for £3.5 million, joining up with Argentinian U-21 colleague Julio Arca. At his signing, manager Peter Reid hailed him as "a complete midfield player" [1]. While Arca had become an instant hit at the Stadium of Light, Medina failed to make it into the first team and spent most of his time at Sunderland in the reserve team. Both fans and the media began to speculate as to why such an expensive signing was not given a chance. This led to popular theories that he was suffering a serious illness, or that he had fallen out with Reid. Neither rumour was proven. Medina briefly courted controversy early in his Sunderland career, after being quoted in an Argentinian newspaper that be was planning to live in Newcastle (home to Newcastle United, Sunderland's fiercest rivals) rather than in Sunderland itself. The story was picked up and reported by the Daily Mirror. When new Sunderland manager Howard Wilkinson took over at Sunderland, he did what Peter Reid had failed to do and publicly explain why Medina was not being picked for Sunderland, despite playing for the Argentinian national team. In an interview he stated that: "The evidence suggests that Nicolas hasn't got it because the previous manager didn't pick him." [2]

Medina eventually left Sunderland having only played once for the first team; in an FA Cup tie against Bolton Wanderers (he was substituted in this game). He remains the most expensive Sunderland player to never play a first-team league game.

He has returned to Argentina and played for Rosario Central, Club Atlético Nueva Chicago y Talleres de Córdoba. Now he is playing for Gimnasia y Esgrima de La Plata.

Nico Medina was part of the gold medal winning Argentine team at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He had also played for the Argentina national football team.

[edit] Honours

• FIFA World Youth Championship winner: 2001
• Men's Olympics Football tournament gold medal: 2004

[edit] External links

• Career details at National Football Teams
• Guardian statistics
• (Spanish) Argentine Primera statistics
• (Spanish) BDFA profile

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

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