Rodolfo Arruabarrena

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Personal information
Rodolfo Arruabarrena

Full name	Rodolfo Martín Arruabarrena
Date of birth	July 20, 1974 (1974-07-20) (age 33)
Place of birth	Marcos Paz, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Left Back
Club information
Current club	AEK Athens
Number	3
Youth clubs
-1992	Boca Juniors
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1992-2000 1996 2000-2007 2007-	Boca Juniors → Rosario Central (loan) Villarreal AEK Athens Total	178 (11) 015 0(0) 219 (11) 025 0(0) 428 (22)
National team²
2000-2007	Argentina	009 0(0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19:45, 17 May 2008 (UTC). ² National team caps and goals correct as of 19:45, 17 May 2008 (UTC). * Appearances (Goals)

Rodolfo Martín Arruabarrena (born on July 20, 1975 in Marcos Paz, Buenos Aires) is an Argentine football player currently playing as a left back for AEK Athens F.C. in the Greek Super League. He has a Spanish passport.

1 Club career
2 International career
3 Honours
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Club career

[edit] Argentina

"El Vasco" Arruabarrena (The Basque) debuted professionally in 1993 with Boca Juniors, where he played until 2000, except for the Apertura 1996, when he was loaned to Rosario Central for 6 months. After returning to Boca, he gained a place in the regular squad.

Whilst with Boca, Rodolfo Arruabarrena won the Apertura in 1998 and the Clausura in 1999 Argentine first division tournaments, as well as the Copa Libertadores 2000. He played a total of 178 games for Boca in all competitions, scoring 7 goals.

[edit] Villarreal

From Boca he moved to Spanish Villarreal in mid 2000. Because of his reliability while playing as the team's left-back, he has been the team's captain in several occasions. He holds Villarreal's record of appearances in La Liga, with 178 first division matches with El Submarino Amarillo (as of December 9, 2005).

Arruabarrena's goals in the 2005-2006 Champions League helped to eliminate Scottish giants Rangers FC and Italians Internazionale to reach the semi-finals in the club's first ever season in the competition.

With Villarreal CF he won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2003 and 2004, and played 200 league and international matches for the Spanish team (as of September 10 2006).

[edit] AEK Athens

On May 3rd 2007 El Vasco signed a 3-year contract with Greek Superleague runners-up AEK for 800,000 euros per year for two years, extendable for a third. According to Arruabarrena, an important role for his decision to continue his career in Greece was played by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer (AEK manager) and Demis Nikolaidis (former star player and current president of his new club who played for Atletico Madrid in 2003-2004) ^[1].

On Rivaldo's debut Arruabarrena setted up the Brazillian legend to score an amazing header, Arruabarrena also setted up ismael Blanco to score against Getafe in the Uefa Cup. Rodolph Arruabarrena managed to have 25 caps for AEK in one season but half of the season he suffered a serious injury but he has recovered and is fit to play for the 2008 season.

[edit] International career

El Vasco played 9 matches with the Argentina national football team, as well as several with the youth team. Arruabarrena made his first cap against Paraguay and won a penalty being dropped by Aldo Bobadilla in 2000. Arruabarrena made his seconed cap against Bolivia in 2002. Arruabarrena also had another cap that year and played in a friendly match against Peru. Arruabarrena also had another cap in 2003 and played against Brazil in a friendly. Arruabarrena also got called up for another friendly against Singapore. Arruabarrena also had another cap against Uruguay. Arruabarrena was not convocated for the national team until September 2006, when Alfio Basile called him for a friendly match against Spain, and then again in February 2007 for another friendly against France. Arruabarrena was also called up for another friendly match against Chile on the 18th April, 2007 but he was left on the Substitutes.