Rodrigo Vargas

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Personal information
Rodrigo Vargas
Full name	Rodrigo Alejandro Vargas
Date of birth	October 20, 1978 (1978-10-20) (age 29)
Place of birth	Melbourne, Australia
Height	1.81 m (5 ft 11+¹⁄₂ in)
Playing position	Centre Back
Club information
Current club	Melbourne Victory
Number	12
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1996 1997–1999 1999–2004 2004–2006 2006–present	Springvale City Port Melbourne Sharks Melbourne Knights Green Gully Cavaliers Melbourne Victory	017 (0) 067 (1) 127 (3) 060 (9) 043 (1)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 24 January 2008. * Appearances (Goals)

Rodrigo Alejandro "Roddy" Vargas (born 20 October 1978 in Melbourne, Australia) is a Chilean-Australian football (soccer) player. He currently plays as a central defender for the Australian A-League club Melbourne Victory.

1 Club career
2 Honours
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Club career

Rodrigo Vargas started his career at Victorian Premier League side, Springvale City, where he debuted at the age of 17. After three seasons with Port Melbourne, he was recruited by the Melbourne Knights at the age of 21, who were competing in the National Soccer League. He had a very successful tenure at the club, notching up over 100 games over five seasons as well as being awarded the captaincy.

When the National Soccer League came to an end in 2004, he moved to Victorian Premier League side Green Gully, where he developed a reputation as a goal scoring defender from set pieces. Rodrigo was drafted into the Melbourne Victory squad in 2006 after a successful trial, and soon became a key member of the Victory backline.

Rodrigo is a strong defender who was known for his aggressiveness in the old NSL. He is also very consistent and durable, not missing a single game with injury in his time with the Melbourne Knights. He is the brother of Green Gully player Andy Vargas.

He was involved in a controversy when he was allegedly called a “black monkey” by Newcastle United Jets midfielder, Stuart Musialik. ^[1]

Vargas was called up to Pim Verbeek's 39-man Socceroos squad for the World Cup Qualifier against Qatar in his home town of Melbourne in the first week of February 2008.

A broken nose to Sydney FC's Mark Milligan could have seen Vargas elevated on to the starting XI, however, the central defensive role was handed to veteran Craig Moore, who retired from international football after the Socceroos rolled over Qatar 3-0 at the Telstra Dome.

Vargas was a key member of the Melbourne Victory team in their first appearance in the Asian Champions League in 2008 against Chunnan Dragons at the Telstra Dome. Vargas capped off a great performance with a brilliant goal, the club's second ever in Asia and only Rodrigo Vargas' second career goal for Melbourne Victory.