Ronald García Nacho

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Personal information
Ronald García
Full name	Ronald Lázaro García "Nacho"
Date of birth	December 17, 1980 (1980-12-17) (age 27)
Place of birth	Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Height	183 cm
Playing position	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	Aris Thessaloniki
Senior clubs¹
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1998–2001 2001–2004 2004–2006 2006–present	Club Bolívar FC Alverca Blooming Aris FC	50 (7) 55 (5) 0 (0) 20 (2)
National team
2002-present	Bolivia	27 (0)
¹ Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Ronald Lázaro García, nicknamed "Nacho" (born December 17, 1980 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra) is a Bolivian defensive midfielder currently playing for Aris FC. He "graduated" from Bolivia's famous football academy called Tahuichi Aguilera located in Santa Cruz, which brought up some popular Bolivian football stars such as Erwin "Platini" Sanchez, Marco Antonio "El Diablo" Etcheverry, Jaime Moreno and some others.

His first professional Bolivian club was Bolivar from La Paz. From there he moved to Alverca in Portugal. He played for 3 years there and 2 stories about him are interesting: First, at some point in his younger age, he was considered and positioned in the top 50 of world's football potentials. Second, the story with him is related to his days in Benfica.

After his days in Portugal he returned once again to play in Bolivia. He got a second chance at his European dream and signed for, which at the time was in the second division, Aris Thessaloniki (apparent fee was 100,000 euros).

In most of his first season with them he was plagued by several problems. First, his adapting process lasted longer than expected. Second, his from-time-to-time injuries and his longer recoveries, made it difficult for him to become a regular starter. Towards the end of the second division season he gradually started to gain confidence and trust by his coach Nikos Anastopoulos. As a result of a strong campaign from Aris, Nacho along with Aris were promoted to the first division after just 1 year.

In the big "roster sweeping" summer 2006, Aris Management gave him another chance and left him in the team for the 2006-20007 season. The first 2/3 of the season were more or less successful. However, his career continued to hampered with injuries. He was a regular starter under Guillermo Hoyos, the first coach of rebuilding 2006/07 Aris. Lost his starting 11 place to Ruben Palazuelos under Quique Hernandez (Hoyos' successor).

In that period (and even earlier, but not that often) Nacho was always knocking on the Bolivian national team's door and its starting 11. Finally in 2007, he was capped by the Bolivian National team playing for Copa America 2007 (equivalent to the Euro Cup). In 2007/08 season he finally became an essential, irreplaceable part and core of the Bolivian national team and Aris Thessaloniki. Now, Ronald "Nacho" Garcia, is considered as one of Bolivia's and Aris FC's top and most consistent stars.

v • d • e

Aris Thessaloniki – current squad

1 Chalkias • 2 Neto • 3 Koulouheris • 4 A. Papadopoulos • 5 Ronaldo • 6 Nebegleras • 7 Toni Calvo • 8 García • 10 Koke • 11 Siston • 13 T. Papadopoulos • 14 Felipe • 15 Karabellas • 18 Ivić • 19 Papazoglou • 20 Javito • 22 Marquinho • 23 Koltsidas • 24 Gentil • 26 Jahić • 28 Prittas • 30 Amoroso • 31 Karatziovalis • 32 Vangjeli • 38 Stratilatis • 42 Kelemen • 55 Gogolos • 77 Kiriakos • - Eto'o • Coach: Bajević