Gabriel Heinze

Gabriel Heinze

Personal information
Full name	Gabriel Iván Heinze
Date of birth	19 April 1978 (1978-04-19) (age 32)
Place of birth	Crespo, Entre Ríos, Argentina
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Playing position	Left-back / Centre-back
Club information
Current club	Marseille
Number	19
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1996–1997	Newell's Old Boys	8	(0)
1997–2001	Real Valladolid	54	(1)
1998–1999	→ Sporting CP (loan)	5	(1)
2001–2004	Paris Saint-Germain	113	(4)
2004–2007	Manchester United	52	(1)
2007–2009	Real Madrid	44	(3)
2009–	Marseille	26	(4)
National team‡
2003–	Argentina	67	(3)
Honours Competitor for  Argentina Men's Football Gold 2004 Athens Team Competition
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 1 July 2008. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 03:42, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Gabriel Iván Heinze (born 19 April 1978 in Crespo, Entre Ríos Province) is an Argentine football defender who plays professionally for French club Marseille and internationally for Argentina. He is known as Gringo in Argentina ^[1][2][3]

Club career

Early career

Heinze began his career in his home country with Newell's Old Boys. Following attention from various European clubs, he then signed for Spanish La Liga outfit Real Valladolid, where he did not manage one single appearance in his first season. After that, Heinze was loaned to Sporting Clube de Portugal, where he made five league appearances, after which he returned for a further two years. At the close of the 2001 season, Heinze moved to Paris Saint-Germain, where he amassed over 100 overall appearances in three seasons, helping the capital side to the 2004 French Cup.

Manchester United

In June 2004, Heinze joined Manchester United for a fee of £6.9 million.^[4] He marked his debut for United in September 2004 with a goal in a 2–2 draw against Bolton Wanderers,^[5] and immediately established himself as United's first choice left-back. Heinze's play was regularly lauded by United fans with the chant of "Ar-gen-tina!"^[6]

Heinze was injured in a UEFA Champions League match with Villarreal CF on 14 September 2005, and was out of first-team action for the rest of 2005–06. Previous to the Villarreal match, he had scored two goals in the 3–0 second-leg qualifier win over Debreceni VSC.^[7] 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. The consequence of Heinze's injury was Manchester United's signing of Patrice Evra as his left-back replacement. 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 on 27 February 2007.^[8] Due to United's injury problems, Heinze was used as a centre back, partnering Wes Brown. He was made captain for their last two games of the season, away to Chelsea,^[9] and at home to West Ham United. On 21 July 2007, a bid in the region of £6.8 million from Liverpool was rejected by United.^[10]

Heinze in a match against Valencia in 2009

Real Madrid

On 22 August 2007, Heinze joined Real Madrid on a four-year deal, becoming the third United player to join Real (after David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy), for a reported £8 million fee.^[11] He debuted on September 2 against Villarreal, coming on as a substitute for Raúl. On 30 March 2008, he netted his first goal for Madrid in a 3–1 home win against Sevilla FC. In his first season with Real he won La Liga and the Spanish Supercup.

Marseille

On 30 July 2009, Heinze joined Marseille on a two-year deal for an undisclosed fee. He has scored for them twice in the Champions League, the first against Milan, the second was the winning goal against Zürich.^[12] Heinze has been an influential member of the Marseille squad in his first year at the club. On 27 March 2010, he helped Marseille defeat reigning Ligue 1 and Coupe de la Ligue champions Girondins de Bordeaux 3–1 in the final of the Coupe de la Ligue.^[13] This was l'OM's first major trophy since winning the inaugural Champions League title in 1993. Heinze has not only been a rock at the back but has scored important goals on Marseille's way to their first Ligue 1 title in 18 years. Heinze and his teammates' performance in the league that season was dubbed an "extraordinary human adventure"^[14] by coach Didier Deschamps, after Heinze's free kick helped Marseille defeat Stade Rennais FC 3–1 on 5 May 2010.^[15]

International career

Heinze first represented Argentina on 30 April 2003, in a friendly away win against Libya.^[16] The following year, he won a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Olympics. Despite missing most of 2005–06 due to injury, Heinze was called up for the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals. In the quarter-final clash against Germany Heinze could only watch from the sidelines as Argentina lost out on penalties.^[17]

Heinze participated in the 2007 Copa América, and scored his only goal by heading in a Juan Roman Riquelme free kick in the semifinals against Mexico in a 3–0 win.^[18] Argentina lost to Brazil in the final.

In the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Heinze scored the winning goal, from a corner kick of Juan Sebastian Veron, in Argentina's first match 1-0 win against Nigeria.

International goals

Argentina goal tally first

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	17 August 2005	Stadium Puskás Ferenc, Budapest, Hungary	Hungary	2 – 1	2 – 1	Friendly
2.	11 July 2007	Polideportivo Cachamay, Ciudad Guayana, Venezuela	Mexico	3 – 0	3 – 0	2007 Copa América
3.	12 June 2010	Ellis Park Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa	Nigeria	1 – 0	1 – 0	2010 FIFA World Cup

Honours

Club

Paris Saint-Germain

• Coupe de France (1): 2003–04

Manchester United

• Premier League (1): 2006–07

Real Madrid

• La Liga (1): 2007–08
• Spanish Supercup (1): 2008

Marseille

• Ligue 1 (1): 2009–10
• Coupe de la Ligue (1): 2009–10

International

Argentina U-23

• 2004 Summer Olympics: Gold medal

Individual

• Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year: 2004–05

Career statistics

Personal life

Gabriel Heinze was born to a German father and an Italian mother. In addition to his Argentinian nationality, he also holds German and Italian passports. ^{[19] [20]}

References

External links

• Real Madrid profile
• Official Website
• Gabriel Heinze career stats at Soccerbase
• L'Équipe stats (French)
• Stats at Liga de Fútbol Profesional (Spanish)

Argentina squads Argentina squad – Copa América 2004 Runners-up 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala (c) • 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 Argentina squad – 2004 Olympic Gold Medalists 1 Caballero • 2 Ayala (c) • 3 Burdisso • 4 Coloccini • 5 Mascherano • 6 Heinze • 7 Saviola • 8 Delgado • 9 Figueroa • 10 Tévez • 11 K. Gonzalez • 12 Rosales • 13 Medina • 14 Rodríguez • 15 D'Alessandro • 16 L. González • 17 M. González • 18 Lux • Coach: Bielsa Argentina squad – 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup Runners-up 1 Franco • 2 Samuel • 3 Sorín (c) • 4 Zanetti • 5 Cambiasso • 6 Heinze • 7 Tévez • 8 Riquelme • 9 Saviola • 10 Aimar • 11 Delgado • 12 Lux • 13 G. Rodríguez • 14 Milito • 15 Placente • 16 Coloccini • 17 Bernardi • 18 Santana • 19 Maxi Rodríguez • 20 Demichelis • 21 Figueroa • 22 Galletti • 23 Caballero • Coach: Pekerman Argentina squad – 2006 FIFA World Cup 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala • 3 Sorín (c) • 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 Argentina squad – Copa América 2007 Runners-up 1 Abbondanzieri • 2 Ayala (c) • 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 Argentina squad – 2010 FIFA World Cup 1 Pozo • 2 Demichelis • 3 C. Rodríguez • 4 Burdisso • 5 Bolatti • 6 Heinze • 7 Di María • 8 Verón • 9 Higuaín • 10 Messi • 11 Tévez • 12 Garcé • 13 Samuel • 14 Mascherano (c) • 15 Otamendi • 16 Agüero • 17 Gutiérrez • 18 Palermo • 19 Milito • 20 M. Rodríguez • 21 Andújar • 22 Romero • 23 Pastore • Coach: Maradona