Faryd Mondragón

Faryd Mondragón

Mondragón playing for 1. FC Köln in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Faryd Camilo Mondragón Alí
Date of birth	(1971-06-21) June 21, 1971
Place of birth	Cali, Colombia
Height	1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Playing position	Goalkeeper
Club information
Current club	Deportivo Cali
Number	1
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1990–1991	Deportivo Cali	1	(0)
1992	Real Cartagena	15	(0)
1992	Santa Fe	2	(0)
1993	Cerro Porteño	11	(0)
1993–1994	Argentinos Juniors	21	(0)
1994–1995	Independiente	0	(0)
1995	Santa Fe	8	(0)
1995–1998	Independiente	103	(1)
1999	Real Zaragoza	13	(0)
1999–2000	Independiente	16	(0)
2001	Metz	30	(0)
2001–2007	Galatasaray	185	(0)
2007–2010	1. FC Köln	106	(0)
2011	Philadelphia Union	27	(0)
2012–	Deportivo Cali	69	(0)
National team‡
1993–	Colombia	53	(0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of September 23, 2013. † Appearances (Goals). ‡ National team caps and goals correct as of November 19, 2013

Faryd Camilo Mondragón Alí (born June 21, 1971 in Cali) is a Colombian footballer who currently plays for Deportivo Cali in the Colombian First Division. He is also a long-time member of the Colombian national team, having played with them since 1993. This makes him one of the last few members of the original 1990s golden generation, while playing for the 2010s generation along with Mario Yepes.

Club career

He also had stints with Deportivo Cali, Independiente Santa Fe (Colombia), Cerro Porteño (Paraguay), Argentinos Juniors, Independiente (Argentina), Real Zaragoza (Spain) and FC Metz (France).

Faryd Mondragón in a match 27 Round, rivals Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Mondragón playing time in South America, starting in his country at Deportivo Cali and the Independiente Santa Fe before moving to Cerro Porteño in Paraguay. His career took off when he joined the most exclusive championship of Argentina with Argentinos Juniors in 1993. He then received his first team selection in Colombia. The following year he joined the Independiente where he became the goalkeeper for four seasons

He was the man behind the maintenance of FC Metz in Ligue 1 at the end of the 2000–2001 season as he was accumulating each match to secure the victories or draws that allowed the continuance, the club narrowly escaping. Mondragón was convicted of using a false Greek passport and despite the mitigating circumstances (the passport would have been provided by shysters and FC Metz had not reached the limit of players outside the EU), Mondragón was not allowed to play in France and had to leave the country.

Mondragón represented Turkish power Galatasaray from 2001 to 2007, where he won two Süper Lig titles in 2002 and 2006. He was appreciated by the fans for his many saves and his commitment to the success of the team, and also become known for his prayers before and during games. He came to the fore in many European matches and was selected Player of the week in the Champions League two times.

Mondragón transferred from Istanbul to 1. FC Köln in May 2007. After arriving at his new club, he was forced to compete with established Köln goalkeeper Stefan Wessels for a spot in the starting eleven. One of the reasons that he chose 1. FC Köln it was because the current coach Christoph Daum was working there. After an intense pre-season, Mondragón was named as the new number one for 1. FC Köln. This resulted in Wessels leaving the club for Everton in England. Since Wessels departure, Mondragón established a first choice goalkeeper for the club until Mondragón was relegated to the bench after an altercation with Zvonimir Soldo over his desire to go on international duty. This resulted in Mondragón being sent home from the team hotel and being replaced by young Croatian stopper Miro Varvodić.^[2]

Mondragón in his second spell at Deportivo Cali.

His contract with Köln was terminated with effect from 31 December 2010,^[3] the reason being Mondragón's desire to play in the MLS.

He spent the 2011 season with Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer, where he was successful in providing leadership to a young team. On January 30, 2012, Deportivo Cali announced Mondragon had signed a one-year contract to finish his career with his original professional club.^[4]

International career

Mondragón was a member of the Colombian teams that competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics and the 1998 FIFA World Cup. During the 1998 World Cup, he started in goal for all three of their games, including the final match against England. Despite conceding two goals, he made some impressive saves and in doing so kept the score down to 2–0. At the end of the game he broke down in tears and David Seaman, England's goalkeeper, did his best to console him. According to German footballing legend Franz Beckenbauer, Mondragón had been the best goalkeeper of the first round.^{[citation needed]}As Colombia qualified to the World Cup in Brazil 2014, Mondragón will be the oldest member in the final tournament, and will become the oldest player in FIFA World Cup history if he ever plays an official match during the competition. It's been said that he's the only player in football history to participate in six consecutives FIFA World Cup Qualifiers within a 20 years span (1993-2013). He had been summoned to the South American 2014 WCQ since Argentine coach Pekerman arrived to the Colombian national team, but he didn't record minutes played in the qualifiers with his national team.

After three years, he made a debut return to the national team's starting squad in a friendly against Belgium on November 15, 2013 where Colombia won 2-0. The last time he started behind the net for Colombia's international matches was on October 2010 in a friendly vs USA.

Career statistics

Updated February 22, 2011

Honours

Independiente

• Recopa Sudamericana: 1995
• Supercopa Libertadores: 1995

Galatasaray

• Süper Lig: 2001–02, 2005–06
• Turkish Cup: 2004–05

Deportivo Cali

• Superliga Colombiana: 2014

Personal life

He was born to Colombian parents of Lebanese ancestry.

References

External links

• Faryd Mondragón at National-Football-Teams.com
• Argentine Primera statistics (Spanish)

Faryd Mondragón – International tournaments v t e Colombia squad – 1992 Summer Olympics 1 Calero 2 Bermúdez 3 Moreno 4 Santa 5 Marulanda 6 Gaviria 7 Asprilla 8 Lozano 9 Valenciano 10 Pacheco 11 Uribe 12 Mondragón 13 Cassiani 14 Pérez 15 Aristizábal 16 Restrepo 17 Mejia 18 Osorio 19 Calanche 20 Cañas Coach: Gómez v t e Colombia squad – 1993 Copa América Third Place 1 Córdoba 2 Cortés 3 Mendoza 4 Herrera 5 Gaviria 6 Gómez 7 O.Maturana 8 García 9 Aristizábal 10 Valderrama 11 Valencia 12 Mondragón 13 Pacheco 14 Álvarez 15 Perea 16 Lozano 17 Asprilla 18 Osorio 19 Rincón 20 W.Pérez 21 R.Pérez 22 Pazo Coach: Maturana v t e Colombia squad – 1994 FIFA World Cup 1 Córdoba 2 Escobar 3 Mendoza 4 Herrera 5 Gaviria 6 Gómez 7 de Ávila 8 Lozano 9 Valenciano 10 Valderrama (c) 11 Valencia 12 Mondragón 13 Ortiz 14 Álvarez 15 Perea 16 Aristizábal 17 Serna 18 Cortés 19 Rincón 20 Pérez 21 Asprilla 22 Pazo Coach: Maturana v t e Colombia squad – 1997 Copa América 1 Mondragón 2 Córdoba 3 C. Asprilla 4 Santa 5 Bermúdez 6 Pérez 7 Zuleta 8 Estrada 9 Aristizábal 10 Mafla 11 F. Asprilla 12 Calero 13 Cabrera 14 Gaviria 15 Mosquera 16 Moreno 17 Ricard 18 Bonilla 19 Escobar 20 Pacheco 21 Zapata 22 Morantes Coach: Gómez v t e Colombia squad – 1998 FIFA World Cup 1 O. Córdoba 2 I. Córdoba 3 Palacios 4 Santa 5 Bermúdez 6 Serna 7 De Ávila 8 Lozano 9 Valencia 10 Valderrama (C) 11 Asprilla 12 Calero 13 Cabrera 14 Bolaño 15 Aristizábal 16 Moreno 17 Estrada 18 Pérez 19 Rincón 20 Ricard 21 Preciado 22 Mondragón Coach: Gómez v t e Colombia squad – 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Mondragón 2 Virviescas 3 Orozco 4 Vallejo 5 Mera 6 Perea 7 Patiño 8 Lozano 9 Vásquez 10 Hernández 11 Murillo 12 Henao 13 Montoya 14 Molina 15 Velázquez 16 Bustos 17 Restrepo 18 Castillo Coach: Maturana v t e Colombia squad – 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Mondragón 2 Benítez 3 De la Cuesta 4 Mendoza 5 González 6 J. Ramírez 7 Guarín 8 A. Ramírez 9 Rentería 10 Moreno 11 Valoyes 12 Martínez 13 Anchico 14 Palacio 15 Castrillón 16 Hurtado 17 Patiño 18 Arzuaga 19 Leal 20 Torres 21 Aguilar 22 Passo 23 Briceño Coach: Rueda