Fat Footballers: Néstor Ortigoza

Picture: pesstatsdatabase.com

After watching his penalty kick that decided the Final of 2014 Copa Bridgestone Libertadores, we decided that Néstor Ezequiel Ortigoza couldn’t be left out from our “Fat Footballers” column.

Néstor was born in San Antonio de Padua, Argentina in 1984 (October 7^th), was formed and started playing football professionally at Argentinos Juniors, with whom, after spending a brief loan spell at Nueva Chicago, he won the Torneo Clausura of Argentinian Primera Divisiòn in 2010.

During these years he was a key element in the midfield of his team, and in December 2008 he had also been called up for two friendlies with Argentinian National Team by the manager Diego Armando Maradona, who had selected only footballers playing in the local Championship, but the matches were cancelled because 2008 Torneo Clausura had to be decided by an unexpected three-team play-off contested by Boca Juniors, San Lorenzo and Tigre, and too many players, who had been selected by Maradona, were part of these teams.
In April 2009 he obtained Paraguaian citizenship because of his father’s origin, and then he decided to represent Paraguay at international level, playing 2010 World Cup (Quarter-finalist) and 2011 Copa America (runner-up).
Anyway in 2011 he moved to CA San Lorenzo de Almagro, where he’s still playing, despite a spell in UAE in 2012/13 with Emirates Club, with whom he won the League.

The beginning of his adventure with the “Ciclòn” was quite hard, because the team was struggling in the low places of the table and in 2012 avoided relegation on the last matchday, and he was criticized by both the fans and press because of his “important” weight, but he denied to be fat and said to Argentinian press that his weight was the same that he was used to have at Argentinos Juniors and with whom he had played a World Cup and a Copa America.

Anyway, after coming back from UAE, life got better, because San Lorenzo won 2013 Torneo Apertura (the second Championship in one year won by Ortigoza), so qualifying for 2014 Copa Libertadores, that the Club from Buenos Aires won thanks to a decisive penalty kick scored by Ortigoza in the Second Leg of the Final (1-0).

Néstor is a midfielder, and old-style playmaker: he’s not fast, but has very good feet, good technical skills and is an excellent passer. Moreover he’s a specialist at taking PKs, and had also managed to convert 19 of them in a row, until April 2012.

Basically he’s an oversized Andrea Pirlo, that looks a bit like Ronaldo (Luis Nazario da Lima) in the end of his career !