Roberto Ayala

Roberto Fabián "El Ratón" Ayala (born 14 April 1973 in Paraná, Argentina) is an Argentina Football (soccer) player, who currently plays for the Spain team Real Zaragoza. Regarded as one of the best Football (soccer) positions Centre back in the world, he has been captain of the Argentina national football team for more matches than anyone else. He has captained in 63 matches and has played in three FIFA World Cup. Ayala is the most capped player ever for Argentina with 115 international appearances.

Roberto inherited the nickname of Ratón (Mouse) from Argentine 1974 FIFA World Cup player Rubén Ayala, though they are not related.

Club

Playing for Valencia, he reached the finals of the 2000 and 2001 UEFA Champions League, but his team lost to Real Madrid C.F. and Bayern Munich, respectively. The next year, Valencia won the 2001-02 Spanish La Liga. In the 2003-04 season, Valencia once again won the Spanish La Liga and added the UEFA Cup to their trophy cabinet.

In the 2004-05 season a number of injuries kept Ayala from playing in much of the Liga campaign and he also missed out on the UEFA Super Cup 2004 victory over Porto. In his absence Valencia's results suffered.

In August 2006, he said that he wanted to leave Valencia after he was not offered a new contract by sporting director Amedeo Carboni. On February 7, 2007 Ayala announced that he would be joining their regional rivals Villarreal CF at the end of the 2006/07 season. However, before having played a single match for Villarreal, he paid his own buy-out clause and then joined Real Zaragoza on a three year deal on the 14th of July 2007.

Country

He made his debut for Argentina on November 16, 1994 against Chile under coach Daniel Passarella.

Ayala played for Argentina at the Football at the 1996 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal. He played for Argentina national football team in the Football World Cup 1998 and was a non-playing squad member in the Football World Cup 2002 competition due a last minute injury moments before their first match against Nigeria. He was then selected as an over-age player as Argentina won the Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics at the Football at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Ayala played an integral part in the Argentine squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He played brilliantly throughout the tourment and was picked as one member of the All Star Team. In the quarterfinal against Germany national football team he scored a header that gave Argentina the 1-0 lead. Argentina lost the penalty shootout after the 1-1 tie, with Ayala's spot kick being saved by Jens Lehmann.

On 27th June 2006, In a friendly match with Angola, Ayala completed 100 caps for Argentina.

One of the best defenders in Argentina history, on February 7 2007, Ayala became the most capped player of the National team (most of the times as Captain (football)), beating his friend Diego Simeone, in a friendly victory 1-0 against France national football team played in Stade de France, Paris.

On June 5 2007 in a friendly against Algeria, Roberto Ayala captained Argentina for a record 58th international, having equalled Diego Maradona's mark of 57 in the 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Basel on Saturday 2nd June.

On 17 July 2007 after playing in the Copa América 2007 final against Brazil, during which he scored an own goal, Ayala announced he will no longer play for the National side Ayala stated, "No tiene nada que ver lo ocurrido en la final de la Copa América." This translates to, "It has nothing to do with what happened in the final of the Copa America."

Honours

International honours

Winner
- 2004 Olympic Games

Club honours

River Plate

Winner
- 1994 Primera División Argentina

AC Milan

Winner
- Serie A 1998-99 Serie A

Valencia CF

Winner
- La Liga season 2001/2002, La Liga season 2003/2004 La Liga
- UEFA Cup 2003-04 UEFA Cup
- 2004 UEFA Super Cup