Fabricio Coloccini

Fabricio Coloccini

Personal information
Full name	Fabricio Coloccini
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Position(s)	Defender
Team information
Current team	Newcastle United
Number	2
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 12:21, 14 September 2008 (UTC)

Olympic medal record
Representing Argentina
Men's Football
	2004 Athens	Team Competition

Fabricio Coloccini (born 22 January 1982) is an Argentine football defender who plays for Newcastle United and the Argentina National Side. In his club career, he has previously represented Boca Juniors, AC Milan and Deportivo La Coruña, among others.

Known for his physical approach to the game, Coloccini also holds an Italian passport due to his ancestry.

Club career

Born in Córdoba, Córdoba Province, Coloccini started his career in the youth team of Argentinos Juniors, but made his professional debut in 1998 with Boca Juniors. In 1999, at the end of the Apertura championship, he moved to A.C. Milan. Coloccini was the center of a controversy between Boca and Milan, because the transfer from Argentina to Italy wasn't agreed between the clubs. Instead, Milan arranged terms with Coloccini's father (also a former football player), who exercised his parental rights to remove the minor from Argentina. After that, FIFA ordered Milan to pay Boca compensation.

In 2001, he was loaned to Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro where he helped the team to win the 2001 Clausura tournament. From 2001-04, Coloccini served three consecutive loans in La Liga: Deportivo Alavés (netting an impressive 6 league goals), Atlético de Madrid and Villarreal CF, where he was always first-choice.

After having only appeared once for Milan officially, Coloccini joined Deportivo de La Coruña in January 2005, on a six-year deal.During his 3 1/2 seasons stint, he was an undisputed starter, and appeared in all the matches during 2007-08 netting 4 goals, good enough for a UEFA Intertoto Cup berth.

Coloccini joined Newcastle United on a five-year contract in August 2008 for a fee of up to £10.3 million.Two days later, he made his debut against the reigning league champions, Manchester United, playing 90 minutes in a 1-1 away draw.

Since debuting, Coloccini has been one of the most consistent inclusions in Newcastle's squad, recently forming a highly-rated partnership with fellow Toon newcomer Sébastien Bassong. Despite this, he hasn't been immune to the pressures of representing Newcastle's infamous defence, coming under his most intense criticism for his performance in Newcastle's 28 December defeat to league leaders Liverpool, which the North East club lost 5-1. Despite his mistakes in the game, manager Joe Kinnear voiced his support for Coloccini, stating that he believed his "Mr. Reliable" would bounce back.. On February 1st, Coloccini was substituted against Sunderland in the 93rd minute. Up until this point, Coloccini had appeared in every minute of every game for Newcastle in the 2008-09 season.

International career

Coloccini was part of the Argentina Under-20 that won the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship, as well as the gold medal winning Argentine team at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

With the main squad, he made his debut in 2003, and first participated in the 2005 Confederations Cup, scoring one goal in the game against Cameroon. In the 2006 World Cup, Coloccini played in two games, as a substitute against the Netherlands, and starting against Germany in the quarterfinals penalty shootout loss.

Career statistics

Template:Football player statistics 1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1998-99||Boca Juniors||Argentine League||2||1|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |1999-00||AC Milan||Italian League||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2000-01||San Lorenzo||Argentine League||19||3|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2001-02||Deportivo Alavés||Spanish League||33||6||0||0||0||0||0||0||33||6 |- |2002-03||Atlético Madrid||Spanish League||27||0||0||0||0||0||0||0||27||0 |- |2003-04||Villarreal CF||Spanish League||32||1||0||0||0||0||11||0||43||1 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||AC Milan||Italian League||1||0||0||0||0||0||1||0||2||0 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2004-05||rowspan="4"|Deportivo La Coruña||rowspan="4"|Spanish League||15||1||0||0||0||0||0||0||15||1 |- |2005-06||26||0||4||0||0||0||0||0||30||0 |- |2006-07||26||0||2||0||0||0||0||0||28||0 |- |2007-08||38||4||0||0||0||0||0||0||38||4 Template:Football player statistics 2 |- |2008-09||Newcastle United||Premier League||31||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||35||0 Template:Football player statistics 321||4|||||||||||||||| Template:Football player statistics 41||0||0||0||0||0||1||0||2||0 Template:Football player statistics 4197||12||6||0||0||0||11||0||214||12 Template:Football player statistics 431||0||2||0||2||0||0||0||35||0 Template:Football player statistics 5250||16||8||0||2||0||12||0||272||16 |}

Titles

Argentina

• FIFA World Youth Championship: 2001
• Summer Olympics: 2004 - Gold medal

Boca Juniors

• Argentine League: Apertura 1998
• Argentine League: Clausura 1999

San Lorenzo

• Argentine League: Clausura 2001

External links

• Fabricio Coloccini at Soccerbase
• Stats at Liga de Fútbol Profesional Template:Es icon
• NationalFootballTeams data
• Newcastle United profile