Nicolás Hernán Otamendi (born 12 February 1988) is an Argentine football centre back who plays for F.C. Porto in the Portuguese Liga.

Club career

Otamendi made his debut for Vélez Sársfield on May 10, 2008 on a 2-1 home victory against Rosario Central for the 2008 Clausura tournament, under the guidance of head coach Hugo Tocalli.[2] During Tocalli's time, Otamendi was the fifth choice as central defender, behind Mariano Uglessich, Waldo Ponce, Fernando Tobio and Marco Torsiglieri. However, his role in the first team changed during Ricardo Gareca's first season as the club's head coach, the 2009 Clausura. Otamendi replaced Waldo Ponce as the team's centre back for the third game of the tournament, after the Chilean footballer injured while playing for his national team.[2] Otamendi won a place as a regular starter along Sebastián Domínguez in the defense.[2] He ended up playing 17 of the 19 games in Vélez' 2009 Clausura winning campaign.[3]

The defender scored his first professional goal during the 2009 Apertura, in Vélez' 3-1 victory over Arsenal de Sarandí. During that season, he also debuted on an international club competition, playing the Copa Sudamericana. In recognition of his performances throughout 2009, he was chosen for the South American Team of the Year, in a traditional continent-wide journalists' poll conducted by the newspaper El País.[4]

On August 23, 2010, Otamendi was transferred from Vélez Sársfield to Portuguese side F.C. Porto on a €4 million fee, signing a five-year contract.[5] Vélez Sársfield also retained 50% registration rights and had a pre-set price of another €4 million to be excise by Porto until September 2011.[6]

International career

In 2009 Otamendi was called by coach Diego Maradona for the Argentine national team to play a friendly international match against Panama.[7] When he was called, Otamendi was 21 years old and had only played 11 professional games.[2] On May 20 he started the game against Panama, which Argentina won 3-1. He was also called to play the World Cup qualifying matches against Colombia and Ecuador, and played as a centre back along Martín Demichelis in the second of the aforementioned. He also started in the game against Brazil, where he played along Sebastián Domínguez, his teammate in Vélez. His third start with Argentina during the World Cup qualification was in the final match, against Uruguay, where he played as a right fullback.

On May 19, 2010, Otamendi was confirmed as part of the 23 men squad to play the FIFA World Cup 2010 for Argentina.[8] On June 22, 2010 Otamendi was in the starting eleven for the final group stage game against Greece. On the press conference after the match, coach Diego Maradona said that, in his opinion, Otamendi was the best player on the field.[9] He also played the 90 minutes of the round of 16 game against Mexico which Argentina won by 3-1. Finally, Otamendi also started on the quarter-final match against Germany, were Argentina lost by a margin of 4-0. This time his performance received criticism by the football press, as did Maradona's decision to improvise him on the right back position.[10][11] However, after the tournament the defender expressed that he is always willing to play for his national team, even if it is not in his natural position of centre back.[12]

Honours

Vélez Sársfield

Argentine Primera División: 1

2009 Clausura