Nicolas Otamendi Manchester City’s new Loco (Crazy) Centre back, Otamendi born in Buenos Aires, began his
career at Velez Sarsfield, Otamendi spent
12 years in the youth academy before making his debut on the 10th
may 2008 in a 2-1 home win against Rosario Central. The following season with a
new manager Ricardo Gareca, due to an injury to Waldo Ponce while playing for
Chile, Otamendi was given a crack at the first team, as a result ended up playing
17 out of 19 matches in Velez’s title winning campaign.
Otamendi scored his first professional goal for Sarsfield in
a 3-1 triumph of Arsenal de Sarandi, during that season Otamendi also made his debut in the Copa Sudamericana,
in recognition of his performances for Sarsfield, Otamendi was selected for
South American Team of the Year.
In August 2010, Otamendi joined Portuguese giants FC Porto
for a fee €8 million and signed a 5 year deal in the process, Otamendi score in
his first match in a 2-0 home win against S.C. Olhanense, in Otamendi’s first
season he made 32 appearances scoring on 6 occasions as FC Porto went on to win
the treble for the second time in the last 15 years with the Portuguese Championship,
the Taca de Portugal and the Europa League, so as far as first seasons go it was a good one for Otamendi . Over the
course of a 4 year spell in Portugal, Otamendi went on to win 3 Primeira Liga’s,
1 taca de Portugal, 1 Europa League 3 Supertaca.
After 4 trophy laden years in Portugal, in 2014 Spanish
giant Valencia CF signed Otamendi for €12 million starting on July 1st
and was loaned to Brazilian Atletico Mineiro immediately, Otamendi would go on
to play just one season in Spain with Valencia, scoring his first goal in October
against Atletico Madrid in a 3-1 win, as well as getting the winner in a
crucial 2-1 victory against Real Madrid
which ended their opponents record of 22 match winning streak, furthermore it
was the first time in four years since Los Che qualified for the Champions
League after finishing in 4th place in La Liga, Otamendi would be
the only Valencia player named in La Liga team of the Year.
In August 2015 after much speculation, Otamendi signed for
Manchester City for a fee of £28.5 million rising to £32 million, on a five
year deal, which would have Manchester City fans drooling at the prospect of
having Vincent Kompany and Loco
Otamendi at Centre backs, however I feel really sorry for Mangala as after a shaky start, has come on leaps and bounds since joining Manchester City last year. but with the arrival of Otamendi.
Through my eyes, Otamendi is a quality signing, with
Sterling already there and the expecting arrival of Kevin De Bruyne for a fee
of £50 million, it’s safe to say Manchester City are back and won’t be just a
threat in the Premier League but also in Europe
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