Julio Arca
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![]() Arca in 2014
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Personal information | |||
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Full name | Julio Andrés Arca | ||
Date of birth | 31 January 1981 | ||
Place of birth | Quilmes, Argentina | ||
Height | Script error: No such module "person height". | ||
Position(s) | Central midfielder / Left wingback | ||
Team information | |||
Current team
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South Shields | ||
Youth career | |||
1992–1999 | Argentinos Juniors | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
1998–2000 | Argentinos Juniors | 36 | (0) |
2000–2006 | Sunderland | 167 | (23) |
2006–2013 | Middlesbrough | 180 | (9) |
2014–2015 | Willow Pond | 3 | (1) |
2015– | South Shields | 14 | (5) |
International career‡ | |||
2001 | Argentina U20 | 2 | (0) |
2013 | Argentina B | 1 | (2) |
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 16:55, 12 September 2015 (UTC) ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17 June 2011 |
Julio Andrés Arca (born 31 January 1981) is an Argentine footballer, who currently plays as a left back or central midfielder for semi-professional football club South Shields. Arca has spent the majority of his career in the North East of England, firstly for Sunderland from 2000 to 2006, and then for Middlesbrough from 2006 to 2013. He retired from professional football following his release from Middlesbrough, and subsequently played Sunday League football for Willow Pond for the 2014–15 season. He later signed for South Shields, in addition to his return to Sunderland as part of the club's youth coaching staff.
During his professional career, he was seen as an attack minded player, with his key attributes including good long and short passing, as well as being a hard worker.
Contents
Club career
Sunderland
Sunderland's manager, Peter Reid, signed Arca in 2000 from Argentinos Juniors with a £3.5 million five-year deal, while holding off competition from Newcastle United and Leeds United. He was an immediate success, scoring on his debut at the Stadium of Light against West Ham United. Peter Reid spotted him in an Under 21s match playing against England at Craven Cottage and tracked him until completing the signing in July 2000.
Arca played for his previous club and national team at left back, but was successfully converted to left midfield by Reid. Arca was Reid's most expensive signing of that summer and was then second only behind Stefan Schwarz as the club's record buy. The youngster was tipped for the brightest of futures and full international honours in the near future.[citation needed]
Arca scored three times for the Black Cats in his first season in the Premiership. However, like so many Sunderland players, Arca's 2001–02 campaign was disappointing as he was troubled by a series of niggling injuries. He did not manage to rediscover his form of the previous season, and was out of action from February.
At the start of the 2002–03 campaign, Arca, who had then played 54 games for the club, stated his determination to get back to his best – both in fitness and form.[citation needed] He became a regular once again after Sunderland's relegation that season, and was arguably their best player as they returned to the Premiership under manager Mick McCarthy, winning the Football League Championship in 2004–05. Arca was also named in the PFA Team of the Year for the First Division in 2004, and for the Championship team in 2005.
Sunderland were relegated again in the 2005–06 season. As a result of relegation, Arca moved back to the Premiership joining North-East rivals Middlesbrough as a replacement for Franck Queudrue who moved to Fulham.
Middlesbrough
On 26 July 2006, Arca was Gareth Southgate's first senior player signing as manager of Middlesbrough, for a transfer fee of £1.75 million. He signed a five-year contract. Spanish club RCD Espanyol had also been interested in him.[1]
Arca played his first Premier League game for Middlesbrough against Reading on the opening day of the 2006-07 season. He broke his foot and was substituted at half-time for Andrew Davies.[2][3] After regaining fitness he proved a revelation. With the progress of Andrew Taylor at left-back, Arca has been utilised as central midfielder. He scored his first goal for the club against Charlton Athletic in December 2006.
He is still liked strongly by most Sunderland fans despite moving to their local rivals, and in the 2007 Tees–Wear derby at the Riverside when he went off injured after scoring against them, he was cheered by the visiting Sunderland supporters. Unfortunately, following this injury Arca struggled to regain his excellent form in the months prior to it.
In January 2008, Arca was named the new Middlesbrough captain by manager Gareth Southgate, replacing fellow midfielder George Boateng as skipper. His first game as captain was against Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League, the match ended 1–1. After only a few games leading the team, he was replaced by Austrian left back Emanuel Pogatetz.
Arca regained fine form towards the end of 2010, scoring in Middlesbrough's 2-1 win over Chesterfield in the League Cup and scoring his first league goal for over three years from a penalty kick, to give Middlesbrough a 1-0 victory over Cardiff.[4][5] He scored his second of the season against Hull City, and later that week, he scored his third of the campaign on a 2-1 win over Coventry City.
His contract ended at the end of the 2010-2011 season, in which he was voted the Player of the Year by both the fans and his team-mates. Arca re-signed with a two-year contract on 12 August 2011.[6] Two days after signing the contract, Arca came on as a substitute in an away league match at Leeds United and passed to Marvin Emnes to score the only goal of the game.[7]
Arca retired from professional football after his Middlesbrough contract expired in 2013.[8]
Post-Retirement
Arca played for Willow Pond FC, a second-division pub side in the Sunderland Sunday League.[9] In July 2015, he returned to Sunderland A.F.C. to join the club's youth coaching staff.[10]
On September 4th 2015, Arca agreed to join Northern League Division Two side South Shields.[11] He scored on his debut for the club, in a 1-1 draw with Stokesley Sports Club at Mariners Park. He later netted a superb goal against Ryton and Crawcrook Albion as the Mariners won 4-0 in front of a crowd of 1,045, while his third goal for South Shields came when he notched a trademark free-kick in a 4-0 victory at Esh Winning.
International career
Arca was the captain of the Argentina Youth Team which featured players like Javier Saviola, Nicolás Burdisso and Maxi Rodríguez in the same squad.
After his successful first season in the Premier League with Sunderland, Arca captained the Argentina Under-20 team which won the FIFA U-20 World Cup tournament in Buenos Aires, Argentina. They beat the Ghana U-20 team 3-0 in the final to win their fourth title.[12]
Honours
![](/w/images/thumb/7/73/Julio_Arca_2013.jpg/300px-Julio_Arca_2013.jpg)
Club
- Sunderland
International
- Argentina
Individual
- PFA Team of the Year (2): 2003–04, 2004–05
- North East Football Award - Football League Footballer of the Year: 2003–04
- Sunderland Solid Gold XI[13]
Career statistics
- As of 5 May 2011
Club performance | League | Cup | League Cup | Continental | Total | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Season | Club | League | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
Argentina | League | Cup | League Cup | South America | Total | |||||||
1999–00 | Argentinos Juniors | Argentine Primera División | 19 | 0 | - | - | - | 19 | 0 | |||
2000–01 | 17 | 0 | - | - | - | 17 | 0 | |||||
England | League | FA Cup | League Cup | Europe | Total | |||||||
2000–01 | Sunderland | Premier League | 27 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | 30 | 3 | |
2001–02 | 22 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 24 | 1 | |||
2002–03 | 13 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | - | 18 | 2 | |||
2003–04 | First Division | 31 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | - | 37 | 6 | ||
2004–05 | Championship | 40 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 42 | 9 | ||
2005–06 | Premier League | 24 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | 26 | 2 | ||
2006–07 | Middlesbrough | 21 | 2 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 0 | - | 28 | 3 | ||
2007–08 | 24 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 29 | 2 | |||
2008–09 | 18 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - | 21 | 0 | |||
2009–10 | Championship | 34 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | - | 36 | 0 | ||
2010–11 | 32 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | - | 36 | 4 | |||
2011–12 | 28 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | - | 31 | 0 | |||
Career total | 350 | 24 | 33 | 5 | 10 | 3 | - | 393 | 32 |
References
- ↑ BBC SPORT | Football | My Club | Middlesbrough | Middlesbrough complete Arca swoop
- ↑ BBC SPORT | Football | Premiership | Reading 3-2 Middlesbrough
- ↑ BBC SPORT | Football | Football clockwatch
- ↑ http://www.mfc.co.uk/articles/20100810/chesterfield-1-middlesbrough-2_70605_53895
- ↑ http://www.mfc.co.uk/articles/20101211/middlesbrough-1-cardiff-0_70605_52212
- ↑ BBC Sport - Julio Arca signs new Middlesbrough deal
- ↑ Sunday Sun - News, views, gossip, pictures, video - Chronicle Live
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2734897/Julio-Arca-retired-level-football-former-Sunderland-man-playing-Sunday-League-mates.html
- ↑ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2779640/Julio-Arca-The-former-Premier-League-star-pays-3-50-subs-turn-Willow-Pond-FC-second-division-pub-side.html
- ↑ http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sunderland-top-job-goal-julio-9745749
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ FIFA Confederations Cup - FIFA World Youth Championship Argentina 2001 - FIFA.com
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
External links
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- Use dmy dates from June 2013
- Pages using infobox football biography with height issues
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2007
- Commons category link from Wikidata
- 1981 births
- Argentine footballers
- Argentine expatriate footballers
- Argentinos Juniors footballers
- Expatriate footballers in England
- Association football defenders
- Association football utility players
- Living people
- Middlesbrough F.C. players
- People from Quilmes
- Premier League players
- Sunderland A.F.C. players
- The Football League players
- Argentine Primera División players
- Argentine expatriate sportspeople in the United Kingdom