Faryd Mondragón
Faryd Camilo Mondragón Aly ( born June 21, 1971 in Cali ) is a Colombian football goalkeeper Lebanese descent.
Career
Club career
Beginnings in Colombia and Argentina
The 1.91 m wide descendant of Lebanese immigrants began his career at Deportivo Cali in Colombia. About Independiente Santa Fe and Cerro Porteño (Paraguay ), he came in the 1993/94 season to the Argentinos Juniors in Argentina's capital Buenos Aires. Already the next season he moved to league rivals Independiente, where he remained until 1998.
Career in Spain, France and Turkey
For the 1998/99 season he moved to Europe for Spanish side Real Zaragoza. After another year in the gate of Independiente Mondragón moved in July 2000 in the French Ligue 1 to Metz. Though the descent was narrowly avoided and he was even awarded the Étoile d'Or, Mondragón had to leave the club after just one year. He then played six years with Galatasaray, where on winning the championship in 2005 and participated in the Cup win, he was in 2002 and 2006.
1 FC Köln
In July 2007, Mondragón moved to the German second division club FC Cologne 1. He got there a two year contract with an option for another year and wore the jersey number 1
With FC he rose in 2008 to the Bundesliga and was the first South American goalkeeper in the first German league. In the 2010/11 season Mondragón was the oldest active football players in the Bundesliga. He took over from Jens Lehmann, who had at the end of the previous season ended his career.
Due to a trip to two test matches with the Colombian national team, he lost his place in October 2010 in Cologne goal.
The contract was terminated with Mondragón in December 2010. The goalkeeper moved to the North American Major League Soccer.
Philadelphia Union
In January 2011, Mondragón signed a contract with Philadelphia Union. His league debut for the MLS club he gave on March 19, 2011, game against Houston Dynamo. Mondragón broke Danny Califf from as captain of the team.
Return to Colombia
After the 2011 season he moved on January 30, 2012 Deportivo Cali, there to end his career.
National
In the National Mondragón long stood in the shadow of Óscar Córdoba. As early as the 1994 World Cup in the USA, he sat on the bench. At the World Cup in France in 1998, he played, but resigned from Colombia already after the first round. Since then, Colombia has missed both the 2002 World Cup and qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In October 2009 he refused a comeback to the national team because he preferred to concentrate on the 1 FC Cologne itself. Thus, his international career was finally over.
On September 29, 2010 was to read in the Cologne Express that Mondragón should slip over the age of 39 years for two Test matches again the national team jersey. Against Ecuador ( 8.10. ) And the USA (12.10. ) He should the injured regular keeper David Ospina represented. However, in the first test match was back Ospina in goal. In the match against the USA Mondragon could, however, play from the beginning. After good performances for Deportivo Cali, he was appointed on 10 August 2012 at the age of 41 years, for the international match on September 7, 2012 against Uruguay.
Miscellaneous
Mondragón was in February 2010 appointed Ambassador of the Cologne -profit organization KIDsmiling whose social football project "Come bolt! " he supported.
Mondragón was involved in his career at various scandals, including a scandal involving fake passports during his time at FC Metz. Mondragón and four other South American players of different clubs had games with false European passports denied and so bypassed the immigration control. Because of the game in the second round of the UEFA Champions League match between AS Roma and Galatasaray, after there had been a fight between the Italian and Turkish players, policemen and fans, was also determined against Mondragón.