Carlos Bocanegra
Carlos Bocanegra 2010
Carlos Bocanegra ( born May 25, 1979 in Upland, California ) is a Mexican- American soccer player. Bocanegra national team of the United States and was its captain.
Sports career
The 1.83 meter tall central and left defender Bocanegra went through at a young age, the U.S. national teams at youth level and played it in the U18 and U20 national teams. With the U20 team, he graduated at the Junior World Cup in 1999 in Nigeria a game against England, which won the team 1-0 and thus moved into the next round. In the same year he was part of the U23 national team that won the bronze medal at the Pan American Games. Bocanegra, firing shots in the game against Canada with his first goal for the United States.
After he had also played on the California UCLA college football, he became in 2000 part of the " Project 40 ", a sponsored by the company Nike joint venture between Major League Soccer (MLS ) and the American Football Association United States soccer Federation ( USSF ), the young football talents wanted to help in their development. He moved in the same year on the draft system of the MLS as the fourth player to Chicago Fire SC. There he developed in his first year as a pro at a consistently good player and was awarded at the end for best newcomer as "Rookie of the Year." He also won with his team, the U.S. Open Cup.
Bocanegra was called by Bruce Arena in the squad of the U.S. national team in January 2001, but only came on December 9 against South Korea for the first time used. His second season in Chicago was there negatively affected by an ankle injury.
In the following two years, he then became one of the nation's best players and was voted the best defender of the season in both 2002 and 2003. In the national squad Bocanegra became more and more first-team regular and made especially with his five appearances at the Gold Cup in 2002 attracted attention. In the same year he coached two weeks at the Dutch club Feyenoord Rotterdam, but then moved in January 2004 for English club Fulham.
There he quickly found himself in the team and came for the rest of the season 2003/ 04 and in the subsequent season 2004 /05 right off the bat to a total of 43 league operations. During qualifying for the World Cup in Germany Bocanegra was one of the major players and acted there both on the inside and on the left -back position.
For the season 2008/ 09, the Americans joined the French first division side Stade Rennes. There he stood in his first season in all 38 league games on the court.
In July 2010 he signed a two -year contract with the Premier League rivals AS Saint- Étienne, however, changed after one season to the Scottish giants Rangers where it signed up to the year 2014.
On 15 November, he made the 3-2 win against Slovenia his 100th game.
Others
- Bocanegra has besides the U.S. and Mexican citizenship.
- He received the nickname "Go" from his teammates in Chicago.
Achievements
United States
- CONCACAF Gold Cup (2): 2002, 2007
Chicago Fire
- U.S. Open Cup (2): 2000, 2003
As a player
- MLS Rookie of the Year: 2000
- MLS Defender of the Year: 2002, 2003