MartÃn Demichelis
Martín Demichelis 2010
Martín Gastón Demichelis ( born December 20, 1980 in Justiniano Posse, Córdoba ) is an Argentine footballer who has an Italian passport due to his Italian ancestry. Since September 2013 he is with the English first division club Manchester City under contract.
Career
Association
Demichelis started his football career at Complejo Deportivo and moved in 1995 to the Clube Renato Cesarini, for which he was three seasons running. For a professional footballer he was, as he 1998 - outgrown adolescence - joined the Argentine club River Plate Top Buenos Aires and played for this to 2003. With River Plate Demichelis won the national championship in 2002 and 2003. In 2003, FC Bayern Munich secured the services of the Argentine for about 4.5 million euros. His competitive debut for the Red and Whites, he gave in the first round of the DFB - Cup on 30 August 2003 in a 5-0 away win against Borussia Neunkirchen. On his first Bundesliga use Demichelis had to wait until the 7th Round 2003/ 04. In the away game in Rostock he was then on 27 September 2003 in the starting of Munich, where he acted in front of the back four in the defensive midfield. His first hit in the jersey of FCB scored Demichelis on 16 December 2003 in the away match against SC Freiburg. At 6-0, he led with his headed goal to make it 1-0 a path to success.
In the second half it was quiet around the Argentines. Between the 18th and 34th round of the defensive players only came to six inserts. He was replaced three times and three times. Reasons were that in central defense with Samuel Kuffour, Thomas Linke and Robert Kovač already fought three defenses to two places and the defensive midfield with Owen Hargreaves, Jens Jeremies and Michael Ballack was well stocked. Short term coach Ottmar Hitzfeld pushed him even from the reserve team of the club. In the seasons 2004/ 05, 2005/ 06 and 2006/ 07 Demichelis played regularly. Here, the former coach Felix Magath put him but especially on the position of the first molar. It was not until 2007/ 08 ordered him Hitzfeld in central defense, where he alternately gave the Manndeckerduo with Lúcio or Daniel Van Buyten. However Demichelis caused a scandal when he at a press conference about it publicly complained to be temporarily re not used under Hitzfeld on his preferred position in the defense and refused to continue to play as a defensive midfielder.
His first title with Bayern won Demichelis 2004. As the former vice-champion of the FCB was entitled to start in the competition of the DFB - League Cup, where they beat Werder Bremen 3-2. In the years 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010, the club won the national championship and the DFB-Pokal. This Demichelis was in all four finals for the cup in the starting of Munich. Also in the Champions League final on 22 May 2010, which was lost 0-2 against Inter Milan, he went on from the start. Before the first game of the season 2010/11 against VfL Wolfsburg he was removed from coach van Gaal from the starting line and then refused to sit on the bench.
Unhappy with his reservist role at Bayern Munich, Demichelis joined on 1 January 2011 to FC Málaga after both clubs agreed on the transfer prior year; on the transfer arrangements were not disclosed. His first game for the Spanish side Demichelis completed on 8 January 2011 ( 18th Round ) in the 1-1 draw at home against Athletic Bilbao, where he also scored his first goal for intermediate 1-0.
After he had rejected the contract extension offered to him, Demichelis joined in July 2013 initially free transfer to Premier League rivals Atlético Madrid, in which he received a one-year contract. To have played even without a competitive match for Atlético, however, he was already committed two months later by the English first division club Manchester City and is there until 30 June 2015 under contract.
National
For the Confederations Cup 2005, he was indeed called by coach José Pekerman in the squad of the national team, but denied during the tournament, not a single game.
Despite several missions for friendly matches he was not nominated on May 15, 2006 by Pekerman for Argentina's squad at the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Following the resignation of Roberto Ayala, he was under coach Alfio Basile, however, again a permanent member of the team. The media response was positive.
In 2008 he was nominated for the Argentine squad for the Olympic Summer Games 2008 in Beijing. Since the FC Bayern Munich but not set him free, he finally decided to voluntarily participate. In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa he was in the squad and came in all five games for use. In the preliminary round match against Greece, he scored a goal with a header.
Achievements
With River Plate:
- Argentine champion (2): 2002, 2003
With Bayern Munich:
- UEFA Champions League finalists (1 ): 2010
- German champions (4): 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010
- DFB Cup Winners (4): 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010
- DFB / DFL - League Cup winners (2): 2004, 2007
- DFL - Supercup winner (1 ): 2010
With Manchester City:
- League Cup (1): 2014
With Argentina:
- Confederations Cup finalists ( 1): 2005
- World Cup participants (1 ): 2010