Rodolfo Martín Arruabarrena (born 20 July 1975), known as El Vasco (The Basque), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of the Boca Juniors. A left-back, he spent most of his career with Boca Juniors, where he began his professional career, and Spanish club Villarreal.
Club career
Argentina "El Vasco" Arruabarrena (The Basque) debuted professionally in 1993 with Boca Juniors, where he played until 2000, except for the Apertura 1996, when he was lent to Rosario Central for six months. After returning to Boca, he gained a place in the regular squad.
While with Boca, Rodolfo Arruabarrena won the Apertura in 1998 and the Clausura in 1999 Argentine first division tournaments, as well as the Copa Libertadores 2000. He played a total of 178 games for Boca in all competitions, scoring 7 goals.
Villarreal From Boca he moved to Spanish Villarreal in mid 2000. Because of his reliability while playing as the team's left-back, he has been the team's captain in several occasions. He holds Villarreal's record of appearances in La Liga, with 178 first division matches with El Submarino Amarillo (as of 9 December 2005).
Arruabarrena's goals in the 2005–06 UEFA Champions League helped to eliminate Scottish club Rangers and Italians Inter Milan to reach the semi-finals in the club's first ever season in the competition.
With Villarreal, he won the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2003 and 2004, and played 200 league and international matches for the Spanish team (as of 10 September 2006).
AEK Athens On 3 May 2007, El Vasco signed a three-year contract with Greek Super League runners-up AEK Athens for €800,000 per year for two years, extendable for a third. According to Arruabarrena, an important role for his decision to continue his career in Greece was played by Lorenzo Serra Ferrer (AEK manager) and Demis Nikolaidis (former star player and later president of his new club who played for Atlético Madrid in 2003–04)."El adiós de Arruabarrena"
In Rivaldo's debut with AEK, Arruabarrena set up the Brazilian legend to score on a header. Arruabarrena also set up Ismael Blanco to score against Getafe in a UEFA Cup match. Arruabarrena managed to have 25 appearances for AEK in one season but, halfway through the season, he suffered a serious injury.
On 29 July 2008, AEK Athens manager Georgios Donis announced to the press that Arruabarrena was no longer in the team's plans.
International career El Vasco played five matches with the Argentina national team, as well as several with the youth team. Arruabarrena made his first cap against Chile in 1994. He also played some matches in 1995 and one against England on 23 February 2000. Arruabarrena was not called up again for national team duty until September 2006, when Alfio Basile called him for a friendly match against Spain, and then again in February 2007 for another friendly against France. Arruabarrena was also called up for another friendly match against Chile on 18 April 2007 but he was left on the substitutes' bench.
Career statistics Club + Appearances and goals by club, season and competitionClubSeasonLeagueCupContinentalTotalDivisionGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsBoca Juniors1992–93Argentine Primera División10——101993–9410—10201994–95200—202201995–9680—201001996–97120——1201997–98356—514071998–99363—504131999–2000332—175507Total14611—32617811Rosario Central (loan)1996–97Argentine Primera División150—51201Villarreal CF2000–01La Liga372——3722001–0236610—3762002–03320—413612003–04 342301605322004–05260—1704302005–06330—1324622006–072112010241Total219116051328414AEK Athens2007–08Super League Greece1601090260Tigre2008–09Argentine Primera División361——3612009–10331—20351Total692—20712Universidad Católica2010Chilean Primera División14010—150 Career total4792480991059434
International + Appearances and goals by national team and yearNational teamYearAppsGoalsArgentina199420199510199600199700199800199900200010200100200200200300200400200500200610Total50
Managerial statistics
TeamNatFromToRecord Tigre5 January 201121 October 2012Nacional26 March 201331 December 2013Boca Juniors29 August 201429 February 2016Al Wasl1 July 201630 June 2018Al-Rayyan5 July 20188 October 2018Shabab Al Ahli11 October 20188 March 2020Pyramids11 November 202029 June 2021United Arab Emirates13 February 20221 July 2023Al-Taawoun6 July 20249 February 2025Boca Juniors18 June 2026presentTotal
Honours
Player Boca Juniors Argentine Primera División: 1998 Apertura, 1999 Clausura Copa Libertadores: 2000
Villarreal UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2003, 2004
Universidad Católica Chilean Primera División: 2010
Argentina U23 Pan American Games: 1995
Manager Boca Juniors Argentine Primera División: 2015 Copa Argentina: 2014–15
Al-Rayyan Sheikh Jassim Cup: 2018
Shabab Al Ahli UAE President's Cup: 2018–19 UAE League Cup: 2018–19 UAE Pro League runner-up: 2018–19
References
External links
Football database Argentine soccer Yahoo! Sports Champions League