Squad No: 1
Position: Goalkeeper
Age: 23
Birth Date: Jun 16, 1986
Birth Place: Montevideo, Uruguay
Height: 6' 3" (1.90m)
Weight: 163 lbs (74 kg)
Club: Lazio (Italy)
International Caps: 6
Club History
Lazio (ITA): 2007-
Nacional (URU): 2007
Montevideo Wanderers (URU): 2004-2006
from Wikipedia (full wiki)
Néstor Fernando Muslera Micol is a Uruguayan footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Italian Serie A club Lazio and the Uruguayan national team.
Muslera had been called up for the Uruguayan national team on numerous occasions, but did not earn his first cap until October 10, 2009, when he started in Uruguay's 2-1 away win over Ecuador. The match was Uruguay's penultimate qualifier for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
from ESPN SoccerNet
This giant young 'keeper was called up for the later stages of the 2010 qualification campaign, looking the part in the play-off double-header with Costa Rica in particular. Muslera's senior international debut came in October 2009 in a World Cup tie in Ecuador, which Uruguay won 2-1.
A graduate of the Montevideo Wanderers youth scheme, he subsequently figured prominently for their first XI before heading on loan to capital city slickers Nacional and then to Lazio, whom he joined in exchange for a £2.75 million fee in the summer of 2007.
Muslera is known to Biancocelesti followers as Castorino or the 'Little Beaver' and the club are so pleased with him they recently extended his contract until 2014. He has won the Italian Cup and Italian Super Cup with Lazio in recent years.
from FIFA.com
Fernando Muslera will celebrate his 24th birthday on 16 June, the day Uruguay face hosts and Group A rivals South Africa in Tshwane/Pretoria, so a starting place between the posts and a win for La Celeste would be the ideal present.
A physically imposing figure, Muslera’s reliability and command of the penalty area have marked him out as a dependable goalkeeper from a young age, featuring prominently at U-17 and U-20 levels for Uruguay. He made his Primera Division debut at just 18 with Montevideo Wanderers, the club whose youth ranks he had risen through, where he remained until being snapped up by Nacional in 2006.
His performances for Nacional, particularly in the 2007 Copa Libertadores, boosted his profile to such an extent that it was no surprise when Serie A outfit Lazio signed him that same year. And though he initially struggled to nail down a starting berth, by early 2009 he had laid claim to the Roman side's No1 jersey and has held onto it ever since.
On the senior national team scene, in March 2009 Oscar Tabarez called him up for the South Africa 2010 qualifiers against Paraguay and Chile, although Muslera remained an unused substitute on both occasions. His opportunity soon arose however and he made his full international debut in the penultimate game of the campaign against Ecuador in Quito.
After helping La Celeste to a valuable 2-1 success at altitude, Tabarez kept faith in Muslera for the final qualifier against Argentina and for both legs of the crucial play-off tie versus Costa Rica. And on the evidence of those four games, he has shown he has what it takes to shoulder the responsibility of being Uruguay’s first-choice keeper.
adidas World Cup 2010 Soccer T-Shirt (White)
adidas World Cup 2010 Final Official Match Soccer Ball
Posts
Gotta love this guy! He is an awesome player and saved those 2 penalty shots in the Uruguay vs. Ghana game. =D
ReplyDelete