Name Sebastian Eguren Career start 1999 Years Team Weight 84 kg | Number 8 Height 1.86 m Playing position Role Footballer | |
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Full name Sebastian Eguren Ledesma Date of birth (1981-01-08) 8 January 1981 (age 34) Current teams Club Nacional de Football (Midfielder), Uruguay national football team (Midfielder) Similar People Diego Perez, Walter Gargano, Oscar Tabarez, Mauricio Victorino, Nicolas Lodeiro Profiles | ||
Place of birth Montevideo, Uruguay | ||
Sebastian eguren
Sebastián Eguren Ledesma (born 8 January 1981) is a retired Uruguayan professional footballer who played mainly as a defensive midfielder.
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He started his career with Montevideo Wanderers, and went on to play professionally in Norway, Sweden, Spain, Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina.
Eguren gained 57 caps for Uruguay, representing the country at the 2010 World Cup and two Copa América tournaments.
Sebastian eguren
Club career
Born in Montevideo, Eguren started his career in native country, playing for Montevideo Wanderers FC (twice) and Club Nacional de Football. With the latter, after the 0–0 Copa Libertadores game against Club Deportivo El Nacional on 12 February 2004, he tested positive for cocaine, being suspended from football for six months. He blamed the coca tea, widely drunk in the Andean countries as a medicine which alleviates the effects of altitude, and got the shortest suspension for this kind of cases (this specific match was played at 2,800 meters above sea level, in Quito).
Eguren arrived at Hammarby IF from Norwegian club Rosenborg BK, on loan during the later part of the 2006 season and, on 5 December 2006, signed a three-year contract with the Swedish side, where he quickly became a fan favourite.
On 30 January 2008, Eguren joined Villarreal CF of La Liga, on loan until the end of the campaign. Almost immediately cast into the starting XI, he partnered Marcos Senna in centre midfield as the Yellow Submarine obtained its best position ever in the top flight by finishing second; in May the Spaniards decided to make the move permanent, and the player penned a three-year deal.
During 2008–09, more of the same: Eguren was, alongside Senna, an everpresent fixture, and the Uruguayan scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 home draw against Getafe CF (with the Madrid side leading 0–3 at the half-hour mark). He played 32 league matches in his first full season.
In late January 2010, as he had lost his defensive midfielder position to youth graduate Bruno, Eguren was loaned to S.S. Lazio. However, the move was cancelled days later, after the player did not pass his medical.
Anxious for playing time in order to secure a spot on the national squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Eguren signed with reigning Swedish champions AIK Fotboll on 19 February 2010. According to AIK's director of football Björn Wesström, the agreement was technically not a loan deal as the player had no contractual obligations with Villareal until 1 July 2010 – however, Eguren was due to return to Spain since he still had 12 months left of his contract. In early March, it was decided by the club to put the player under police protection, after he was harassed while training by fans of former side Hammarby, a fierce rival to AIK; he usually operated as a defensive midfielder previously, but manager Mikael Stahre preferred using him in an attacking midfielder or deep-lying forward role.
In late July 2010, Eguren returned to Spain but not to Villarreal, signing a three-year contract with fellow league team Sporting de Gijón. He contributed with 19 games and two goals in his second year, but the Asturians suffered relegation.
In July 2013, Eguren signed a one-and-a-half year deal with Brazil's Sociedade Esportiva Palmeiras. He confessed that his changing of club happened because he did not have enough playing time at his previous team Club Libertad, where he played second-fiddle to Pablo Guiñazú.
International career
Eguren made his debut for Uruguay during the 2001 Copa América, entering the pitch in the 63rd minute of a 1–0 win against Bolivia, and added a further two appearances in the competition. On 28 May 2008, after a five-year absence, he scored his first goal for the Charrúas, netting in a 2–2 friendly with Norway in Oslo.
Egurén was also selected for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, playing once for the semifinalists (three minutes in the group stage 0–0 draw against France). Always as a substitute he was then used regularly in the 2011 Copa América, as Uruguay won its 15th continental tournament.
Personal life
During most of his career in Europe, Eguren did not count as a foreign player, due to the fact he was married to a Swedish woman. He did not master the Swedish language however.
Eguren is a different footballer: besides his musical likes, ranging from Bob Dylan to Pink Floyd, and his literary ones (he is a fan of compatriots Mario Benedetti and Eduardo Galeano), he speaks openly about politics, admiring president José Mujica, and is in favour of the legalization of marijuana which, according to him, would represent more tax revenues to governments.