Amorebieta hangs up her boots

The exrojiblanco Fernando Amorebieta hang up his boots at 35 years old. The Cantaura central defender, who has played in the last campaigns at Cerro Porteño, immediately assumes a new facet in the Paraguayan club. He will join the technical staff of those from Asunción.

This decision of the defender has been caused by the problems with the injuries that he has been chaining, together with the fact that he was not available for the Clausura tournament. Thus, it has reached an agreement with the Barrio Obrero entity to join the technical body headed by Francisco “Chiqui” Arce.

Amorebieta landed in the ‘Cyclone’ in 2019, it was presented on January 14 of that year. But he has barely been able to play 21 matches out of 82 possible. In 2019, 8 in the League and 7 in the Copa Libertadores. In 2020, 3 in the League and 3 in the Libertadores. He was part of the 2020 Apertura champion squad.

The last game as a player dates back to March 1 of this year, starting in Cerro Porteño's 0-1 defeat against General Díaz on the seventh day of the Apertura Tournament. He started and played every minute.

Vasco, as he was known in the Barça squad, has been international with Venezuela, taking advantage of the fact that he was incidentally born in Cantaura (29-3-1985). As a lion, he made his debut on July 2, 2005 in an Intertoto match against Ecomax Cluj in Romania, at the Gruia Stadion, hand in hand with José Luis Mendilibar.

In Athletic he completed eight seasons, with 254 games (195 in the League, 28 in the Cup, 29 in the Europa League and 2 in Intertoto). He contributed four goals to the Bilbao cause. The Iurreta defender left the rojiblanco club in 2013 to sign for English Fulham.

He spent three seasons with Craven Cottage, the first in the Premier and the other two in the Championship. In addition, between the second and the third with the Londoners he played for two years at Middlesbrough. After his return to the League with Sporting in the 2016-17 academic year, he joined Independiente in Argentina, between 2017 and 2019, and since then he has been at Cerro Porteño.

Amorebieta, in Lezama since early childhood, had a strange departure from Athletic in 2013. “We made him a proposal a long time ago that we consider final at an economic level and indefinite at the term level, but since we have no answer, it is no longer on the table”, Urrutia said in late January. And the player, in June, announced that “it was hard for me to make this decision, I have thought about it and it was convenient to follow a different path away from everything.”