Ronald García
García in August 2010
Personal information
Full name Ronald Lázaro García Justiniano
Date of birth (1980-12-17) 17 December 1980
Place of birth Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia
Height 1.84 m (6 ft 0 in)
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
Tahuichi Academy
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1998–2001 Bolívar 72 (9)
2001–2004 Alverca 55 (5)
2004–2005 Bolívar 14 (3)
2005–2012 Aris 90 (6)
2010 → Anorthosis (loan) 14 (0)
2010–2011 → Bolívar (loan) 16 (0)
2012–2015 Oriente Petrolero 51 (2)
International career‡
2002–2013 Bolivia 48 (2)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 4 April 2015
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 10 September 2009

Ronald Lázaro García Justiniano, nicknamed "Nacho" (born 17 December 1980) is a Bolivian former footballer who played as a midfielder. He currently holds the position of Sports Director at Bolivian club Oriente Petrolero.

He "graduated" from Bolivia's famous football academy Tahuichi Aguilera located in Santa Cruz, which produced some popular Bolivian football stars, including Erwin "Platiní" Sanchez, Marco Antonio "El Diablo" Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno among others.

Club career

Pre-Aris career

García's first professional Bolivian club was Bolívar from La Paz. From there, he moved to Alverca in Portugal. He played for 3 years there and 2 stories about him are interesting: First, at some point in his younger age, he was considered and positioned in the top 50 of world's football potentials. Second, the story with him is related to his days in Benfica.

After his days in Portugal he returned once again to play in Bolivia. During his second spell at Bolívar he reached the quarter-finals of the Copa Libertadores, only to be defeated by Club América on 25 May 2000. His notable performances earned him a second chance at his European dream and signed for, which at the time was in the second division, Aris Thessaloniki FC (apparent fee was 100,000 euros).

Aris

In most of his first season with them he was plagued by several problems. First, his adapting process lasted longer than expected. Second, his from-time-to-time injuries and his longer recoveries, made it difficult for him to become a regular starter. Towards the end of the second division season he gradually started to gain confidence and trust by his coach Nikos Anastopoulos. As a result of a strong campaign from Aris, Nacho along with Aris were promoted to the first division after just 1 year.

In the big "roster sweeping" summer 2006, Aris Management gave him another chance and left him in the team for the 2006–2007 season. The first 2/3 of the season were more or less successful. However, his career continued to hampered with injuries. He was a regular starter under Guillermo Hoyos, the first coach of rebuilding 2006/07 Aris. Lost his starting 11 place to Ruben Palazuelos under Enrique Hernandez (Hoyos' successor).

In mid-August 2008, after a lengthy series of negotiations, García finally signed a 5-year contract extension (up to 2013), earning 2 million euros, in total, for 5 years.

After a year he returned to Aris with less money in September 2011. His first unofficial appearance with the black and yellow shirt was in the friendly against Doxa Dramas on September,4 in which he had a notable performance. García is the club's longest-serving non-Greek player in club history.

Post-Aris career

In July 2010 he was loaned out to Cypriot club Anorthosis Famagusta F.C., and later that year he returned to Bolívar for a third spell. After his contract expired with Aris, García was signed by hometown club Oriente Petrolero in June 2012.[1] A series of troublesome injuries forced him to retire from professional football in May 2015.[2]

International career

In the period of his first season at Aris (and even earlier, but not that often) Nacho was always knocking on the Bolivia national team's door and its starting 11. Finally in 2007, he was capped by the Bolivia National team playing for Copa America 2007 (equivalent to the Euro Cup). In 2007/08 season he finally became an essential, irreplaceable part and core of the Bolivia national team and Aris Thessaloniki. Now, Garcia is considered as one of Bolivia's and Aris FC's top and most consistent stars.

In the September round of the World Cup qualifiers for South Africa 2010, he achieved a great performance leading his national team to a historic 0:0 draw at Brazil, being one of the best men on the field as Bolivian and the "wider" media were reporting. A month later, at the October pair of matches helped his national team improve their qualifying group position scoring a goal in a 3:0 win over Peru at home and playing again decently in the 3-day later match with Uruguay (2:2). Half a year later (on 1 April), was again a participant in yet another historic result for his country as Bolivia thrashed Argentina 6:1, in La Paz, noting an assist on his match stats account. Between 2002 and 2013 García earned a total of 48 caps for the national team and scored 2 goals.[3] He represented his country in 28 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.[4]

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by national team and year[3][5]
National teamYearAppsGoals
Bolivia 200090
200120
200320
200420
200530
200790
200862
200950
201010
201150
201330
Total482
Scores and results list Bolivia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each García goal.
List of international goals scored by Ronald García[5]
No. Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition Ref.
1 18 June 2008 Estadio Hernando Siles, La Paz, Bolivia  Paraguay 2–0 4–2 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification [6]
2 11 October 2008 Estadio Hernando Siles, La Paz, Bolivia  Peru 3–0 3–0 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification [7]

References

  1. ↑ 'Nacho' quiere jugar otra vez en Oriente eldia.com.bo (in Spanish)
  2. ↑ Nacho García se despide mañana de la práctica activa paginasiete.bo (in Spanish)
  3. 1 2 Ronald Lázaro García - International Appearances - RSSSF
  4. ↑ Ronald García – FIFA competition record (archived)
  5. 1 2 "Ronald García". National Football Teams. Benjamin Strack-Zimmermann. Retrieved 23 January 2022.
  6. ↑ "Bolivia - Paraguay 4:2 (WC Qualifiers South America 2008/2009, 6. Round)". worldfootball.net.
  7. ↑ "Bolivia - Peru 3:0 (WC Qualifiers South America 2008/2009, 9. Round)". worldfootball.net.
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