Roberto Ayala

He is an Argentinian football player. He is regarded as one of the most valuable defenders in the world.

Roberto Fabián "El Ratón" Ayala (born 14 April 1973 in Paraná) is an Argentinian football player, who currently plays for the Spanish team Real Zaragoza. Regarded as one of the best central defenders in the world, he has been captain of the Argentine national team for more matches than anyone else and has played in three World Cups. Ayala is the most capped player ever for Argentina with 115 international appearances.
Roberto inherited the nickname of Ratón (Mouse) from Argentine 1974 World Cup player Rubén Ayala, though they are not related.
Playing for Valencia, he reached the finals of the 2000 and 2001 UEFA Champions League, but his team lost to Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, respectively. The next year, Valencia won the 2001-02 Spanish La Liga. In the 2003-04 season, Valencia once again won the Spanish La Liga and added the UEFA Cup to their trophy cabinet.
In the 2004-05 season a number of injuries kept Ayala from playing in much of the Liga campaign and he also missed out on the UEFA Super Cup 2004 victory over Porto. In his absence Valencia's results suffered.
In August 2006, he said that he wanted to leave Valencia after he was not offered a new contract by sporting director Amedeo Carboni. On February 7, 2007 Ayala announced that he would be joining their regional rivals Villarreal CF at the end of the 2006/07 season. However, before having played a single match for Villarreal, Real Zaragoza paid his buy-out clause and Ayala then joined the club on a three year deal on the 14th of July 2007.
He made his debut for Argentina on November 16, 1994 against Chile under coach Daniel Passarella.
Ayala played for Argentina at the 1996 Summer Olympics, winning the silver medal. He played for Argentina in the 1998 World Cup and was a non-playing squad member in the 2002 competition due a last minute injury moments before their first match against Nigeria. He was then selected as an over-age player as Argentina won the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Ayala played an integral part in the Argentine squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany. He played brilliantly throughout the tourment and was picked as one member of the All Star Team. In the quarterfinal against Germany he scored a header that gave Argentina the 1-0 lead. Argentina lost the penalty shootout after the 1-1 tie, with Ayala's spot kick being saved by Jens Lehmann.
On 27th June 2006, In a friendly match with Angola, Ayala completed 100 caps for Argentina.
One of the best defenders in Argentina history, on February 7 2007, Ayala became the most capped player of the National team (most of the times as captain), beating his friend Diego Simeone, in a friendly victory 1-0 against France played in Stade de France, Paris.
On June 5, 2007 in a friendly against Algeria, Roberto Ayala captained Argentina for a record 58th international, having equalled Diego Maradona's mark of 57 in the 1-1 draw with Switzerland in Basel on Saturday 2nd June.
On 15th July 2007, Ayala scored a own-goal in the Copa América 2007 final, which Argentina lost 0-3 to Brazil.

Zaragoza
14 April 1973
Source: Wikipedia