Nelson Cabrera (footballer, born 1983)

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Cabrera and the second or maternal family name is Báez.

Nelson Cabrera
Personal information
Full name Nelson David Cabrera Báez
Date of birth (1983-04-22) 22 April 1983 (age 41)
Place of birth Itauguá, Paraguay
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Position(s) Centre back
Youth career
Olimpia Asunción
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2004–2005 Olimpia Asunción 24 (0)
2005–2008 Cerro Porteño 107 (18)
2009–2012 Colo-Colo 23 (1)
2009–2010 → CFR Cluj (loan) 5 (0)
2012 Chongqing Lifan 21 (5)
2012–2017 Bolívar 131 (12)
2017–2018 Sportivo Luqueño 20 (2)
2019–2023 Always Ready 106 (15)
2023 Nacional Potosí 8 (0)
Total 445 (53)
International career
2007 Paraguay 1 (0)
2016 Bolivia 5 (0)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Nelson David Cabrera Báez (Spanish pronunciation: [nelsondaˈβið kaˈβɾeɾa];[a] born 22 April 1983) is a former footballer who played as a defender. Born in Paraguay, he represented the Paraguay national football team once in a friendly before naturalizing as a Bolivian citizen and switching to represent Bolivia internationally.

Career

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Cabrera started his career at Olimpia Asunción and moved to rivals Cerro Porteño in 2005. There he won two championships and was team captain from 2007 to 2008. He was then transferred to CSD Colo Colo of Chile for $1,000,000. In the 2009–2010 season he played for CFR Cluj of Romania, where he won the National League and played in the UEFA Europa League.

Cabrera was born and raised in Paraguay and he represented their national team in a friendly match in 2007. However, later in his career he played in Bolivia, gained their nationality and debuted officially for the Bolivia national football team in 2016.[1] FIFA regulations required players switching nationalities at the time to have resided in the country for at least five years, but Cabrera only had for four.[2][3] He was subsequently found to be ineligible by FIFA resulting in forfeiture of the preliminary 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification games between Bolivia and Peru on 1 September 2016 and between Chile and Bolivia five days later on 6 September 2016.[4][5] Bolivia appealed the decision of FIFA to their own appeal committee, and then to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It was not disputed that Cabrera was ineligible. However, Bolivia questioned FIFA's right to investigate and argued that a protest must be submitted within an hour of the match in question. Both appeals were dismissed.[6][7][8]

The investigation on Cabrera's eligibility was requested by the Chilean Football Federation; however, this eventually backfired for Chile, as Peru, who also benefitted from the investigation's outcome, would qualify for the intercontinental play-offs against New Zealand, eliminating Chile by merely a narrow goal difference.[9] That is because Peru got the third valuable point after they lost to Bolivia earlier while Chile, who drew Bolivia, only got two. Cabrera celebrated Chile's elimination by tweeting "God knows what He is doing and His times are perfect," followed by an image indicating that Chile would have qualified to the play-offs had the investigation never occurred.[10][11]

Cabrera announced his retirement in March 2024, after his father passed away.[12]

Honours

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Cerro Porteño
Colo-Colo
CFR Cluj
Club Bolivar

Notes

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  1. ^ In isolation, Nelson and David are pronounced [ˈnelson] and [daˈβið] respectively.

References

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  1. ^ "Baldivieso names Bolivia Copa America Centenario squad" (internationalsoccerteams.com)
  2. ^ "¿Quién es Nelson Cabrera?, el jugador por el cual FIFA sancionó a Bolivia" [Who is Nelson Cabrera ?, the player for whom FIFA sanctioned Bolivia]. El Comercio. 1 November 2016.
  3. ^ "FIFA investigates 'ineligible' Bolivia player in World Cup". USA TODAY. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  4. ^ FIFA (1 November 2016). "Bolivia sanctioned for fielding ineligible player". FIFA. Archived from the original on 1 November 2016. Retrieved 2 November 2016.
  5. ^ "FIFA orders Bolivia to forfeit 2 World Cup qualifiers". AP News. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  6. ^ "CAS dismisses the appeals filed by the Bolivian Football Federation". www.tas-cas.org. 29 August 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  7. ^ "CAS confirms sanction against Bolivia for fielding ineligible player". FIFA.com. 30 August 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  8. ^ "Boost for Chile as Bolivia lose forfeit appeal". ESPN.com. 29 August 2017. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  9. ^ "Nelson Cabrera se burló de la eliminación de Chile al Mundial de Rusia 2018". Radio Programas del Perú (in Spanish). 12 October 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  10. ^ "nelson cabrera on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 11 March 2022.
  11. ^ Nair, Rohith (11 October 2017). "How a 3-0 'win' saw Chile fail to qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup". Sportskeeda. Retrieved 13 July 2024.
  12. ^ "Tras el fallecimiento de su padre, Nelson Cabrera anuncia su retiro del fútbol". Los Tiempos (in Spanish). 24 March 2024. Retrieved 11 September 2024.
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