Daniel Fonseca

Daniel Fonseca

Personal information
Full name	Daniel Fonseca Garis
Date of birth	(1969-09-13) 13 September 1969
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Height
Position(s)	Forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1988–1990	Nacional	14	(3)
1990–1992	Cagliari	50	(17)
1992–1994	Napoli	58	(31)
1994–1997	Roma	65	(20)
1997–2001	Juventus	40	(10)
2001–2002	River Plate	0	(0)
2002	Nacional	5	(2)
2002–2003	Como	2	(0)
Total		234	(83)
International career‡
1990–1997	Uruguay	30	(11)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 15 September 2006 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 7 April 2007 (UTC)

Daniel Fonseca Garis (born 13 September 1969) is an Uruguayan former footballer, now a football agent. As a forward, he notably played for Italy's S.S.C Napoli, A.S. Roma and Juventus.

Career

Club

Fonseca, nicknamed el castor ("the beaver"), started his football career at Nacional, his local team in Uruguay, in 1988. He played 14 games in two years and scored 3 goals.

In 1990, he moved to Cagliari, scoring 17 goals in 50 appearances, playing mostly on the left rather than in his more habitual central position.

In 1992 Napoli signed him and Fonseca managed a more impressive strike rate, scoring 31 goals in two seasons in Naples, including 5 goals against Valencia in the UEFA Cup. His form and performances drew attention from A.S. Roma, who promptly signed him in 1994.

During his time with Napoli, he would occasionally put on the socks of the Uruguayan national team, which is a shade lighter in colour than Napoli's socks, saying that they would bring him good luck.

However, his three seasons (from 1994 to 1997) were far from successful. Fonseca usually played as a second striker, supporting the Argentine centre forward Abel Balbo, but, because of the many injuries he suffered, he played discontinuously.

Juventus signed Fonseca in 1997, but he was once again played out of position on the left wing, as he had been at Cagliari and AS Roma. His goalscoring record in Serie A was very good considering he was not always a first choice player with Roma]] and Juventus. Fonseca was always regarded as a "super sub", and scored several important goals coming off the bench. During his time with the Turin club, he won one Serie A title, a Champions League runner-up medal and the Supercoppa Italiana.

Injury ruled him completely out of the 1999–2000 season, which saw him transferred to River Plate in Argentina. There, he infamously played only during the club's 2000 pre-season. His only match was a pre-season encounter against archrivals Boca Juniors, and Fonseca helped his club to earn a win by scoring the final penalty in the shootout. A few days later, Fonseca would resign from his contract and join Como in 2001. He retired in 2003 after the coach told him that he was no longer a part of the first team's plans.

International

Fonseca represented the Uruguay national football team on 30 occasions, scoring 11 goals. He was a member of the team that won the 1995 Copa América.

Style of play

A dynamic, opportunistic, hard-working, and forward, Fonseca was a quick, opportunistic, and hard-working striker, with good dribbling skills, vision, and a powerful shot from distance, which made him capable of both scoring goals and creating chances for team-mates. A versatile and well-rounded attacker, Fonseca was also effective in the air, and was capable of playing in several offensive positions, due to his pace, technique, defensive work-rate, and passing ability; he was also an accurate penalty kick and set-piece taker.

Honours

Club

Nacional

• Recopa Sudamericana: 1989
• Copa Interamericana: 1989
• Primera División Uruguaya: 2002

Juventus

• Serie A: 1997–98
• Supercoppa Italiana: 1997, Runner-up: 1998
• UEFA Champions League Runner-up: 1997–98
• UEFA Intertoto Cup: 1999

International

Uruguay

• Copa America: 1995

External links

• Daniel Fonseca at National-Football-Teams.com