Castle

Nicolas Otamendi

A tough Argentine international teammate of Sergio Aguero, Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta, Nicolas Otamendi joined City from Valencia in the 2015-16 summer transfer window. Nicolas was born in El Talar, a small neighborhood in the Argentine capital city, Buenos Aires. While growing up, he shared his time between boxing and football, building up his strength in a local gym with his cousin. He joined Velez Sarsfield, one of Argentina's most famous and successful clubs, as a youngster and made his debut for the first team in 2008, aged 20. Nicolas was called up by Argentine national team coach Diego Maradona for a friendly with Panama in 2009. At the time of his selection, he had only played 11 professional games and started the match on 20 May, helping his side to a 3-1 win. Still only 21, Nicolas was voted into El Pais' South American Team of the Year for 2009, with the paper describing him as "one of the revelations of the year." Despite his young age, he was a fixture in the first team and made waves across the continent for both club and country. By 2010, he had made 10 appearances for Argentina, including a starring role at the World Cup in South Africa, and he was snapped up by Porto in August of that year. Porto won the Portuguese league, domestic cup and the Europa League, where they beat Portuguese rivals Braga, in his first season. They retained the league in 11-12 and made it a hat-trick of league titles the following season. Nicolas was becoming a runaway success, playing week in, week out for the top club in Portugal, but in February 2014, he agreed to a move across the border to Valencia. Otamendi was immediately loaned out upon arrival at the Mestalla, spending the summer at Atletico Mineiro in Brazil. He returned to help Los Che qualify for the Champions League for the first time in four years. He was the only Valencia player named in the La Liga Team of the Year for the 14-15 season, before making his move to City. His Blues debut came as a substitute at home to Juventus, but he was soon featuring regularly in the starting line-up. Since then, he's become an integral member of the City starting XI, helping the Blues to two trophies in 2017/18 as well as being voted in the 2018 PFA Team of the Year. Otamendi also played in all four of Argentina's World Cup 2018 matches.

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