Ariel Ortega

Ariel Ortega

Personal information
Full name	Ariel Arnaldo Ortega
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder, Striker
Team information
Current team	River Plate
Number	10
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 17 August 2007

Ariel Ortega

Medal record
Representing Argentina
Men's Football
Olympic Games
	1996 Atlanta	Team Competition
Pan American Games
	1995 Mar del Plata	Team Competition

Ariel Arnaldo Ortega (born March 4, 1974 in Libertador General San Martín, Jujuy) is an Argentinian footballer, who currently plays for Club Atlético River Plate as a midfielder. His nickname is "El Burrito" ("The Little Donkey"), thus called "Burrito Ortega".

Ortega's previous clubs have included Fenerbahçe, Parma A.C., U.C. Sampdoria, Valencia C.F., and River Plate. He has been capped 86 times for the Argentinian national team, scoring 17 goals (as of the end of 2004). Ortega played for his country in the 1994, 1998, and 2002 World Cups. He was also a member of the team that won the silver medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics.

He is widely recognised for his blinding pace and outstanding ability from dead ball situations, but most of all for his incredible dribbling ability. At his prime he was one of the best dribblers in the world.

Along with his skills, Ortega is infamously temperamental. During the 1998 World Cup, in the quarter-finals against the Netherlands, Ortega received a red card for headbutting Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar after van der Sar confronted him after a perceived dive. The situation was controversial because Ortega seemed to dive while Van der Sar went down in dramatic fashion from what seemed to be only limited impact from the head-butt [1]. Shortly after Ortega's sending off, Dennis Bergkamp scored the winning goal to make it 2-1, eliminating Argentina.

Due to his volatility, Ortega never remained at one club for an extended period of time. After he resigned his contract with Fenerbahçe on 2003, he was suspended by the FIFA, and not allowed to step on a football field for approximately one and a half years. While he was trying to deal with the situation he asked many times about the possibility of playing for free in River Plate. However, his petition was denied, and in 2004, when he finally could come back to football, he went to Newell's Old Boys, as he was called by his friend Américo Gallego, who at that time was Newell's' coach. Together, they won the Apertura 2004.

On June 2006 he went back to his first team River Plate, where he played for about half of the Apertura 2006 , and then he stopped to start a treatment against alcoholism. On January 2007, during River's pre-season in Mar del Plata, and one day after playing an excellent game in which he even scored, he surprised everyone with another alcoholic episode, after which River Plate's doctors suggested to the coach that Ortega should go back to Buenos Aires to enforce the treatment against his problem.

Coach and father figure Daniel Passarella brought back Ortega stating he was ready for a comeback. On March 15, 2007, in a Copa Libertadores 2007 match against LDU Quito, Ortega formed part of River's bench but did not having a chance to come in. However 3 days later, in a league match versus Quilmes, he came in the second half to help break the opposing teams defense in a tight 0-0 up to that point. Ortega would score a controversial goal with his hand on the 48th minute to give River the victory and a great personal comeback.

External links

• River Plate player profile