Fredy Guarín Colombian Footballer Born in 1986

Fredy Alejandro Guarín Vásquez is a Colombian former footballer who played as a midfielder. He was born on 30 June 1986 in Puerto Boyacá and is 183 centimetres tall. His club career took him through Colombia, Argentina, France, Portugal, Italy, China and Brazil, and he earned more than fifty caps for Colombia.

Early life

Guarín was born in Puerto Boyacá. His first listed club is Atlético Huila in 2002. He then moved to Envigado, where he played from 2003 to 2007 and shared a dressing room with James Rodríguez. In 2003 he was part of Colombia's under-17 team, and from 2003 to 2005 he played for the under-20 side.

Career

By 2005 he was a regular at Envigado and in the under-20 national team when he joined Boca Juniors of the Argentine Primera División, initially spending six months with the youth squad. Boca wanted to keep him once the loan ended, but he chose a loan move to AS Saint-Étienne in August 2006. On his debut for the French club he scored twice in a friendly against Espanyol. His first Ligue 1 appearance came on 14 October 2006 against Olympique Lyonnais, and he later scored his first league goal in a 3-1 win over Troyes. In April 2007 the transfer became permanent on a four-year contract.

On 10 July 2008 he signed a four-year contract with FC Porto. He mostly came off the bench at first but played regularly. On 16 May 2010 he scored in a 2-1 win over Chaves as Porto retained the Taça de Portugal. In 2010-11 he made 43 appearances and scored ten goals, five of them in the Europa League, which Porto won. A long-range strike against Marítimo on 8 January 2011 was nominated by a newspaper as European Goal of the Season. During his time at Porto he won three Primeira Liga titles, three Taça de Portugal titles, two Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira trophies and the 2010-11 Europa League.

Guarín joined Inter Milan on 31 January 2012 on a loan with an option to buy, and the move was made permanent on 17 May 2012 for 11 million euros. He scored his first goal for the club on 30 August 2012 in a 2-2 draw with Vaslui in the Europa League. On 21 February 2013 he scored twice in a 3-0 win away to CFR Cluj. He signed a contract extension on 25 March 2014 and, under manager Walter Mazzarri, was used as a second striker at the start of 2014-15. He played his 100th match for Inter on 7 December 2014, and on 16 February 2015 he scored twice in a 4-1 win at Atalanta.

On 26 January 2016 he joined Shanghai Shenhua of the Chinese Super League, where he won the 2017 Chinese FA Cup. In September 2019 he moved as a free agent to Vasco da Gama in Brazil, and he left in September 2020. He signed with Millonarios on 31 December 2020.

Recognition

Guarín's honours came mostly with Porto, where he won nine major trophies in four seasons, and with Shanghai Shenhua. Porto also finished runners-up in the 2009-10 Taça da Liga and the 2011 UEFA Super Cup during his time there. In 2013, his Inter manager Andrea Stramaccioni described him as combining physicality and technique, and as an important presence in the dressing room.

Public roles

Guarín made his debut for the Colombia national team on 24 May 2006 in a friendly against Ecuador. He played in the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup and the 2011 Copa América, and José Pekerman selected him for the 2014 World Cup squad. At that tournament he made his first appearance on 24 June, playing the full 90 minutes of a 4-1 win over Japan, which was his 49th cap. He won his 50th cap four days later as a late substitute in the round-of-16 victory over Uruguay. His time in the national team lasted from 2006 to 2015.

Guarín mainly played as an attacking midfielder, though he could also operate in the centre, in a holding role or on the right. He could shoot from distance with either foot and also acted as a playmaker.