Carlos Roa

Carlos Ángel Roa (born 15 August 1969) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

Carlos Roa
Personal information
Full name Carlos Ángel Roa
Date of birth (1969-08-15) 15 August 1969
Place of birth Santa Fe, Argentina
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Playing position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1988–1993 Racing Club 109 (0)
1994–1997 Lanús 107 (1)
1997–2002 Mallorca 75 (0)
2002–2004 Albacete 53 (0)
2005–2006 Olimpo 27 (0)
Total 371 (0)
National team
1992 Argentina U23
1997–1999 Argentina 16 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only
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Most of his professional career was spent with Racing Avellaneda and in Spain with Mallorca, winning one major trophy with the latter. During his career, he was a practicing Seventh-day Adventist[1] and followed a vegan diet.

Roa was first-choice for the Argentina national team at the 1998 World Cup.

Club career

Born in Santa Fe, Roa started playing professionally for Racing Club de Avellaneda, making his Primera División debut on 6 November 1988 at the age of 19. During a summer tour of Africa with the club he contracted malaria, but fully recovered. In 1994 he moved to Club Atlético Lanús, rarely missing a match with the Buenos Aires Province side as they achieved three consecutive third-place league finishes (one in 1995, two in 1996),[2] and adding the Copa CONMEBOL in 1996.

Roa then signed with Spain's RCD Mallorca alongside Lanús teammate Óscar Mena, playing 25 La Liga matches as the Balearic Islands club finished fifth straight out of Segunda División and also reached the final in the Copa del Rey, lost against FC Barcelona on penalties.[3]

In the 1999 summer, after helping Mallorca win the domestic Supercup and reach the final of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (already accompanied in the team by former Lanús teammates Ariel Ibagaza and Gustavo Siviero),[4] 30-year-old Roa retired from football in order to take a religious retreat. After a year of charitable and religious work spent as a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, his convictions led to his refusal to discuss a new contract with his team because he believed the world was going to end in the near future.[5][6]

Less than one year later, Lechuga (lettuce, a nickname coming from his eating preferences)[2] Roa returned to Mallorca, forced to play out the remaining two years of his contract. Never being able to reproduce his previous form, he was relegated to the bench by compatriot Leo Franco.

Subsequently, Roa moved to another Spanish team, second division's Albacete Balompié, appearing in 39 league games as the Castile-La Mancha side returned to the top division after a seven-year absence. Midway through the following season, he was diagnosed with testicular cancer and was forced to stop playing; after an operation, he spent an entire year between chemotherapy and rehabilitation.[7]

After keeping his fitness with amateurs CD Constancia and CD Atlético Baleares, both in the Majorca area, Roa returned to professional football and his country, joining Olimpo de Bahía Blanca and retiring after one top division season. In 2008 he joined amateurs Club Atlético Brown as goalkeeper coach and, two years later, he was appointed assistant manager at Club Sportivo Ben Hur; in the former capacity, he went to work under former international teammate Matías Almeyda at Club Atlético River Plate, Club Atlético Banfield and C.D. Guadalajara.[8]

International career

In 1992, Roa appeared for Argentina at the 1992 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament in Paraguay, which saw the country fail to qualify for the 1992 Summer Olympics.[9] He was selected by the full side for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in France: after not conceding any goals during the group stage, he saved the decisive penalty in the shootout against England in the round-of-16, denying Newcastle United's David Batty.[10] The national team was eventually defeated in the following match by Netherlands (1–2).

Honours

Player

Racing

  • Supercopa Sudamericana: 1988

Lanús

Mallorca

Individual

Awards

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References
  1. Rasi, Humberto; Dabrowski, Ray (5 July 1999). "Argentine top goalkeeper chooses religion over sport career". Adventist News Network. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  2. "Carlos "Lechuga" Roa" [Carlos "Lettuce" Roa] (in Spanish). Club Atlético Lanús. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  3. Astruells, Andrés (30 April 1998). "La Copa más histórica" [The most historical Cup] (PDF). Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish). Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  4. Segurola, Santiago (20 May 1999). "El Mallorca pierde con orgullo" [Mallorca loses proudly]. El País (in Spanish). Retrieved 28 January 2016.
  5. Lewis, Aimee (19 March 2008). "When football's final whistle blows". BBC Sport. Retrieved 19 March 2008.
  6. "UK Millennium madness comes to UK". BBC. 24 April 1999. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  7. "Batlling back from the brink". FIFA. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
  8. Uribe Muñoz, Juan (13 October 2016). "El héroe mundialista que llegó al Rebaño" [The World Cup hero that made it to the Herd] (in Spanish). Rojo y Blanco. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
  9. "Argentina v Bolivia, 02 February 1992". 11V11. Retrieved 15 February 2015.
  10. Carlos Roa – FIFA competition record
  11. Stokkermans, Karel (14 March 2007). "ESM XI". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 7 February 2016. Retrieved 29 November 2015.
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