Paulo Gazzaniga, the Argentine goalkeeper who dazzled Scaloni and is the protagonist of the surprising Girona, leaders in Spain

Nobody knows how much longer this dream will last and very few football fans believe that it will have the optimal ending.but the sympathizers of Girona They enjoy these days in which their team is leading the Spanish championship real Madrid, Barcelona AND Atletico Madrid. The Girona team, which will visit this Thursday at 3pm Betis in Seville for the 18th round of the Spanish La Liga, remains at the top with a modest squad, which combines experience and youth, and which has as one of its pillars an Argentine who has spent his entire career outside the country: goalkeeper Paulo Dino Gazzaniga.

In his second season in Catalan soil, Gazzaniga is the undisputed master of the cast directed by Michel Sanchez Munoz, the great revelation of the Spanish season. In many of the 17 matches this season, the tall goalkeeper, who measures 1.96 metres, has been key to his team scoring and in five he has completed the feat without conceding a goal.

For this man who will turn 32 on January 2nd, the job came through family inheritance from his native Murphy, a town of 4 thousand inhabitants located 156 kilometers from Rosario and where he was also born. Maurizio Pochettino, a man who would play a key role in her career. The paternal grandfather of Magpie He was an archer. “Unfortunately I wasn’t able to see it. He played in the city and everyone always spoke to me wonderful things about him. They say he was an archer. The best in the area”he said in 2018 in an interview with Clarion.

Also Daniel Eduardohis father, worked between the three clubs: he played in the lower divisions of River (he did not make his debut in the First Division), he played for the Instituto de Córdoba, Deportivo Maipú de Mendoza and Villa Dálmine, as well as having experience in Ecuador and Peru. “From the first day I saw my father save, I liked what he did so much that I wanted to be a goalkeeper. What I paid most attention to was the clothing, because they are always different.”Paul explained.

The young Gazzaniga began his journey at the Centro Recreativo Unión y Cultura, the only club where football is played in Murphy, and had a short spell at Club Atlético Las Palmas, in the city of Córdoba, when his father left to play at the Institute. But the first big step in his life occurred when he was 15: His parents divorced and Daniel chose to settle in Spain.. His two sons followed, Paulo and Gianfranco, two years younger, also a goalkeeper and today works for Racing de Ferrol, in the Spanish Second Division.

Paulo played there for two years Orriols Tower of the East and one in Valencia’s academy, but at 19 he was free. At that moment he received two offers: one from a Valencian club in the Spanish third division and another from the English Gillingham, who played in League Two, the fourth division of that country. “When they presented me with the two options I didn’t even think about it because I knew that going to England would open a much bigger door for me. “I took my bag, my pair of boots, my pair of gloves and set off on an adventure with 50 euros in my pocket”.he recalled in 2018.

He played just 22 games for the Kent County team, enough to attract the attention of several higher-level teams. In July 2012, Southamptonwho had achieved promotion to the Premier League a few weeks earlier, signed him for two million pounds and offered him a four-year contract.

“We were looking for a young, hungry goalkeeper, and Paulo fits that mold. “He has good height, he’s a young guy who has confidence in himself, which is good, and he has a great attitude and work ethic, which is important for us.”praised Nigel Adkins, coach of Saintsto the Argentine, who was only 20 years old at the time.

At Southampton he had difficulty getting back on his feet and He managed to play only 23 games in four years. But he met there Maurizio Pochettino, who took over the team in January 2013, after Adkins was fired, and opened another big door for him years later. Despite being born in the same city, the goalkeeper and the coach had no contact until they met 11,000 kilometers away from Murphy.

With the goal scored admirably by Fraser Forster and without Pochettino at the helm of the team, Southampton decided to loan him out Vallecano radius in the 2016/17 season. In the first of three professional experiences in Spain, he played 32 matches in the Second Division tournament (in 11 of which he did not concede a goal) and another two in the Copa del Rey. “Going to Rayo was very important. There I felt like a goalkeeper again, I had the chance to play several more games.”highlighted regarding that campaign.

On his return to England, he moved from Southampton to London, since Pochettino brought him to Tottenham. Even there it was very difficult for him to earn a place, given that the starting goalkeeper was the Frenchman Hugo Lloris, captain of the team and one of Gazzaniga’s references in the role. In fact, in its first season he played only one match, against Crystal Palace in the Premier League (Lloris was injured). In the second he added a few more tasks: he worked 11 meetings.

Despite his poor activity, in November 2018 he was called up by the Lionel Scalonifor two months at the helm of the Argentine team, he played two friendly matches against Mexico in Cordoba and Mendoza. A few days before that call, he had made his Champions League debut in Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven.

“I was surprised by the call. It happened overnight. I had no indication that they would call me. I was doing my job as usual and it took me by surprise. Mauricio (Pochettino) told me and I thought he was joking.”said Gazzaniga, very comforted by the possibility of sharing the team with Sergio Romero, another of his references: “Being a Chiquito teammate is another dream for me. I follow him and it’s an honor to train with him”.

The Santa Fe player objected his only match with the national team on 20 November 2018 in the 2-0 victory against the Mexicans at the Malvinas Argentinas in Mendoza: he replaced Gerónimo Rulli in the 12th minute of the second half and did a truly exceptional job, with two good saves on a header by Jesús Gallardo and a mid-range shot by Victor Guzman. Subsequently he was no longer called up.

He only had continuity at Tottenham when Lloris suffered a broken left elbow in October 2019. In February 2021 he was loaned to Elche, the team of Argentine entrepreneur Christian Bragarnik. There he started the last eight games of the season and helped his team (which also included Pablo Piatti, Lucas Boyé, Ivan Marcone, Emiliano Rigoni and Guido Carrillo) to reach, in the last match and thanks to the victory over ‘Athletic Club de Bilbao, staying in the elite of Spanish football.

After his contract with Tottenham expired in July 2021, Gazzaniga signed a two-year contract with Fulham, who had just been relegated from the Premier League to the Championship. He began his first season as a starter, but after 11 games he lost his place with Slovakian Marek Rodak in the team that would become champions of the Second Division competition.

Without a place in south-west London, the goalkeeper again opted for a loan and for Spain as a destination: in September 2022 he was signed Girona, a club whose shareholding belongs, 44.7%, to the City Football Group (also owner of Manchester City, among others) and who had achieved promotion to the First Division two months earlier.

In the Girona team it took a handful of dates to wrest ownership from the veteran Juan Carlos; Since he took it over, he has never given it up. In that tournament, in which his team comfortably secured its permanence, he made a very balanced performance with some peaks such as his notable performance at the Camp Nou, where Míchel Sánchez Muñoz’s team (he had already coached the goalkeeper at Rayo Vallecano) saved a 0 -0 draw with Barcelona.

At the end of that season (and also his relationship with Fulham), several clubs were interested in Gazzaniga’s services. Among these, Villarreal, who were looking for a replacement for Gerónimo Rulli, who transferred to Ajax. But the man from Santa Fe, now a free player, has signed for another two seasons with Girona. It seems that he wasn’t wrong: today he is one of the figures of one of the teams that surprises Europe.