View source for Ronald García

{{Short description|Bolivian footballer (born 1980)}}
{{about||the American cinematographer and film director|Ronald Víctor García}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}
{{Infobox football biography
| name           = Ronald García
| image          = Nacho García.jpg
| caption        = García in August 2010
| fullname       = Ronald Lázaro García Justiniano
| birth_date     = {{Birth date and age|1980|12|17|df=y}} 
| birth_place    = [[Santa Cruz de la Sierra]], Bolivia
| height         = 1.84 m
| position       = [[Midfielder]] 
| youthyears1    = 
| youthclubs1    = Tahuichi Academy
| years1         = 1998–2001
| clubs1         = [[Club Bolívar|Bolívar]]
| caps1          = 72
| goals1         = 9
| years2         = 2001–2004
| clubs2         = [[F.C. Alverca|Alverca]]
| caps2          = 55
| goals2         = 5
| years3         = 2004–2005
| clubs3         = [[Club Bolívar|Bolívar]]
| caps3          = 14
| goals3         = 3
| years4         = 2005–2012
| clubs4         = [[Aris Thessaloniki F.C.|Aris]]
| caps4          = 90
| goals4         = 6
| years5         = 2010
| clubs5         = → [[Anorthosis Famagusta F.C.|Anorthosis]] (loan)
| caps5          = 14
| goals5         = 0
| years6         = 2010–2011
| clubs6         = → [[Club Bolívar|Bolívar]] (loan)
| caps6          = 16
| goals6         = 0 
| years7         = 2012–2015
| clubs7         = [[Oriente Petrolero]]
| caps7          = 51
| goals7         = 2 
| nationalyears1 = 2002–2013
| nationalteam1  = [[Bolivia national football team|Bolivia]] 
| nationalcaps1  = 48
| nationalgoals1 = 2 
| pcupdate       = 4 April 2015
| ntupdate       = 10 September 2009
}}

'''Ronald Lázaro García Justiniano''', nicknamed "Nacho" (born 17 December 1980) is a Bolivian former [[Association football|footballer]] who played as a [[midfielder]]. He currently holds the position of Sports Director at Bolivian club [[Oriente Petrolero]].

He "graduated" from Bolivia's famous football academy ''Tahuichi  Aguilera'' located in Santa Cruz, which produced some popular Bolivian football stars, including [[Erwin Sánchez|Erwin "Platiní" Sanchez]], [[Marco Etcheverry|Marco Antonio "El Diablo" Etcheverry]] and [[Jaime Moreno (footballer, born 1974)|Jaime Moreno]] among others.

==Club career==
===Pre-Aris career===
García's first professional Bolivian club was [[Club Bolívar|Bolívar]] from [[La Paz]].  From there, he moved to [[F.C. Alverca|Alverca]] in [[Portugal]]. He played for 3 years there and 2 stories about him are interesting:
First, at some point in his younger age, he was considered and positioned in the top 50 of world's football potentials.
Second, the story with him is related to his days in [[S.L. Benfica|Benfica]].{{citation needed|date=January 2014}}

After his days in Portugal he returned once again to play in [[Bolivia]]. During his second spell at Bolívar he reached the quarter-finals of the [[Copa Libertadores]], only to be defeated by [[Club América]] on 25 May 2000. His notable performances earned him a second chance at his European dream and signed for, which at the time was in the second division, [[Aris Thessaloniki FC]] (apparent fee was 100,000 euros).

===Aris===
In most of his first season with them he was plagued by several problems.  First, his adapting process lasted longer than expected. Second, his from-time-to-time injuries and his longer recoveries, made it difficult for him to become a regular starter. Towards the end of the second division season he gradually started to gain confidence and trust by his coach [[Nikos Anastopoulos]].  As a result of a strong campaign from Aris, Nacho along with Aris were promoted to the first division after just 1 year.

In the big "roster sweeping" summer 2006, Aris Management gave him another chance and left him in the team for the 2006–2007 season.  The first 2/3 of the season were more or less successful.  However, his career continued to hampered with injuries. He was a regular starter under Guillermo Hoyos, the first coach of rebuilding 2006/07 Aris. Lost his starting 11 place to [[Ruben Palazuelos]] under [[Quique Hernández|Enrique Hernandez]] (Hoyos' successor).

In mid-August 2008, after a lengthy series of negotiations, García finally signed a 5-year contract extension (up to 2013), earning 2 million euros, in total, for 5 years.

After a year he returned to Aris with less money in September 2011. His first unofficial appearance with the black and yellow shirt was in the friendly against Doxa Dramas on September,4 in which he had a notable performance. García is the club's longest-serving non-Greek player in club history.

===Post-Aris career===
In July 2010 he was loaned out to Cypriot club [[Anorthosis Famagusta F.C.]],{{citation needed|date=February 2016}} and later that year he returned to [[Club Bolívar|Bolívar]] for a third spell. After his contract expired with Aris, García was signed by hometown club [[Oriente Petrolero]] in June 2012.<ref>[http://www.eldia.com.bo/index.php?cat=154&pla=3&id_articulo=92511 'Nacho' quiere jugar otra vez en Oriente] eldia.com.bo {{in lang|es}}</ref> A series of troublesome injuries forced him to retire from professional football in May 2015.<ref>[http://www.paginasiete.bo/campeones/2015/5/16/nacho-garcia-despide-manana-practica-activa-56795.html Nacho García se despide mañana de la práctica activa] paginasiete.bo {{in lang|es}}</ref>

==International career==
In the period of his first season at Aris (and even earlier, but not that often) Nacho was always knocking on the [[Bolivia national football team|Bolivia national team]]'s door and its starting 11. Finally in 2007, he was capped by the Bolivia National team playing for Copa America 2007 (equivalent to the Euro Cup). In 2007/08 season he finally became an essential, irreplaceable part and core of the Bolivia national team and Aris Thessaloniki. Now, Garcia is considered as one of Bolivia's and Aris FC's top and most consistent stars.

In the September round of the [[FIFA World Cup|World Cup]] qualifiers for [[South Africa]] 2010, he achieved a great performance leading his national team to a historic 0:0 draw at [[Brazil]], being one of the best men on the field as Bolivian and the "wider" media were reporting.
A month later, at the October pair of matches helped his national team improve their qualifying group position scoring a goal in a 3:0 win over [[Peru]] at home and playing again decently in the 3-day later match with [[Uruguay]] (2:2). Half a year later (on 1 April), was again a  participant in yet another historic result for his country as Bolivia thrashed [[Argentina]] 6:1, in [[La Paz]], noting an assist on his match stats account. Between 2002 and 2013 García earned a total of 48 caps for the national team and scored 2 goals.<ref name="RSSSF">[https://www.rsssf.org/miscellaneous/rolagarcia-intl.html Ronald Lázaro García - International Appearances] - RSSSF</ref> He represented his country in 28 [[FIFA World Cup qualification]] matches.<ref>{{FIFA|178067}}</ref>

==Career statistics==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Appearances and goals by national team and year<ref name="RSSSF" /><ref name="NFT">{{NFT player|876|access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref>
|-
!National team!!Year!!Apps!!Goals
|-
|rowspan="11"|[[Bolivia national football team|Bolivia]]
|2000||9||0
|-
|2001||2||0
|-
|2003||2||0
|-
|2004||2||0
|-
|2005||3||0
|-
|2007||9||0
|-
|2008||6||2
|-
|2009||5||0
|-
|2010||1||0
|-
|2011||5||0
|-
|2013||3||0
|-
!colspan="2"|Total!!48!!2
|}

:''Scores and results list Bolivia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each García goal''.

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of international goals scored by Ronald García<ref name="NFT" />
|-
!scope="col"|No.
!scope="col"|Date
!scope="col"|Venue
!scope="col"|Opponent
!scope="col"|Score
!scope="col"|Result
!scope="col"|Competition
!scope="col" class="unsortable"|{{Abbr|Ref.|References}}
|-
|align="center"|1
|{{dts|18 June 2008}}
|[[Estadio Hernando Siles]], [[La Paz]], Bolivia
|{{fb|PAR}}
|align="center"|2–0
|align="center"|4–2
|[[2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL)|2010 FIFA World Cup qualification]]
|<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldfootball.net/report/wm-quali-suedamerika-2010-bolivien-paraguay/|title=Bolivia - Paraguay 4:2 (WC Qualifiers South America 2008/2009, 6. Round)|website=worldfootball.net}}</ref>
|- 
|align="center"|2
|{{dts|11 October 2008}}
|Estadio Hernando Siles, La Paz, Bolivia
|{{fb|PER}}
|align="center"|3–0
|align="center"|3–0
|2010 FIFA World Cup qualification
|<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.worldfootball.net/report/wm-quali-suedamerika-2010-bolivien-peru/|title = Bolivia - Peru 3:0 (WC Qualifiers South America 2008/2009, 9. Round)|website=worldfootball.net}}</ref>
|}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
* {{NFT|876}}
* {{Soccerway|ronald-garcia/10338}}

{{Navboxes
| title = Bolivia squads
| bg = #007934
| fg = white
| bordercolor = red
| list1 = 
{{Bolivia squad 2001 Copa América}}
{{Bolivia squad 2007 Copa América}}
{{Bolivia squad 2011 Copa América}}
}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Ronald}}
[[Category:1980 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Footballers from Santa Cruz de la Sierra]]
[[Category:Men's association football midfielders]]
[[Category:Bolivian men's footballers]]
[[Category:21st-century Bolivian sportsmen]]
[[Category:Bolivia men's international footballers]]
[[Category:Club Bolívar players]]
[[Category:F.C. Alverca players]]
[[Category:Aris Thessaloniki F.C. players]]
[[Category:Anorthosis Famagusta FC players]]
[[Category:Oriente Petrolero players]]
[[Category:Bolivian Primera División players]]
[[Category:Primeira Liga players]]
[[Category:Super League Greece players]]
[[Category:Cypriot First Division players]]
[[Category:Bolivian expatriate men's footballers]]
[[Category:Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal]]
[[Category:Expatriate men's footballers in Greece]]
[[Category:Expatriate men's footballers in Cyprus]]
[[Category:Bolivian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal]]
[[Category:2001 Copa América players]]
[[Category:2007 Copa América players]]
[[Category:2011 Copa América players]]