OTD: OMAR ALDERETE BORN

Current Sunderland defender and Paraguay international Omar Alderete was born on this day.

Alderete was born in Paraguay’s capital city, Asunción, in 1996. He came through the academy of local team Cerro Porteño  His senior debut came in May 2016 in a defeat to Rubio Ñu in the Paraguayan top flight. Two months later, he scored his first senior goal in a win over Guaraní. Also in 2016, he played in the round of 16, quarter final and semi final stages of the Copa Sudamericana (the South American equivalent of the Europa League).

His first time truly playing regular senior football though came during a loan spell with Gimnasia y Esgrima in the Argentine top division in the 2017/18 season, the defender played 22 games and scored once. He must have caught the eye in Argentina because, once his loan spell came to an end, he was picked up by Huracán of the same league on a permanent deal. In his one season there, he featured in the Copa Libertadores (the South American equivalent of the Champions League) and made a handful of league appearances.

In the summer of 2019, he moved to Europe with Basel of Switzerland and played lots of football in his first campaign away from his birth continent. There were 48 appearances from him total in all competitions, including in Champions League qualifiers and the Europa League proper, with him scoring once in the former of those against PSV Eindhoven. He also found the back of the net in the Swiss Cup final, having played in every round up to that point, but unfortunately his team were defeated 2-1 by Young Boys. After another six games for FCB the following season, he was signed permanently by Hertha BSC of the Bundesliga.

He was more of a sporadic feature for Hertha, playing 17 games (all of them in the league) in his sole season there, before spending the rest of his time contracted to them out on loan in La Liga. Alderete first moved temporarily to Valencia and the Paraguayan was a usual sight on the teamsheet with 34 appearances in all competitions but there was more heartbreak in a cup final, this time around in the Copa del Rey. It went to penalties against Real Betis following a 1-1 draw after extra time but Betis came out on top. There was an option to buy in his loan deal but this was not activated come the end of the season.

So, Getafe then signed him on loan and he played 28 games in all competitions during this spell. His sole goal of the season allowed him to get some revenge on Real Betis, as his second half goal saw his side come away with all three points in May 2023. Unlike Valencia, Getafe did activate their option to buy when his loan spell reached its conclusion. Over the next two seasons, Omar made another 71 appearances for the Blue Ones prior to joining Sunderland.

The Paraguayan came to Wearside in August 2025 on a four-year deal. Alderete made his debut for the club four days after joining, replacing Jenson Seelt a few minutes into the second half against West Ham United due to an injury. Less than ten minutes later, he put the ball in for our first top flight goal in eight years, with Eliezer Mayenda heading home. His next major contribution was scoring a winning goal away to Nottingham Forest, capitalising from a Granit Xhaka free kick. So far (at the time of writing), he’s helped us keep clean sheets against West Ham, Crystal Palace, Forest, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Newcastle United. In fact, all of our clean sheets so far this campaign have come when he’s been on the pitch. He’s been a key player for us and the relatively small fee we paid for him is looking like more and more of a bargain as time goes on.