Matías Rojas (footballer, born 1995)

Matías Rojas
Personal information
Full name	Matías Nicolás Rojas Romero
Date of birth	3 November 1995 (age 29)
Place of birth	Asunción, Paraguay
Height	1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)
Position(s)	Attacking midfielder
Youth career
	Cerro Porteño
Senior career*
Years	Team
2014–2019	Cerro Porteño
2017–2018	→ Lanús (loan)
2018–2019	→ Defensa y Justicia (loan)
2019–2023	Racing Club
2023–2024	Corinthians
2024	Inter Miami
2025–	River Plate
International career‡
2019–	Paraguay
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 30 April 2024; ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 24 June 2024

Matías Nicolás Rojas Romero (born 3 November 1995) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Argentine Primera División club River Plate. He also plays for the Paraguay national football team.

Club career

Rojas' first club in his career was Cerro Porteño.^[2]^[4] He made his debut for the Paraguayan Primera División club in March 2014 during a defeat to Nacional.^[2] A year later, Rojas netted his first senior goal on 13 March 2015 as Cerro Porteño beat Deportivo Capiatá 3–2 at the Estadio Defensores del Chaco.^[2] One further goal, against Sportivo Luqueño, followed as Rojas featured thirty-four times across 2015 and 2016.^[2] On 10 January 2017, Rojas was loaned to Lanús of the Argentine Primera División.^[2]^[5]^[6] He remained for seventeen months, making eighteen appearances and scoring once; in the Copa Argentina.^[2]

Rojas arrived back to Cerro Porteño on 30 June 2018, but returned to Argentina on loan weeks later after agreeing to join fellow Argentine Primera División side Defensa y Justicia.^[2]^[7]^[8] He scored on his first start, netting an equaliser in a 1–1 draw with Belgrano.^[2] Rojas departed Cerro Porteño permanently in June 2019, staying in Argentina after signing terms with Racing Club of the Primera División. He would then move to Brazil, joining Corinthians in 2023, he would leave the club in 2024. ^[1]

Inter Miami

In April 2024, Rojas transferred to Major League Soccer club Inter Miami as a free transfer. On April 27th he made his MLS debut in a 4-1 win against New England Revolution. Then on May 4th he scored his first two goals for Inter Miami in a thrashing 6-2 win against New York Red Bulls. He then scored against CF Montréal it resulted in a 2-3 win. On December 9th Inter Miami released him.

River Plate

On January 9th in 2025 he would go back to Argentina signing for River Plate on a free transfer. On January 17th he would make his debut for the club in a friendly in a 2-1 win against Chilean club Club Universidad de Chile.

International career

On 2 March 2019, Rojas received a call-up to the Paraguay national team from Eduardo Berizzo ahead of that month's friendlies with Peru and Mexico.^[9]^[10] He made his debut on 22 March in the game against Peru, as a 66th-minute substitute for Cecilio Domínguez.^[11] Berizzo subsequently selected Rojas in his preliminary squad for the 2019 Copa América on 13 May, before making the official tournament squad on 29 May.^[12]^[13]He was selected for the 26-man final preliminary squad 2024 Copa América on June 15. He would make only appearance in one of their three games. as Paraguay were eliminated at the bottom of their group winning no games.

Career statistics

Club

As of 1 July 2019^[2]

Club statistics
Club	Season	League			Cup		League Cup		Continental		Other		Total
Club	Season	Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Cerro Porteño	2014	Paraguayan Primera División	1	0	—		—		0	0	0	0	1	0
	2015		19	2	—		—		0	0	0	0	19	2
	2016		11	0	—		—		4^[a]	0	0	0	15	0
	2017		0	0	—		—		0	0	0	0	0	0
	2018		0	0	0	0	—		0	0	0	0	0	0
	2019		0	0	0	0	—		0	0	0	0	0	0
	Total		31	2	0	0	—		4	0	0	0	35	2
Lanús (loan)	2016–17	Argentine Primera División	0	0	1	1	—		4^[b]	0	0	0	5	1
	2017–18	Argentine Primera División	9	0	1	0	—		3^[b]	0	0	0	13	0
	Total		9	0	2	1	—		7	0	0	0	18	1
Defensa y Justicia (loan)	2018–19	Argentine Primera División	22	10	1	0	2	0	2^[a]	0	0	0	27	10
Career total			62	12	3	1	2	0	13	0	0	0	80	13

^ ^a ^b Appearance(s) in the Copa Sudamericana
^ ^a ^b Appearance(s) in the Copa Libertadores

International

As of match played 24 June 2024^[2]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Paraguay	2019	7	0
	2020	1	0
	2021	2	0
	2022	3	0
	2023	5	1
	2024	3	0
Total		21	1

International goals

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	27 March 2023	Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile	Chile	1–1	2–3	Friendly

Honours

Cerro Porteño^[2]

Paraguayan Primera División: 2015 Apertura, 2017 Clausura

Racing Club

Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional: 2022^[14]

Inter Miami

Supporters' Shield: 2024^[15]

References

^ ^a ^b "Matías Rojas, el primer refuerzo de la temporada". Racing Club. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l "Paraguay - M. Rojas". Soccerway. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "Matías Rojas". World Football. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
^ "Ficha Estadistica de MATIAS ROJAS". BDFA. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "El paraguayo Matías Rojas, nuevo jugador de Lanús". TyC Sports. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "Matías Rojas tuvo su primer entrenamiento en Lanús". El Gráfico. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "Defensa y Justicia da la bienvenida a Rojas". ABC. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "Matías Rojas continuará su carrera en Defensa y Justicia". D10. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
^ "23 albirrojos de clubes del exterior para amistosos vs. Perú y México". APF. 2 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "Matías Rojas es convocado por Berizzo para la Selección de Paraguay". Marca. 3 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
^ "Peru v Paraguay game report". ESPN. 22 March 2019.
^ "Los 40 elegidos por el DT Eduardo Berizzo, para integrar la lista provisional". APF. 13 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.
^ "La lista definitiva (23) de la Albirroja para la Copa América "Brasil 2019"". APF. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.
^ "Racing venció a Boca en un escandaloso final y se quedó con el Trofeo de Campeones" [Racing beat Boca in controversial ending and took Champions Trophy] (in Spanish). TyC Sports. 6 November 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2023.
^ Sigal, Jonathan (2 October 2024). "Inter Miami win 2024 MLS Supporters' Shield". MLS Soccer. Retrieved 2 October 2024.

External links

Matías Rojas at Soccerway
Matías Rojas at National-Football-Teams.com

[COSU-14] Appearance(s) in the Copa Sudamericana

[COLI-15] Appearance(s) in the Copa Libertadores

[Racing_Club-1] "Matías Rojas, el primer refuerzo de la temporada". Racing Club. 11 June 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[Soccerway-2] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l "Paraguay - M. Rojas". Soccerway. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[World_Football-3] "Matías Rojas". World Football. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[BDFA-4] "Ficha Estadistica de MATIAS ROJAS". BDFA. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[TyC_Sports-5] "El paraguayo Matías Rojas, nuevo jugador de Lanús". TyC Sports. 6 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[El_Gráfico-6] "Matías Rojas tuvo su primer entrenamiento en Lanús". El Gráfico. 11 January 2017. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[ABC-7] "Defensa y Justicia da la bienvenida a Rojas". ABC. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[D10-8] "Matías Rojas continuará su carrera en Defensa y Justicia". D10. 12 July 2018. Retrieved 26 September 2018.

[APF_1-9] "23 albirrojos de clubes del exterior para amistosos vs. Perú y México". APF. 2 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

[Marca-10] "Matías Rojas es convocado por Berizzo para la Selección de Paraguay". Marca. 3 March 2019. Retrieved 4 March 2019.

[11] "Peru v Paraguay game report". ESPN. 22 March 2019.

[APF_2-12] "Los 40 elegidos por el DT Eduardo Berizzo, para integrar la lista provisional". APF. 13 May 2019. Retrieved 18 May 2019.

[APF_3-13] "La lista definitiva (23) de la Albirroja para la Copa América "Brasil 2019"". APF. 29 May 2019. Retrieved 13 June 2019.

[16] "Racing venció a Boca en un escandaloso final y se quedó con el Trofeo de Campeones" [Racing beat Boca in controversial ending and took Champions Trophy] (in Spanish). TyC Sports. 6 November 2022. Retrieved 1 April 2023.

[17] Sigal, Jonathan (2 October 2024). "Inter Miami win 2024 MLS Supporters' Shield". MLS Soccer. Retrieved 2 October 2024.

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