Nicolás Otamendi was born on 12 February 1988 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He came through the youth setup of Vélez Sársfield and made his senior debut before moving to Porto in Portugal in 2010, where he established himself as one of the Primeira Liga's most dominant defenders and won multiple league titles.
In summer 2014 Atlético Madrid signed him for around €15 million, beginning a period in the Spanish top flight that established him as one of La Liga's most physically imposing centre-backs. In summer 2015 Manchester City paid around £32 million to bring him to the Premier League, where under Pep Guardiola he was a senior defensive leader across six seasons, winning two Premier League titles and multiple domestic cups.
In summer 2021 he joined Benfica for around €15 million, and at the Portuguese club he re-emerged as a dominant figure in European competition. He won multiple Portuguese league titles and was a senior presence in Benfica's Champions League campaigns. His move to Benfica proved that at 33 he remained one of the most competitive centre-backs in European football.
For Argentina he debuted in 2009 and is one of the most capped defenders in the country's history. He was a senior figure at the 2010, 2014 and 2018 World Cups, and crucially was part of the squad that won the 2021 Copa América — Argentina's first international title in 28 years — and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. At 34 in Qatar, he remained a reliable senior defensive option alongside the younger Cristian Romero.
Standing 1.83 m, Otamendi is a right-footed centre-back whose physical aggression, heading ability, last-ditch defending and competitive ferocity have made him one of the defining Argentine defenders of his era. He has been compared throughout his career to a fiercer, more directly physical version of the Argentine defensive tradition, combining Atlético Madrid's combative DNA with the technical standards demanded by Guardiola's City.