Sebastian Fernandez is a talented forward who uses his pace to good effect in wide positions. An elusive runner, he also makes up for his lack of height with a prodigious leap and is happy to play the roles of both provider and goalscorer.

So slight is his build that Fernandez is known in the game as Papelito (Spanish for “piece of paper”). Despite his less-than-imposing physique, he has come a long way since climbing up through the ranks with Miramar Misiones and making his Uruguayan first division debut with them as a 19-year-old in 2004.

The scorer of 20 goals in 89 games for the unglamorous Montevideo outfit, Fernandez caught the eye of national coach Oscar Tabarez, who gave him his first outing in the famous light blue jersey in a 2-0 friendly defeat of Romania in May 2006.

It would be another two years before Tabarez turned to the livewire forward once more, this despite his fine displays with Defensor Sporting, the club he joined in the middle of 2006 and with whom he would win the league championship in 2008, his first trophy. Fernandez scored 12 goals in that campaign but was then loaned out to Banfield of Argentina, where he played his part in their victorious 2009 Apertura campaign.

In the meantime, he worked himself back into Tabarez's plans, returning to the Celeste fold towards the end of the qualification competition for the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. Though he only saw a few minutes of action in the first leg of the play-off against Costa Rica, the persistent Fernandez did enough to win a place in the squad as a useful wing-man capable of turning packed defences.

In July 2010 he had a medical with La Liga side Málaga CF. On 5 August 2010 he signed a contract with Málaga for four years and his transfer cost the Spanish side €3.6 million. He already started to pay off some of his fee as he scored a goal on his debut in a home match against Valencia CF on 28 August 2010. He finished the season with 7 league goals, being the clubs second best goalscorer.

In 2011-2012, after the summer signing of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Seba was demoted to third choice striker, often coming on as a substitute. On 21 November he started as a right winger against Racing and scored his first goal of the season, in a 3−1 away win. Exactly one year later he scored his first Champions League group stage goal in a 2−2 away draw against FC Zenit Saint Petersburg.