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Humberto Suazo

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Humberto Suazo
Personal information
Full name Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo
Height 1.72 m (5 ft 7+1⁄2 in)
Position(s) Forward
Team information
Current team
 CF Monterrey
Number 26
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 8 July 2007

Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo (born May 10, 1981 in San Antonio, Chile), also known as Chupete is a Chilean football player, who currently plays forward for CF Monterrey in Mexico.

Youth Years

At six years old, Suazo's father took him to play with Club Torino in his hometown of San Antonio. His father had made a name for himself playing with the same team.

In December of 1995, Suazo tried out for Universidad Católica. In March of the following year he was part of the club's youth system. However, Suazo's time spent there was troubled. He did not like to practice and at any chance he would get he would leave the facilities and return to San Antonio. Suazo now admits he wasted the opportunity the club gave him[1].

Early Career

In 2000, Universidad Católica loaned Suazo out to Chilean second division Ñublense because of his lack of discipline. His professional debut came against Magallanes, the club he would later play for, and he scored his first goal. At the end of the year he fractured his fibula and was sidelined for seven months. The injury also kept him out of the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship.

At the end of 2001, no longer part of Universidad Católica, Suazo played for Magallanes. He would go on to join his hometown club San Antonio Unido in 2002. In 2003 Suazo turned heads with his new club San Luis Quillota of the Chilean third division, when he scored forty goals in one season.

Club Career

The next two seasons, Suazo would spend with Audax Italiano. In early 2004, Suazo suffered another major injury which kept him out a significant amount of time. With Audax, Suazo scored 17 goals before being transferred to Colo-Colo just in time for the Copa Libertadores 2006. Even though Colo-Colo exited the tournament early, Suazo showed his ability by scoring a hat-trick against Chivas de Guadalajara.

In the 2006 apertura tournament in Chile, Suazo led all scorers with 12 goals in 14 games[2] on the way to capturing Colo-Colo's 24th national championship.

Colo-Colo, with the help of Suazo's tournament-leading 10 goals in 12 games, reached the finals of Copa Sudamericana 2006. On the way to the finals, he netted a hat-trick against Gimnasia LP. Suazo dazzled fans and scouts alike throughout the tournament, which raised questions about him staying with the team in 2007. Teams such as Santos Laguna of Mexico and Calcio Catania of Italy were both rumored to be interested in the player. However, Colo-Colo put those rumors to rest when they bought the rest of Suazo's ownership from his former club, Audax, on December 15, 2006, for one million US dollars. Ten percent of that fee ($100,000) went to Suazo's pocket. The move also assured his services to the club until June of 2007.

In the 2006 clasura tournament final, Colo-Colo played again against Suazo's former team Audax. Colo-Colo won the first leg 3-0, with Suazo scoring his thirteenth goal of the season[3], and the second leg 3-2, with Suazo scoring the first two goals [1].

In the 2007 Apertura tournament, Suazo finished as the leading goal scorer, also scoring in the final match against Palestino. His lone goal, coming in at the 79th minute, gave Colo-Colo their 26th tournament win, cementing his place in Colo-Colo history.

After months of speculation over where Suazo would end up after his contract expired in June, Suazo was finally sold for $5 million to a Mexican club, CF Monterrey. The fee payed by the Mexican team is one of the highest for a Chilean player coming out of Chile.

Statistics

Club Season League Libertadores Sudamericana Total
GP Goals GP Goals GP Goals GP Goals
Colo-Colo Apertura 2006 21 19 2 3 - - 23 22
Clausura 2006 16 15 - - 12 10 28 25
Apertura 2007 17 18 7 5 - - 24 23
Total 54 52 9 8 12 10 75 70

International

Suazo has also become a fixture with his international side. In 2006 he scored 17 goals in national and international matches, surpassing Peter Crouch by one goal for the "World's Top Goal Scorer Award"[4]. His four international goals all came in friendlies. He scored goals against New Zealand and Sweden. His other two goals came in the form of penalty shots versus Ivory Coast and Colombia. In January 2007 he was awarded world's top goal scorer of 2006 by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics in Salzburg, Austria. He was also awarded the Silver Football as world's second first league top scorer with 34 goals, behind Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Ajax Amsterdam with 35 goals[5].

Chile National Team

Suazo played for Chile in the Copa América 2007, scoring three goals, two in his first match against Ecuador, and one in the quarter final match against Brazil.

Titles

Season Club Title
Apertura 2006 ChileColo-Colo Primera Division Chile Champion
Clausura 2006 ChileColo-Colo Primera Division Chile Champion
Apertura 2007 ChileColo-Colo Primera Division Chile Champion

References

  1. ^ "Humberto "Chupete" Suazo" - Familia.cl Template:Es icon
  2. ^ "2006 Apertura" - Emol.com Template:Es icon
  3. ^ "2006 Clasura" - Terra.cl Template:Es icon
  4. ^ "World's Top Goal Scorer" - IFFHS
  5. ^ EMOL

Videos

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