Humberto Suazo

Humberto Suazo

Personal information
Full name	Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.72 m)
Position(s)	Forward
Team information
Current team	Colo-Colo
Number	16
‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 18 February 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 foward for Colo-Colo in Chile.

Youth Years

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

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.

Colo-Colo

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 on the way to capturing Colo-Colo's 24 national championship.

Colo-Colo, with the help of Suazo's tournament leading ten goals, 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 through out the tournament, which raised questions about him staying with the team in 2007. Teams such as UANL Tigres of Mexico and Calcio Catania of Italy were both rumoured to be interested in the player. However, Colo-Colo put those rumors to sleep 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 assures his services to the club until June of 2007.

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

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. 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.