Adalberto Peñaranda Maestre (born 31 May 1997) is a Venezuelan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a striker for

FK Sarajevo Fudbalski klub Sarajevo (; English: Sarajevo Football Club) is a professional football club based in Sarajevo, the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina and is one of the most successful clubs in the country. Founded on 24 October 1946, FK Sara ...

Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina The m:tel Premier League of Bosnia and Herzegovina ( bs, m:tel Premijer liga Bosne i Hercegovine / м:тел Премијер лига Босне и Херцеговине), also known as Liga 12, is the top tier football league in Bosnia and Herz ...

. Peñaranda has previously played for

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a fo ...

in Italy and

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

in England, as well as appearing on loan for several top-division clubs in other European leagues.

Club career

Early career

Peñaranda was born in El Vigía,

Alberto Adriani Municipality The Alberto Adriani Municipality () (better known as El Vigia) is one of the 23 Municipalities of Venezuela, municipalities () that makes up the Venezuelan state of Mérida (state), Mérida and, according to a 2007 population estimate by the Natio ...

, Mérida. He is an academy graduate of

Deportivo La Guaira Deportivo La Guaira (formerly known as Real Esppor) is a professional Football (soccer), football club promoted to the Primera División Venezolana, Venezuelan league in 2009, based in La Guaira but playing its home games in Caracas at the Estadi ...

and made his professional and Primera División debuts on 11 August 2013, starting in a 1–3 home loss against

Deportivo Táchira ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable), an aerial lift station in Ecatepec, Mexico * Deport ...

. Peñaranda scored his first goal as a senior on 23 February 2014, netting his team's only goal in a 1–4 loss at

Caracas FC Caracas Fútbol Club is a Venezuelan football team based in Caracas. The club has won twelve First Division titles making it the most successful in Venezuelan football history. They are nicknamed ''Los Rojos del Ávila'', or the "Reds from Áv ...

. He finished the 2013–14 Venezuelan Primera División season with 18 appearances to his name, and one goal.

The Pozzo Triangle

Udinese, Granada & Watford

On 16 June 2015, Peñaranda signed for

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

side

, owned by Italian businessman

Giampaolo Pozzo Giampaolo Pozzo (born 25 May 1941) is an Italian businessman, currently the owner of Udinese Calcio in Italy. His son Gino is the owner of Watford FC in England. Pozzo sold the family business, tool maker Freud, to Robert Bosch in 2008. Udinese ...

. He was then immediately loaned to

Granada Granada (,, DIN 31635, DIN: ; grc, Ἐλιβύργη, Elibýrgē; la, Illiberis or . ) is the capital city of the province of Granada, in the autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the fo ...

who at the time were also under the ownership of Pozzo. He made his debut for the

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

side on 22 November, starting in a 2–0 home win against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

. Upon making his debut he became the youngest ever player to ever represent the club. On 12 December 2015, Peñaranda scored his first goals in the top flight of Spanish football, netting a brace in a 2–1 away win against

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

. In doing so he became the youngest ever non-Spanish player to score a brace in La Liga, breaking the record previously held by Barcelona's

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

forward,

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

. On 1 February of the following year he signed a four-and-a-half-year deal with

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

side

, owned by Pozzo's son Gino, but remained on loan at Granada for the remainder of the season. At the end of the season Granada were sold to Chinese firm Link International Sports, putting pay to the possibility of Peñaranda returning to the club on loan for another season. Following his arrival at Watford in July, Peñaranda was shipped back to

on a season long loan deal. Granada had agreed to loan Peñaranda while Watford waited for him to qualify for a work permit to play in England. He made his debut for the Udinese on 13 August 2016, coming on as a second-half substitute for

Ryder Matos Ryder Matos Santos Pinto (born 27 February 1993) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays as a winger or forward for club Perugia. Club career Fiorentina Born in Seabra, Bahia, Matos was scouted by Fiorentina's sport director Pan ...

in a 3–2

Coppa Italia The ("Italy Cup") is an annual knockout cup competition in Italian football organized by the FIGC until the 2009–10 season and the Lega Serie A ever since. History The beginning of the tournament was turbulent, due to the complexity of ...

loss to

Spezia La Spezia (, or , ; in the local Spezzino dialect) is the capital city of the province of La Spezia and is located at the head of the Gulf of La Spezia in the southern part of the Liguria region of Italy. La Spezia is the second largest city ...

. His Serie A debut came the following week in a 4–0 drubbing at the hands of

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council *Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

, with Peñaranda coming on as a second-half substitute for Rodrigo De Paul. Peñaranda made his Watford first team debut against

Woking Woking ( ) is a town and borough status in the United Kingdom, borough in northwest Surrey, England, around from central London. It appears in Domesday Book as ''Wochinges'' and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement o ...

in the 3rd round of the

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

on 6 January 2019.

Loan to Málaga

On 5 January 2017, it was announced that Peñaranda had been recalled from Udinese and would spend the remainder of the season on loan with La Liga side

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

. The deal included an option for Málaga to extend the loan by a further season.

Return to Watford

Upon his return to Watford he scored his first goal for the club in an

EFL Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

tie against

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Coventry, West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The team currently compete in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English footbal ...

on 27 August 2019.

Loan to Eupen

On 2 September 2019, Adalberto Peñaranda moved to

Eupen Eupen (, ; ; formerly ) is the capital of German-speaking Community of Belgium and is a city and municipality in the Belgian province of Liège, from the German border (Aachen), from the Dutch border (Maastricht) and from the "High Fens" na ...

on a one-year loan.

Loan to CSKA Sofia

On 5 October 2020, Adalberto Peñaranda moved to

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia ( bg, ЦСКА София) is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sport ...

on a one-year loan.

Loan to Las Palmas

On 12 July 2021, Peñaranda returned to Spain after signing a one-year loan deal with

UD Las Palmas Unión Deportiva Las Palmas, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Las Palmas, on the island of Gran Canaria in the autonomous community of Canary Islands. Founded on 22 August 1949, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at the ...

in the second division.

Boavista

On 1 September 2022, Peñaranda joined

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

side Boavista on a free transfer, signing a 3-year deal. After a year, Peñaranda left Boavista without playing a game, due to a club sanction that kept him from being registered to the squad.

Career statistics

Club

International

Personal life

On 18 April 2015, Peñaranda and

teammate

Charlis Ortiz Charlis José Ortiz García (born 21 July 1986) is a Venezuelan footballer who plays for Metropolitanos The Metropolitanos of Havana was a baseball team in the Cuban National Series. The Metros, also known as the ''Guerreros'' (Warriors), had hi ...

were both shot in an attempted robbery after attending a party. Peñaranda was struck in the left thigh with the bullet passing clean through. Ortiz, however, was struck in the rib area and had to undergo surgery the following day.

Honours

Club

Deportivo La Guaira *

Copa Venezuela The Copa Venezuela ( en, Venezuela Cup) is the national cup football competition of Venezuela. Organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation, it is contested in the second half of the season by the teams in the Venezuelan Primera División, Prim ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

CSKA Sofia *

Bulgarian Cup The Bulgarian Cup ( bg, Купа на България, Kupa na Bulgaria) is a Bulgarian annual football competition. It is the country's main cup competition and all officially registered Bulgarian football teams take part in it. The tournament ...

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

International

Venezuela U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

: Runner-up

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Venezuela U-17 *

South American Under-17 Football Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ) is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly created FIFA U-16 World Cup (now ...

: Runner-Up

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

References

External links