Clárence Williams Acuña Donoso (born 8 February 1975 in

Rancagua Rancagua () is a city and commune in central Chile and part of the Rancagua conurbation. It is the capital of the Cachapoal Province and of the O'Higgins Region, located south of the national capital of Santiago. It was originally named Santa ...

) is a

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an former 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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Club career

Chilean league

He started his career at

an club O'Higgins, whom he began playing for in 1994 at the age of nineteen. He played at O'Higgins until 1996, scoring eight goals in eighty-one games. He then caught the eye of professional club

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. They signed him, and he played ninety games for them between 1997 and 1999, again scoring eight goals.

Newcastle United

After impressive domestic and international performances, Acuña was attracting attention from many big clubs. He eventually signed for

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

, after manager

Bobby Robson Sir Robert William Robson (18 February 1933 – 31 July 2009) was an English footballer and football manager. His career included periods playing for and later managing the England national team and being a UEFA Cup-winning manager at Ipswich ...

beat off competition from

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmigiano-Reggiano, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 ...

to clinch Acuña's signature, earning him a £900,000 move to Newcastle United in October 2000, after receiving a work permit. He made his debut for Newcastle on Saturday 28 October 2000 in a 1-0 away defeat to

West Ham United West Ham United Football Club is an English professional football club that plays its home matches in Stratford, East London. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football. The club plays at the London Stadium, hav ...

. Two months later he scored his first goal for the club and the winner in the 2-1 victory against

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire in England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest level of England's football league system, and plays its home matches at Elland Road S ...

. The goal was later voted "Goal of the Week" by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

. He was at Newcastle for four seasons, playing forty-six league games (including eleven as substitute), scoring six times. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in October 2003 so he could return home to care for his mother.

International career

His performances in the ''Copa Banco Estado'' attracted the attention of the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exam ...

and he was given his first international cap in 1995. Acuña managed to keep up his good form and was included in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

squad for the 1998 event held in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. Here, he impressed players and pundits alike and helped his country to the last 16 stage of the tournament, where they bowed out in a 4-1 defeat to favourites

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. Acuña was seen as one of the breakthrough players of the tournament and he also had his first experience of playing in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, which would prove not to be his last. A year later he was involved in another international tournament. This time his services were required in the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

. He started four games as Chile reached the semi-finals but were knocked out 5-3 on penalties against

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

after a 1-1 draw. They also lost the third place playoff 2-1 against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

four days later.

Managerial career

Following his retirement as footballer, Acuña joined O'Higgins as sports advisory and, later,

technical manager A technical director (TD) is usually a senior technical person within e.g. a software company, engineering firm, film studio, theatre company or television studio. This person usually has the highest level of skill within a specific technical f ...

. From 2015 to 2016, he worked as technical manager of

Coquimbo Unido Coquimbo Unido is a Chilean football club based in the city of Coquimbo. The club was founded August 30, 1958 and will play in the Chilean Primera División on 2022. Their home games are played at the Estadio Municipal Francisco Sánchez Rumoroso ...

. From 2016 to 2018, he and his fellow Pedro Reyes worked as assistant coaches of

José Luis Sierra José Luis Sierra may refer to the following Chilean footballers: *José Luis Sierra (footballer, born 1968) José Luis "Coto" Sierra Pando (born 5 December 1968) is a Chilean football coach and former player. He is the manager of Al-Wehda. P ...

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

and Shabab Al-Ahli. In 2019, he joined

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

as head of technical development of the program ''Evolución Conmebol''.

Honours

Club

;Universidad de Chile *

Primera División de Chile Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Alí Rafael Primera Rosel ...

(2):

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Copa Chile The Copa Chile (''Chile Cup'') is an annual cup competition for Chilean football teams. Due to time constraints and club pressure, the trophy was cancelled in 2000, but returned in 2008. Its precursor was the Campeonato de Apertura (''Opening Ch ...

(2):

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

References

External links

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Acuna, Clarence 1975 births Living people Footballers from Rancagua Chilean men's footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chile men's international footballers 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1999 Copa América players 2004 Copa América players Chilean Primera División players O'Higgins F.C. footballers Club Universidad de Chile footballers Club Deportivo Palestino footballers Unión Española footballers Deportes Concepción (Chile) footballers Deportes La Serena footballers Premier League players Newcastle United F.C. players Argentine Primera División players Rosario Central footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in England Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Men's association football midfielders Doping cases in association football Chilean football managers Chilean expatriate football managers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Chilean expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate football managers in Saudi Arabia Expatriate football managers in the United Arab Emirates