Claudio Patricio Núñez Caamaño (born October 16, 1975 in Valparaiso) 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

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 ...

who played as a striker. He is nicknamed "El Diablo", which means, "the Devil". He made his name playing for

Tigres UANL Club de Fútbol Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, simply known as Tigres UANL or Tigres, is a Mexican professional football club based in San Nicolás de los Garza, a city in the Monterrey metropolitan area, Nuevo León. Found ...

, where he had his most success.

Career

As a child, Núñez was with Humberto Nelson in his city of birth, then he joined

Santiago Wanderers Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers is a football club based in Valparaíso, a founding member of the Chilean Football Federation. Their home ground, Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander, is in the north-west of the city. Wanderers have played thei ...

youth system. After playing during four seasons for the club, he moved to Monterrey, Mexico, to play with Tigres in 1996. Tigres had just been privatized after a crisis that ended with the team's relegation to

Primera División A 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, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

. In 1998, he played on loan at Universidad Católica. His incredible number of goals in Tigres quickly made him a team hero. He was instrumental in returning Tigres to the First Division. He played 10 seasons with Tigres, 8 in First Division, in which he scored over 40 goals. He played many

Clásico Regiomontano Clásico Regiomontano, Clásico Regio, Clásico del Norte or Clásico Norteño is a football derby in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, between crosstown rival teams Monterrey and Tigres. Since the first Clásico in 1974, the two teams have competed over 1 ...

matches, against Tigres arch-rival

Rayados de Monterrey Club de Fútbol Monterrey, often known simply as Monterrey or their nickname Rayados, is a Mexican professional association football, football club based in Monterrey, Nuevo León which currently plays in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican footba ...

. He became the maximum scorer in the history of Tigres for matches of this kind, with eight goals. His record was tied by Walter Gaitán in January 2007. An injury separated him from the fields, and Tigres consequently separated him from the team in 2001. In 2002, he moved to play with Puebla F.C., a team that has been relegated to

. He used to wear the number 16 on his back for every match he played. In 2003, he returned to Santiago Wanderers, making 11 appearances. In 2005, he played his first Copa Libertadores de América with Tigres, where he scored some goals. Nuñez has also played for

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile. They currently participate in the Primera División de Chile. It has a branch of women's football, and competes ...

and Everton in

and

Al-Shoalah ) , nickname = , founded = , ground = Al-Shoulla Club Stadium Al Kharj, Saudi Arabia , capacity = 8,000 , chairman = Fahad Al-Tofail , chrtitle = President , manager = Nacif Beyaoui , league = First ...

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the A ...

. For his country Nuñez played 31 matches scoring 4 goals between 1996 and 2003. A farewell Clásico Regiomontano match where Nuñez played with special guests from Tigres and Monterrey was scheduled for August 4, 2009 at the Estadio Universitario, Tigres' home stadium.

Post-retirement

He has played fast football with

Monterrey Flash The Monterrey Flash, is a Mexican professional indoor soccer team based in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico. Founded in 2011 as part of the Liga Mexicana de Futbol Rapido Profesional (LMFRPro), the team made its debut in the Professional Arena Socc ...

. In 2017, he started a football academy, what ended. Next, he has worked for

Azteca 7 Azteca 7 (also called El Siete) is a Mexican network owned by TV Azteca, with more than 100 main transmitters all over Mexico. Azteca 7 is available on all cable and satellite systems. A substantial portion of their purchased programming include ...

as an analyst.

Personal life

He lives in Monterrey with his wife. At the beginning of his playing career, he was nicknamed ''Huracán Porteño'' (Hurricane from Valparaíso) due to his speed. Since he was a player of Tigres in Mexico, he is well-known as ''Diablo Núñez'' (The DEvil Núñez).

Honours

Santiago Wanderers * Segunda División de Chile:

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake str ...

Everton *

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 ...

(1): 2008 Apertura

References

External links

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Claudio Níñez
at MemoriaWanderers {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunez, Claudio 1975 births Living people Sportspeople from Valparaíso Chilean footballers Chilean expatriate footballers Chile international footballers Primera B de Chile players Chilean Primera División players Santiago Wanderers footballers Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Unión Española footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Ascenso MX players Liga MX players Tigres UANL footballers Club Puebla players Saudi Professional League players Al-Shoulla FC players Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Association football forwards Chilean association football commentators