Cristian Daniel "Chicho" Arango Duque (born 9 March 1995) is a Colombian 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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club

Real Salt Lake Real Salt Lake, often shortened to RSL, is an American professional soccer franchise based in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. The club competes as a member club of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the Western Conference. RSL began play in 20 ...

and the Colombia national team.

Club career

Early career

Arango began his professional career with

Envigado Envigado () is a town southeast of Medellín, Colombia in the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley. It borders El Poblado, Medellín to the north, Sabaneta to the south, El Retiro and Caldas to ...

in 2012, aged 17. For the 2015–16 season, he was loaned out to Valencia B, Valencia's reserve team in the third division, where he scored eight goals in 26 games. At the end of the season, he returned to Envigado to play the 2016 Finalizacion season, where he played in all 20 games, scoring four goals. In January 2017, his move to

Millonarios Millonarios Fútbol Club is a professional Colombian football team based in Bogotá, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the El Campín stadium. Millonarios was initially created in 1937 by students f ...

was made official. He played with them in the 2017 Apertura and the

2017 Copa Libertadores The 2017 Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores (officially the Copa CONMEBOL Libertadores Bridgestone 2017 for sponsorship reasons) was the 58th edition of the CONMEBOL Libertadores (also referred to as the ''Copa Libertadores''), South America's premier cl ...

, and although he did not get much playing time due to injuries, his performance interested many European clubs.

Portugal

On 28 June 2017, he was confirmed as a Benfica player, signing a five-year contract After playing the preseason with the club, the board decided to send him on loan. In August 2017, Desportivo Aves signed him on a one-year loan. On 10 January 2018, he scored two important goals in a match against

Rio Ave Rio Ave Futebol Clube, commonly known as Rio Ave (), is a Football in Portugal, Portuguese professional Association football, football club based in Vila do Conde, that competes in the Primeira Liga. The club is named after the Ave River, which ...

; first, he scored in the last minute of the game to tie the score at 3-3 and send the game into extra time. He added another in extra time, and scored his penalty in the shootout to help his club qualify to the semi-finals of the

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

. Aves later won the cup, defeating

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

in the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

, although Arango did not play. In August 2018, he was loaned out again, this time to

Tondela Tondela () is a municipality in the central Portuguese subregion of Dão-Lafões. The population in 2011 was 28,946, in an area of 371.22 km². History Local writer and intellectual Amadeu Ferraz de Carvalho (1876–1951) wrote of the munic ...

Return to Millonarios

On 10 July 2019, Arango returned to Millonarios, signing a three-year contract.

Los Angeles FC

On 2 August 2021, Arango joined

club

Los Angeles FC Los Angeles Football Club, commonly referred to as LAFC, is an American professional Association football team based in Los Angeles. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The club ...

. Arango made an immediate impact, scoring 14 goals in 17 league matches, and was named Newcomer of the Year.

Real Salt Lake

On 10 June 2023, Major League Soccer club Real Salt Lake signed Arango through 2025 with an option for 2026. He made his first appearance for the club on 8 July 2023, scoring the opening goal in a 4–0 home win over Orlando City. On 20 February 2024, it was announced that Arango would be the new

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

of Real Salt Lake. On March 30, Arango scored a second-half hat-trick, with one of the goals being a penalty, in a 3–1 victory over

St. Louis City St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. On June 1, Arango scored another hat trick in a 5–1 win against

Austin FC Austin FC is an American professional soccer club based in Austin, Texas. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference. Founded in 2018, the club began play in the 2021 season. Their home stadium is Q2 ...

International career

On 16 November 2021, Arango made his senior national team debut in a

World Cup qualifier The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Honours

Aves *

: 2017–18 Los Angeles FC *

MLS Cup The MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Cup Playoffs. The game is held in November and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Conference ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 19 ...

Individual * MLS Newcomer of the Year:

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MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from Liga MX. MLS initially adopted a tr ...

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

References

External links

* * 1995 births Living people Footballers from Medellín Men's association football forwards Colombian men's footballers Colombia men's international footballers Colombian expatriate men's footballers Envigado F.C. players Valencia CF Mestalla footballers Millonarios F.C. players S.L. Benfica footballers C.D. Aves players C.D. Tondela players Los Angeles FC players C.F. Pachuca players Real Salt Lake players Segunda División B players Categoría Primera A players Primeira Liga players Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Colombian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Major League Soccer players 21st-century Colombian people Designated Players (MLS) {{Colombia-footy-forward-stub