Cristian Higuita (born 12 January 1994) is a Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

er who plays 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 ...

for

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior, or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, that currently plays in the Categoría ...

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is the ...

Club career

Deportivo Cali

Higuita made his debut with

Deportivo Cali Asociación Deportivo Cali, best known as Deportivo Cali, is a Colombian sports club based in Cali, most notable for its football team, which currently competes in the Categoría Primera A. Deportivo Cali is one of the most successful footba ...

in 2009. A year later, he played a minor part in Cali's campaign winning the 2010 Copa Colombia. In 2011, he made his debut for Cali in

and during the 2014 season helped the club capture the 2014 Superliga Colombiana.

Orlando City

In January 2015 it was reported that

Orlando City SC Orlando City SC is an American professional soccer club in Orlando, Florida, that competes as a member of the Eastern Conference in Major League Soccer (MLS). Orlando City SC began play in 2015 as the 21st franchise in MLS, succeeding the USL ...

would be signing Higuita along with his Deportivo Cali teammate Carlos Rivas. He started the team's first ever

MLS 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 ...

game, a 1–1 draw at home to fellow new expansion side

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on 8 March. On 1 August 2015, Higuita scored his first goal for the team in a 5–2 win at home to

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

. Higuita finished the 2015 season with 4.3 tackles per game and a passing success rate of 87.1 percent. On 6 August 2016, in order to regain match fitness, Higuita was loaned to

Orlando City B Orlando City B (or OCB for short) is an American soccer club that began play in 2016 and currently plays in MLS Next Pro. Owned by Orlando City SC and based at the Orlando City training facility in Kissimmee, the club plays its home games at Osce ...

for their match against

Toronto FC II Toronto FC II is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Toronto, Ontario, who play in MLS Next Pro, a third tier league of the United States soccer league system. It is the reserve team and minor league affiliate of Toronto FC as well as i ...

. In September 2016, Higuita was ranked #21 on the MLSSoccer.com ranking of the top 24 players under 24 years of age. Higuita was one of Orlando City's protected players for the

2016 MLS Expansion Draft The 2016 MLS Expansion Draft was a special draft for the Major League Soccer expansion teams Atlanta United FC and Minnesota United FC. Atlanta United was selected to pick first by an "Expansion Priority Draft" conducted on October 16, 2016. Prot ...

. Prior to the beginning of the 2019 season, Higuita was presented with a commemorative plaque in honor of his 100 appearances with Orlando City across MLS, US Open Cup and international friendlies (namely against Ponte Preta,

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

and

Stoke City Stoke City Football Club is a professional football club based in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England, which competes in the . Founded as Stoke Ramblers in 1863, it changed its name to Stoke in 1878 and then to Stoke City in 1925 after Stoke ...

). Higuita's contract expired at the end of the 2019 season. He departed as the club's leading appearance maker with 108 across all competitions.

Atlético Junior

On 17 December 2019, Higuita returned to Colombia to sign with

International career

Higuita was called up to represent the Colombia U20s at the

2013 South American Youth Football Championship The 2013 South American Youth Football Championship ( es, ''Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 ''Juventud de América'' Argentina 2013'', italic=unset, pt, ''Campeonato Sul-Americano Sub-20 ''Juventude da América'' Argentina 2013'', italic=unset, re ...

. Higuita made one appearance in the tournament, coming on as a half-time substitute in a 2–1 group stage defeat to

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 ...

. Colombia went on to win the tournament. Higuita was named in Colombia's provisional squad for

Copa América Centenario The Copa América Centenario ( pt, Copa América Centenário, french: Coupe Amerique Centennaire, en, Centennial Cup America; literally ''Centennial America Cup'') was an international men's association football tournament that was hosted by the ...

in 2016 but was cut from the final squad.

Personal

Higuita holds a U.S. green card which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.

Career statistics

Club

Honors

Club

;Deportivo Cali *

Copa Colombia The Copa Colombia ( en, Colombia Cup, link=yes); officially known as Copa BetPlay Dimayor is an annual football tournament in Colombia. It is contested by the 36 professional clubs of DIMAYOR and is the nation's domestic cup competition, equiva ...

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Superliga Colombiana The Superliga Colombiana (''Colombian Superleague''), officially known as Superliga BetPlay DIMAYOR due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is an official competition contested between the winners of the Apertura and Finalización t ...

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 ...

National Team

;Colombia *

South American Youth Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as U-20 South American Championship and es, Torneo Juventudes de América, "Campeonato Sudamericano Sub 20" or pt, Juventude da América (English: "America's Youth") is a South American ...

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

* *
Cristian Higuita at Football.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Higuita, Cristian 1994 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Colombian expatriate men's footballers Deportivo Cali footballers Atlético Junior footballers Orlando City SC players Orlando City B players Men's association football midfielders Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Categoría Primera A players Major League Soccer players USL Championship players Colombia men's under-20 international footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Footballers from Cali