Cristian Antonio Montecinos González (born 29 December 1970) is a Chilean 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 for several teams in Chile, Colombia, Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. He also played for the

Chile national team 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 eas ...

. Montecinos began his professional career in 1988. During his playing career he played for teams like

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

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 compete ...

Deportes Temuco Deportes Temuco is a Chilean football club based in Temuco, Araucanía Region. It currently plays in the Chilean Primera División B, holding home games at the new '' Estadio Municipal Germán Becker''. The club was founded on February 22, 19 ...

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 Categorí ...

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made u ...

, Deportes Concepción,

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...

Colo-Colo Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo () is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano they play in the Chilean Primera División, from which they have never been relegated. The team has pla ...

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Comp ...

Puebla Puebla ( en, colony, settlement), officially Free and Sovereign State of Puebla ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Puebla), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its cap ...

, Al Wasl, among others. Montecinos was member of Chile's 23-man squad at

2001 Copa América The 2001 Copa América was held in Colombia, from 11 to 29 July. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. Colombia won the tournament for the 1st time without conceding a goal. Brazil were the defending champions wh ...

, whilst the team was coached by

Nelson Acosta Nelson Bonifacio Acosta López, nicknamed ''Pelado Acosta'' (''Bald'' Acosta), (born 12 June 1944 in Paso de los Toros, Uruguay) is a former Uruguayan-born Chilean football manager and footballer. He became a naturalized Chilean citizen in 1 ...

Club career

A product of his hometown's team youth set-up,

Rangers de Talca Club Social de Deportes Rangers is a Chilean football club based in the city of Talca. The club was founded November 2, 1902 and plays in the second level of the Chilean football system. Their home games are played at the Fiscal stadium, which h ...

, he professionally debuted in 1988. That year he only played one game and didn't scored goals at the second-level (

Primera B 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, c ...

. Then, and now at top-level following the team's promotion, he netted seven goals in 21 participations. In 1992, Montecinos was transferred to

, winning the cup title the same year. Two years later, he was hired by

where was Copa Chile goalscorer with fifteen goals. In 1994, he moved to Colombia to play for

. There he became a key player in a club where he had a teammates to players like Iván René Valenciano and

Carlos Valderrama Carlos Alberto Valderrama Palacio (Colombian Spanish: ; born 2 September 1961), also known as ''El Pibe'' ("The Kid"), is a Colombian former professional footballer and sports commentator for Fútbol de Primera, who played as an attacking mid ...

. During his spell at

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...

-based side between 1995 and 1994, Montecinos scored 16 goals, which allowed him to be recruited by Mexico's

for the 1996–97 season. He was part of Necaxa's squad that finished third in the

2000 FIFA Club World Championship The 2000 FIFA Club World Championship was the inaugural FIFA Club World Cup, the world club championship for men's club association football teams. It took place in Brazil from 5 January to 14 January 2000. FIFA as football's international gov ...

. He scored against

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

South Melbourne South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Melbourne central business district, Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip Local government ...

in the group stage.

International career

Montecinos represented the Chile national side during the

Copa América 2001 Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

, scoring three goals in four games.

Personal life

Montecinos is the father of the Chile international footballer Joaquín Montecinos who was born in Colombia when he played for

Junior de Barranquilla Junior or Juniors may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959 * ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009 * ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010 * ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019 Films * ''Junior'' (1994 ...

Honours

Club

;Rangers * Segunda División de Chile (1): 1988 ;Unión Española *

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 ...

(1):

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engines ...

;Junior de Barranquilla * Primera A (1): 1995 ;Santos Laguna * Mexico Primera Division: 1996 Invierno ;Necaxa *

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

: Third Place -

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 ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Montecinos, Cristian Living people 1970 births Footballers from Talca Chilean men's footballers Chile men's international footballers Rangers de Talca footballers Unión Española footballers Deportes Temuco footballers Atlético Junior footballers Deportes Tolima footballers Santos Laguna footballers Deportes Concepción (Chile) footballers Cruz Azul footballers Colo-Colo footballers Club Necaxa footballers Club Puebla players Al Wasl F.C. players Dubai CSC players Al-Gharafa SC players Al Wahda FC players San Marcos de Arica footballers Primera B de Chile players Chilean Primera División players Categoría Primera A players Liga MX players UAE Pro League players UAE First Division League players Qatar Stars League players Chilean expatriate men'