Cristián Fernando Muñoz (born 1 July 1977) is an Argentine-born Chilean 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He is best known for his spells at

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 played ...

and

Huachipato Club Deportivo Huachipato is a Chilean football club based in Talcahuano that is a current member of the Chilean Primera División. The club was founded 7 June 1947 and plays its home games at the Estadio CAP, which has a capacity of 10,500 ...

. Muñoz was nicknamed ''El Tigre'' (Spanish: the tiger) for his skills. He was member of the Argentina U20 squad that won the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 in Malaysia. It was th ...

celebrated in

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

. He was the last active footballer to have played professionally alongside

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the FI ...

Club career

Early career

Born in

Junín, Buenos Aires Junín () is a city in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and administrative seat of the '' partido'' of Junín. It has a population of 85,420 () and is located west of the city of Buenos Aires. It is mostly known for being the hometown of ...

, Muñoz started his career at his local village team

Sarmiento Sarmiento may refer to: Places Argentina *Sarmiento Department, San Juan, a subdivision of the San Juan Province *Sarmiento Department, Santiago del Estero, a subdivision of the Santiago del Estero Province *Sarmiento Department, Chubut, a subdivi ...

in 1994, moving at the age of 20 to the Argentine giant club,

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

, after the

. He made his competitive debut for Boca against

Newell's Old Boys Club Atlético Newell's Old Boys () is an Argentine sports club based in Rosario, Santa Fe. The club was founded on 3 November 1903, and is named after Isaac Newell of the English county of Kent, one of the pioneers of Argentine football. A ...

on 14 September of that year (1997). During his stay in the club, he was loaned to teams as Los Andes in 2000 and

Talleres de Córdoba Club Atlético Talleres (; (lit. Workshops Athletic Club) mostly known simply as Talleres (lit. Workshops) or Talleres de Córdoba ) (Córdoba Workshops) is an Argentine sports club from the city of Córdoba. The institution is mostly known f ...

in 2001, remaining him in this club until 2002. In the next season, he returned to Boca as substitute of

Roberto Abbondanzieri Roberto Carlos "Pato" Abbondanzieri (born Abbondancieri on 19 August 1972) is an Argentine professional former footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He spent most of his career at Boca Juniors in his homeland, as well as Getafe of La Liga and ...

, winning the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

and then the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, named as ''Copa Sudamericana'' (; pt, Copa Sul-Americana ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club competition in South American ...

. After two seasons in Argentina as substitute, in January 2005, Muñoz was signed by the Chilean side

for play the 2005 Torneo de Apertura. He made his club's competitive debut in a 2–1 league away win over

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, 196 ...

on 6 February. The club also impressed finishing in the semi-finals of the league championship playoffs. He made 100 appearances in all competitions in two years. Muñoz played a key role in Huachipato's qualification to the 2007 Copa Sudamericana playoffs after of finish in the fourth position of the

Apertura The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is div ...

tournament with 40 points behind

Audax Italiano Audax Club Sportivo Italiano () is a Chilean football club based in La Florida. Founded in 1910, it plays in the Campeonato Nacional and has spent most of its history in the top tier of Chilean football. Audax has been national champions four t ...

with 44 points.

Colo-Colo

Muñoz was signed by defending

Chilean Primera División The Chilean Primera División (English: First Division) is the top-tier league of the Chilean football league system. It is organized by the ''Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, ANFP''. The league is known as the Campeonato AFP PlanVital ...

champions

in July 2007 for an undisclosed fee, with the mission of replace to his countrymen

Sebastián Cejas Christian Sebastián Cejas (born 21 April 1975) is an Argentine former footballer that played as goalkeeper and his last club was Chacarita Juniors of the Primera B Nacional. Nicknamed ''Terremoto'' (Earthquake), he also played for teams such as ...

in the goal, who left the club for high costs. In his arrival to the club, he was assigned with the jersey number 1, because the departure of Cejas, who wears this number. He made his unofficial debut for the club in a 1–1 pre-season draw with the club's rival

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.

for the Copa Gato. His competitive debut for the club came on 29 July 2007 in the 3–0 away victory against Deportes Concepción. He received more competition when

Rainer Wirth Rainer Klaus Wirth Castro (born 25 October 1982) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. Club career Universidad Católica Born in Santiago in 1982, a son of the famous goalkeeper Oscar Wirth, Rainer joined Uni ...

broke into the first team during the first games of the 2007 Clausura, and this made a rotation between the keepers, but because to the several errors of Wirth, Muñoz became in the club's first goalkeeper. He played in the Clausura final against

Universidad de Concepción Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

in the 3–0 win, being this his first honour for the club, and also the club completed four titles consecutives since 2006 under the coach Claudio Borghi, being an historic record in the Chilean football. In the next season, Muñoz was runner-up of the 2008 Apertura, but champion of the Clausura tournament.

International career

With the Argentina Under-20 team, Muñoz won the

in Malaysia, being teammate of players like

Juan Román Riquelme Juan Román Riquelme (; born 24 June 1978) is an Argentine former professional footballer and current vice-president of Boca Juniors, the club where he spent the majority of his playing career.Esteban Cambiasso Esteban Matías Cambiasso Deleau (; born 18 August 1980), nicknamed ''"Cuchu"'', is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. During his career, Cambiasso won 21 official titles, the majority of which were won dur ...

Luciano Galletti Luciano Martín Galletti (; born 9 April 1980) is an Argentine retired footballer who played as a right winger. In a professional career that lasted 14 years he played mostly in Spain, with Zaragoza and Atlético Madrid, but also represented Ol ...

, Diego Placente, among others. He was substitute of

Leo Franco Leonardo "Leo" Neoren Franco (born 20 May 1977) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper, and is a manager. After starting out at Independiente in 1995, he went on to spend the vast majority of his career in Sp ...

during the tournament and played in the second round against England under-20 team, in a game that finished in a 2–1 win of his country.

Club statistics

Honours

Boca Juniors *

Primera División Argentina 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 ...

: 1999 Clausura, 2003 Apertura *

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Colo-Colo *

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 ...

: 2007-C, 2008-C, 2009-C Huachipato *

: 2012 Clausura Universidad de Concepción *

Primera B de Chile Campeonato Primera B ( en, Chilean First B Division) is the second tier in the Chilean football league system, and is organized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. It was established in 1952 as ''Segunda División'', and later renam ...

: 2013 Transición *

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 ...

: 2014–15 Argentina U-20 *

FIFA World Youth Championship The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

References

External links

*
Argentine Primera statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Munoz, Cristian 1977 births Living people Footballers from Junín, Buenos Aires Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Argentina men's youth international footballers Argentina men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Boca Juniors footballers Club Atlético Los Andes footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Colo-Colo footballers Huachipato FC footballers C.D. Universidad de Concepción footballers Club Atlético Sarmiento footballers Primera B de Chile players Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Naturalized citizens of Chile