Diego Nicolás Gutiérrez Zúñiga (born February 18, 1997) is a Canadian professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

player 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 Cavalry FC in the Canadian Premier League.

Early life

Gutiérrez was born to Chilean parents in Greenfield Park, Quebec in Canada and moved to

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

in Chile when he was three years old. He began playing soccer at age five in the Colo-Colo academy. Afterwards, he joined the youth setup of Palestino.

Club career

On November 6, 2015, Gutiérrez made his senior league debut for Palestino against

Deportes Antofagasta Deportes Antofagasta is a Chilean football club based in the city of Antofagasta currently playing in the Campeonato Nacional. The club's home stadium is the Estadio Bicentenario Calvo y Bascuñán, which has a capacity of 21,178. History The ...

. He departed the club in March 2019. In March 2019, Gutiérrez signed a deal with Canadian Premier League club

Valour FC Valour Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home matches at IG Field. The team is coached by Phillip Dos Santos and community owned thro ...

. After the season, the club exercised his option for the 2020 season. In March 2021, Gutiérrez returned to Chile, signing with Primera B side Barnechea. In December 2021, Gutiérrez returned for a second spell at

for the 2022 season. He was named the league's Player of the Month in April 2023. After not scoring in his first three seasons with Valour (across both stints), he netted four goals in the 2023 season. After the 2023 season, he chose to depart the club, after declining an extension offer. In January 2024, he signed with Cavalry FC on a two-year contract, with an option for 2026.

International career

Eligible to represent both Canada and Chile internationally, Gutiérrez was called up to the

Chile U20 Chile national under-20 football team, also known as Chile Sub-20 or La Rojita, is part of the Federación de Fútbol de Chile. The U-20 team is considered to be the breeding ground for future Chile national football team pla ...

team in June 2016 for a pair of friendlies 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 ...

. However, he did not play in either match. In January 2017, Gutiérrez was called up to a camp for the Canadian U20 team for the first time. He made his debut against the Panama U20 in a friendly on January 20. He subsequently made the roster for the

2017 CONCACAF U-20 Championship The 2017 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was the 5th edition of the CONCACAF Under-20 Championship (26th edition if all eras included), the men's under-20 international football tournament organized by CONCACAF. It was hosted in Costa Rica between ...

, where he made two appearances.

Personal life

His twin brother Cristián is also a professional soccer player.

Honours

Palestino * Copa Chile:

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gutierrez, Diego 1997 births Living people Soccer people from Quebec Sportspeople from Longueuil Canadian people of Chilean descent Sportspeople of Chilean descent Canadian men's soccer players Canada men's youth international soccer players Chilean men's footballers Colo-Colo footballers Club Deportivo Palestino footballers Valour FC players A.C. Barnechea footballers Chilean Primera División players Canadian Premier League players Primera B de Chile players Men's association football midfielders Canadian twins Chilean twins Cavalry FC players