Diego Gabriel Rivarola Popón (born July 14, 1976) is a Chilean-Argentine 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

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

Career

Rivarola was born in Mendoza, Argentina. As a child, he was with Club Leonardo Murialdo in Mendoza, next he was formed in the lower River Plate, but did not debut with the first team. Later he moved to Platense, where he played eight games. In 1997, he was hired by Santiago Morning, of Chile until 2000 when he would join Universidad de Chile. His first stint with the Santiago-based club would last five years (interrupted by a brief stay at Mexican Atlas in 2002), during which he became one of the most liked players of the team, due in part to his performances at the derbies against Colo-Colo. With Universidad de Chile, Rivarola would win the Chilean National Championship in 2000 and Apertura Tournament in 2004. At the beginning of 2006, and after conflicts with then coach of the Universidad de Chile, Héctor Pinto, Rivarola signed with Argentinos Juniors, but failed to establish himself as part of the team's starting 11 and moved to the Venezuelan club

UA Maracaibo UA, U-A, Ua, uA, or ua may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Unearthed Arcana'', a Dungeons & Dragons sourcebook * ''Unknown Armies'', a role playing game * ''Urban Assault'', a first-person shooter and real-time strategy computer gam ...

few months later. In mid-2007 and for Torneo de Clausura, he signed with Palestino of Chile, led by his former Universidad de Chile teammate,

Luis Musrri Luis Eduardo Musrri Saravia (born 24 December 1969 in Mallarauco) is a former Chilean footballer and current coach of San Antonio Unido. Club career Musrri played mostly for Universidad de Chile as well as one season in Yunnan Hongta. He was ca ...

. After playing for Santiago Morning, Rivarola moved back to Universidad de Chile, eventually appearing in the

2010 Copa Libertadores The 2010 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2010 Copa Santander Libertadores for sponsorship reasons) was the 51st edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, CONMEBOL's premier international club tournament. The tournament began on ...

. On 2011 he won the Apertura Tournament with ''La "U"'' after six years from his last championship. On August 28, 2011 he scored his 100th goal with Universidad de Chile in a match against Universidad de Concepción for the Clausura Tournament.

Post retirement

From 2012 to 2022, Rivarola worked as an ambassador of Universidad de Chile, at the same time he was in charge of the both business and marketing areas. In February 2022, he joined ESPN Chile, along with the former footballer

Jean Beausejour Jean André Emanuel Beausejour Coliqueo (; born 1 June 1984) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a left-sided wing-back. He played in Chile, Switzerland, Brazil, Belgium, Mexico and England, where he won the League Cup wi ...

, as a football commentator and analyst.

Career statistics

Historial de Diego Gabriel Rivarola Popón Como Jugador
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Honours

Universidad de Chile * Primera División de Chile:

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 ...

, 2004 Apertura, 2011 Apertura, 2011 Clausura * Copa Chile:

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 ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

References

External links

Argentine Primera statistics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rivarola, Diego 1976 births Living people Sportspeople from Mendoza, Argentina Argentine emigrants to Chile Argentine footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Club Atlético Platense footballers Santiago Morning footballers Universidad de Chile footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers Atlas F.C. footballers UA Maracaibo players Club Deportivo Palestino footballers Alki Larnaca FC players Argentine Primera División players Chilean Primera División players Liga MX players Venezuelan Primera División players Cypriot First Division players Naturalized citizens of Chile Expatriate footballers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Expatriate footballers in Mexico Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Venezuela Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Venezuela Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Association football forwards Chilean association football commentators