Francisco Rodríguez Araya (born 8 February 1995) is a Swiss professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Winterthur. His older brothers are the Swiss international Ricardo Rodríguez and the winger Roberto Rodríguez.

Club career

FC Zürich

Rodríguez is a youth exponent from

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

. He made his

Swiss Super League The Swiss Super League (known as the Credit Suisse Super League for sponsorship reasons) is a Swiss professional league in the top tier of the Swiss football league system and has been played in its current format since the 2003–04 season ...

debut on 20 July 2014 in the derby against

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zürich, commonly referred to as simply GC, GCZ, or Grasshoppers, is a multisports club based in Zürich, Switzerland. The oldest and best known department of the club is its football team. With 27 titles, Grasshopper holds the ...

, playing the entirety of a 1–0 win.

VfL Wolfsburg

After a year with his first senior side, Rodríguez joined his brother Ricardo at German side VfL Wolfsburg signing a three-year-contract until 2018. The transfer fee was believed to be €1.6 million. He received his first call for the senior team on 26 September 2015, when he was an unused substitute in a Bundesliga match versus

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

. He was loaned to

Arminia Bielefeld DSC Arminia Bielefeld (; full name: ; commonly known as Arminia Bielefeld (), also known as ''Die Arminen'' or ''Die Blauen'' ), or just Arminia (), is a German sports club from Bielefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia. Arminia offers the sports of ...

on 22 January 2016. On 31 August 2016, the loan deal with Bielefeld was terminated and Rodríguez joined FC Luzern.

FC Luzern

In June 2017, it was confirmed that Rodriguez had transferred to FC Luzern for an undisclosed fee.

International career

Rodríguez is a Swiss under-19 international who is eligible to play for Chile or Spain through his parents' nationality. On 18 August 2014, manager

Jorge Sampaoli Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya (; born 13 March 1960) is an Argentine football coach who is currently manager for Sevilla of La Liga. Sampaoli started out as a youth player and eventually switched to management after a severe injury. Sampaoli star ...

called Rodríguez to play for Chile in two friendlies against Mexico and

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

, and he was set to make his full international debut. But on 21 August 2015, he refused the call up to the senior squad for a match against Paraguay, saying that he still preferred to play for Switzerland's U21 team.

References

Living people 1995 births Association football midfielders Swiss footballers Switzerland under-21 international footballers Switzerland youth international footballers Swiss Super League players Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players Swiss Challenge League players Swiss Promotion League players FC Zürich players VfL Wolfsburg II players Arminia Bielefeld players FC Luzern players FC Lugano players FC Schaffhausen players FC Winterthur players Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Germany Swiss people of Basque descent Swiss people of Spanish descent Swiss people of Chilean descent Swiss people of Galician descent Footballers from Zürich {{Switzerland-footy-midfielder-stub