Francisco Andrés Silva Gajardo (born 11 February 1986), known as Francisco Silva, is a 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 ...

who played as a

defensive 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 boundari ...

. He is considered one of the greatest Chilean defensive midfielders of all time. His winning penalty in Copa America Centenario gave Chile their second consecutive Copa America title.

Club career

Born in

Quillota Quillota is a city located in the Aconcagua River valley in central Chile's Valparaíso Region. It is the capital and largest city of Quillota Province, where many inhabitants live in the outlying farming areas of San Isidro, La Palma, Pococ ...

, Silva joined Universidad Católica's youth setup in 2000, aged 14. In 2005, he made his senior debuts, while on loan at lowly

Deportes Ovalle Club Deportes Ovalle is a Chilean football club who currently play in the fourth level of Chilean football, the Segunda División Profesional de Chile. The club's stadium is the Estadio Municipal de Ovalle. Their main rivals are Deportes La ...

, and appeared twice for the first-team in the following year. In 2007, he joined Osorno, also on loan, where he was ever-present in the promotion campaign. After his return, Silva established himself as a regular for the ''UC'', and scored his first goal on 7 November 2009, in a 4–1 home routing over Universidad Concepción.

Lecce

In the 2010 summer Silva was linked to Lecce, but due to reductions in the non-EU registration quota (two for one during the summer) the deal collapsed, as the club already signed

Rubén Olivera Rubén Ariel Olivera da Rosa (born 4 May 1983 in Montevideo) is a Uruguayan former footballer who played as a midfielder, currently in charge as head coach of Serie D club Racing Aprilia. A versatile player, he is capable of playing anywhere i ...

CA Osasuna

On 22 January 2013 Silva was loaned to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

strugglers

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El S ...

until June. He made his debut abroad on 2 February, coming on as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 home win over

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

. On 8 March Silva netted his first goal for Osasuna, but in a 1–2 loss at

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

; on 4 June the Navarrese side exercised the buyout clause, paying

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

1.2 million for his services. He featured regularly for the club during the 2013–14 campaign, which ended in relegation.

Club Brugge

On 29 August 2014 Silva was loaned to Club Brugge KV, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

-long deal with a buyout clause. On 13 July of the following year he was transferred to Chiapas.

Career statistics

International career

Silva made his main squad debut on 22 January 2011, starting in a 1–1 draw against

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Home Depot Center Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignit ...

. Silva was not initially named in Chile's

2015 Copa America Fifteen or 15 may refer to: *15 (number), the natural number following 14 and preceding 16 *one of the years 15 BC, AD 15, 1915, 2015 Music * Fifteen (band), a punk rock band Albums * ''15'' (Buckcherry album), 2005 * ''15'' (Ani Lorak alb ...

squad but was added to the team due to an injury to

Edson Puch Edson Raúl Puch Cortez (; born 9 April 1986) is a Chilean former footballer who played as a forward. Club career Early career Born in Iquique, Puch began his career at hometown Deportes Iquique youth ranks, then moving to Huachipato reserve ...

. Silva scored the winning goal in the 4-2 penalty shoot-out win against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

in the

Copa América Centenario Final 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 Ass ...

on 26 June 2016.

Honours

Club

;Osorno * Primera B de Chile: 2007 ;Universidad Católica *

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 ...

(3): 2010,

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

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 ...

: 2011 * Supercopa de Chile (1):

;Club Brugge *

Belgian Cup The Belgian Cup (french: link=no, Coupe de Belgique; nl, Beker van België []; german: link=no, Belgischer Fußballpokal) is the main Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in Belgium, run by the Belgia ...

: 2014–15 Belgian Cup, 2014–15 ;Independiente * Suruga Bank Championship:

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International

;Chile * Copa América (2): 2015,

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* FIFA Confederations Cup: Runner-up

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a s ...

Notes

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Francisco 1986 births Living people Footballers from Santiago Chilean footballers Chile international footballers Association football midfielders Chilean Primera División players Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Primera B de Chile players Deportes Ovalle footballers Provincial Osorno footballers La Liga players CA Osasuna players Belgian Pro League players Club Brugge KV players Liga MX players Chiapas F.C. footballers Cruz Azul footballers Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético Independiente footballers 2011 Copa América players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players Copa América-winning players Chilean expatriate footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Belgium Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Argentina