Johnny Cristián Herrera Muñoz (, born 9 May 1981) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper. He has played the most part of his career at Universidad de Chile, winning for the club eight league titles, a

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 ...

, three cup titles and a supercup in 2015. He has represented Chilean football team at U20 level and Olympic level too, playing 21 official times for the adult team. Herrera has been part of Chile's both

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

titles in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

Club career

Born in Angol, Herrera joined Universidad de Chile youth squad and was promoted to the first/adult team in 1999. Three years later, he became the first-choice keeper after being back-up for Sergio Vargas, who left ''The Lions'' after 10 years playing there. In 2004, Herrera won his first professional title after defeating Cobreloa as visitors in the Torneo Apertura final, where he scored the winning goal during the shootout, giving the club their twelfth League title. During those years, Herrera collated his football career with his studies, area where he was dedicated to the Pedagogy in Physical Education, a career he studied at the University of the Americas (UDLA). In 2006, Herrera moved to Brazilian club Corinthians. Following an unsuccessful spell at Brazil — where only played nine official games — he returned to Chile and signed for Everton from Vina del Mar in 2007. There, he helped the team to win the 2008 Torneo Apertura. However, in June 2008, Herrera left Everton to sign for

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 ...

. In 2011, Herrera returned to Universidad de Chile. That year he had a brilliant season, being a major figure in the club's first treble in its history after winning both league tournaments ( Apertura and Clausura) and the

, under the guidance of coach

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 ...

. Noteworthy, Herrera was even chosen as the goalkeeper of the season by

Conmebol The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

. In 2012, he helped Universidad de Chile to win the Torneo Apertura, which meant the club's first ever league tri-championship, as well as the last reached during the Sampaoli era. On 20 May 2013, he featured in Universidad de Chile's 2–1 victory over Universidad Católica in the 2012–13 Copa Chile Final, the club's fourth cup in the contest. On 18 March 2014, Herrera scored his first official goal in a 1–0 Copa Libertadores group stage win over Peru's Real Garcilaso, through a penalty kick. The same year he helped the club win the Torneo Apertura. His first League goal came on 22 November during a University Derby against Católica in a 2–2 draw. On 2 December, Herrera won his twelfth professional title after defeating in the Copa Chile Final to rivals Colo-Colo in the shootout, where he saved a penalty and scored the winning goal. On 13 February 2016, he scored his third official goal in a 2–1 defeat to Palestino, scoring from a penalty.

International career

Herrera has been representing the

Chile national team Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

since he was a youth player, participating in its U-20 and U-23 levels, the latter as one of the 23 players nominated to the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. His first call-up to the senior team was in 2002 in a game against Mexico; his last was in 2005. Years later, during the best moment of his career between 2011 and 2012 playing for Universidad de Chile, Herrera curiously did not receive nominations from Claudio Borghi, the incumbent coach. The press usually alluded to an internal dispute between them, but with Borghi's departure in December 2012, the situation changed in Herrera's favor. After almost seven years of absence, Herrera was reconsidered by

, who finally took the helm. He received his first call up from Sampaoli for the friendly matches against

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 Senegal in January 2013, where he stated that Herrera would play against Haiti, rotating the goal-keeping duties with

Christopher Toselli Cristopher Benjamín Toselli Ríos (, born 15 June 1988) is a Chilean footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Universidad de Chile. Toselli is best known for beating Cláudio Taffarel's clean sheet record of 484 minutes during 2007 FIFA U-20 W ...

. Nevertheless, he played both games which were 2–1 and 3–0 wins respectively. On 5 March 2014, Herrera played against Germany in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

replacing first-choice Claudio Bravo who missed the match due to injury. Chile lost 1–0 through a Mario Götze goal. Having been part of the entire qualification campaign since Sampaoli's taking, Herrera was named in Chile's list of 23 for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. On 5 June, he played in a 2–0 friendly win over Northern Ireland, prior to the World Cup. He was part of the

2015 Copa América The 2015 Copa América was the 44th edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South America, and took place in Chile between 11 June and 4 July 2015. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, ...

champion team as back-up keeper to Claudio Bravo as well as in the 2016 Centenario edition. In 2017, he was nominated to the Confederations Cup and played two matches against Cameroon (a 2–0 victory) and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

(a 1–1 draw). That cup, Chile was runner-up after being defeated 1–0 by Germany in the final.

Post retirement

Since 2019, Herrera has performed sporadically as a football commentator in media such as Radio Cooperativa. Following his retirement from football, in 2021 he definitely joined TNT Sports Chile to be a panelist for the TV program ''Todos Somos Técnicos'' (We Are All Coaches).

Honours

Club

Universidad de Chile * Primera División de Chile (8):

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

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, 2012 Apertura, 2014 Apertura, 2017 Clausura *

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 ...

* Copa Chile:

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Supercopa de Chile The Supercopa de Chile (''Supercup of Chile'') is an annual one-match football (soccer), football official competition in Chile organised by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP). This competition serves as the season opener and ...

Everton * Primera División de Chile: 2008 Apertura

International

Chile *

Individual

* Campeonato Nacional (Chile) Goalkeeper of the Season:

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

Goalkeeper of the Season:

Team of the Season:

* Campeonato Nacional (Chile) Team of the Season:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Johnny 1981 births Living people People from Angol Chilean footballers Chile under-20 international footballers Chile international footballers Universidad de Chile footballers Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players Audax Italiano footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Chilean Primera División players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Chilean expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Brazil Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Brazil University of the Americas (Chile) alumni Association football goalkeepers 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players Copa América-winning players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Chile Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Chilean association football commentators TNT Sports Chile color commentators