Nicolás Esteban Medina Ríos (born 28 March 1987) 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 le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Born in Santiago, Medina began his football career at Club Universidad de Chile, being promoted to the first team in 2006. Also during that year, he received an offer from

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

, but did not accept it because he still wanted to develop his game before making the move to Europe. In the following summer, Medina signed with another club from Spain, CA Osasuna, in a four-year contract and a

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400.000 fee. He was immediately loaned to

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

side SD Eibar, where he was played very rarely (ten matches out of 42). For the 2008–09 season, Medina was again loaned by the

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

se to another team in that tier, SD Huesca. He appeared slightly more than the previous campaign, contributing three goals to the

Aragon Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...

ese's survival. On 27 November 2009, Medina moved clubs again, still owned by Osasuna, joining CD Castellón in a season-long move. He definitely cut ties with the former in the 2010 winter transfer window, signing with

PFC Akademik Sofia Akademik Sofia ( bg, Академик) is a Bulgarian football club from Sofia, which currently plays in the fourth tier of Bulgarian football, A RFG Sofia South. The team's stadium is located in the Slatina municipality of Sofia and its capaci ...

from Bulgaria. Medina returned to his country in 2012, going on to represent

Curicó Unido Curicó Unido is a football club based in Curicó, Maule Region, Chile. They currently play in the Primera División, the first level of the Chilean football system. They are currently managed by Damián Muñoz. History Curicó Unido was found ...

(two spells),

Deportes Naval Club de Deportes Naval is a Chilean football club, their home town is Talcahuano, Biobío Region. They currently play at the fifth level of Chilean football, Tercera B of Chile. The club were founded on August 27, 1972 as ''Club de Deportes ...

, San Marcos de Arica and Rangers de Talca. He scored eight goals from 34 appearances in his first season with San Marcos, helping to promotion to

Primera División 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, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

as champions.San Marcos se tituló campeón y consigue el ascenso a Primera (San Marcos were crowned champions and win promotion to ''Primera'')
Prensa Fútbol, 15 May 2014 (in Spanish) On 11 August 2017, aged 30, Medina returned to Spain after signing with amateurs

Villarrubia CF Villarrubia Club de Fútbol is a football team based in Villarrubia de los Ojos, Castile-La Mancha, Spain. The team plays in Segunda División B, Group 4. The club's home ground is ''Campo Nuevo Municipal''. History Jesús Santos Fiorito ...

. After a fleeting spell in Sweden with

Arameisk-Syrianska IF Arameisk-Syrianska IF is a Swedish based football club in Botkyrka, a suburb of Stockholm. The club was formed as Arameiska-Syrianska KIF by Syriacs (Arameans) in 1980 and has advanced through the league system, currently (2017) playing in the ...

, he took his game to the Andorran Primera Divisió with

FC Lusitanos FC Lusitanos, also known as Lusitans, was an Andorran football club from Andorra la Vella which was founded in 1999 and currently play in Segona Divisió. Lusitanos won their first Primera Divisió title in 2011–12 and its second national c ...

, FC Santa Coloma and

Inter Club d'Escaldes Inter Club d'Escaldes is an Andorran football club based in Escaldes-Engordany. The club currently plays in Primera Divisió. History Inter Club d'Escaldes was founded in Escaldes-Engordany in 1991 and being founder member of Primera Divisió ...

. As a curiosity, in his last club he used "1+8" as squad numer, just like

Iván Zamorano Iván Luis Zamorano Zamora (; born 18 January 1967) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is regarded as one of Chile's most recognized footballers, along with Marcelo Salas, Leonel Sánchez and Elias Figueroa ...

at Inter Milan in 1998. On 7 October 2021, Medina announced his official retirement after 16 years of professional career as a football player.

International career

Medina represented Chile at under-20 level, playing all the matches at the

2007 South American Youth Championship The 2007 South American Youth Championship (Sudamericano Sub-20) was the 23rd edition of the competition. It was played in Paraguay between 7 and 28 January 2007, and was contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL. This was the ...

and netting five times as his team finished fourth and qualified for that year's FIFA U-20 World Cup. He helped the nation to the third place in the finals held in Canada, scoring in the opening game against the hosts and against the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Managerial career

In October 2021, Medina joined

UD Montijo Unión Deportiva Montijo is a football team based in Montijo, Extremadura. Founded in 1922, Montijo competes in the Segunda División RFEF – Group 4. The club plays home matches at the Estadio Municipal Emilio Macarro Rodríguez. Season t ...

as an assistant coach of the B-team.

Honours

Club

San Marcos *

Primera B de Chile Campeonato Primera B ( en, Chilean First B Division) is the second tier in the Chilean football league system, and is organized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. It was established in 1952 as ''Segunda División'', and later renam ...

: 2013–14 Santa Coloma *

Andorran Supercup The Andorran Supercup ( ca, Supercopa Andorrana de Futbol) is the football Supercup of Andorra. History It has been played since 2003. It is a single match at the beginning of the season between the winners of the Andorran First Division and t ...

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 ...

International

Chile U20 * FIFA U-20 World Cup third place:

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

Sub 20 en Canadá: a un año del histórico tercer lugar en el Mundial (Under 20 in Canada: first anniversary of historic third place in the World Cup)
El Mercurio, 18 July 2008 (in Spanish)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Medina, Nicolas 1987 births Living people Footballers from Santiago Chilean footballers Chile under-20 international footballers Chilean expatriate footballers Association football forwards Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Universidad de Chile footballers Curicó Unido footballers Naval de Talcahuano footballers San Marcos de Arica footballers Rangers de Talca footballers Segunda División players Tercera División players CA Osasuna players SD Eibar footballers SD Huesca footballers CD Castellón footballers Villarrubia CF players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players Akademik Sofia players Ettan Fotboll players Arameisk-Syrianska IF players Primera Divisió players FC Lusitanos players FC Santa Coloma players Inter Club d'Escaldes players Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate footballers in Sweden Expatriate footballers in Andorra Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Sweden Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Andorra Chilean football managers Chilean expatriate football managers Expatriate football managers in Spain People from Santiago