Nicolás Miroslav Peric Villarreal (born 19 October 1978) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He is nicknamed ''Loco'' (Madman).

Club career

Born in

Talca Talca () is a List of cities in Chile, city and Communes of Chile, commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, Chile, Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the ...

, Peric joined hometown professional side

Rangers A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

youth set-up. Years later in 1998, he was promoted to first-adult team where did an impressive season four years later reaching the 2002 Torneo Apertura final alongside future international players like Marcos González and

Ismael Fuentes Ismael Ignacio Fuentes Castro (born 4 August 1981) is a Chilean former footballer who played as centre back. Club career Fuentes made his debut with Deportes Linares in the Primera B de Chile and then he moved to Rangers in 2001. Internationa ...

. In 2004, he joined Universidad de Concepcion which for that season reached its first ever

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

qualification where Peric appeared as a starter as well as in the local tournament. Just for his birthday, on 19 October, Peric scored his first professional goal after a goal kick in a 4–2 away loss with Bolívar at

La Paz La Paz (), officially known as Nuestra Señora de La Paz (Spanish pronunciation: ), is the seat of government of the Bolivia, Plurinational State of Bolivia. With an estimated 816,044 residents as of 2020, La Paz is the List of Bolivian cities ...

. However, later in December he received a six-month ban from the

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 ...

for having launch positive in a doping test, because he allegedly would have drunk a coca leaf tea before the game with Bolívar. Once finished his ban in April 2005, he joined Chilean freshly champion in the age Unión Española to face the Torneo Clausura where would have to challenge the first-choice post with

Jaime Bravo Jaime Bravo (September 8, 1932 – February 2, 1970) was a Mexican matador during the 1950s and 1960s. Bravo was known for his death-defying style and numerous relationships with various women and Hollywood starlets. Early life Bravo was bo ...

. After only playing five league games he left the club and then moved to

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 ...

where again performed well in his career. On 7 January 2008, it was reported that Peric joined

Süper Lig The Süper Lig (, ''Super League''), officially known as Spor Toto Süper Lig for sponsorship reasons, is a Turkish professional league for association football clubs. It is the top-flight of the Turkish football league system and is run by the ...

club Gençlerbirliği after an impressive 2007 season at Audax. However, after a year at

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, maki ...

–based team he left the club after differences with the board, so he closed his spell at

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

appearing 15 times between the 2007–08 and 2008–09 season. After a brief spell at Everton de Viña del Mar, in June 2009 Peric signed for Argentinos Juniors which had Claudio Borghi as coach, who pretended him in his teams since 2007 when he was coaching Colo-Colo. The coming season as a first-choice and playing 16 of 19 league games he reached the 2010 Torneo Clausura title, missing the last matchday due to an injury when Argentinos beat Independiente 4–3 with youngster

Luis Ojeda Luis Alberto Ojeda (born 21 March 1990) is an Argentine football goalkeeper who plays for Sol de América, on loan from Platense. Career Ojeda began his playing career with local team Unión de Santa Fe of the Argentine 2nd division in 2008. ...

in the goal. On 10 July 2010, Paraguayan side Olimpia through its president Eduardo Delmás confirmed Peric signing after goalie's untying from Argentinos Juniors. However, he only stayed six months here after confrontations with the club supporters and also coaches José Saturnino Cardozo and Luis Cubilla. After finishing his contract with Olimpia, shortly after he returned to Chile and joined

Cobreloa Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a Chilean football professional club based in Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. That competes in the Primera B. The club's home ground is the Estadio Zorros del ...

. Defending the goal with ''The Oranges'' he reached the 2011 Torneo Clausura finals where they were defeated 3–0 by the freshly

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 ...

champions Universidad de Chile at Estadio Nacional after a goalless in Calama. In 2012, he returned to

and was a key member in the Torneo Clausura semifinals reaching. Two seasons later after Rangers relegation, Peric joined

Cobresal Club de Deportes Cobresal or simply Cobresal, is a Chilean football club based in El Salvador, Atacama, a Chilean mining camp, and participates in Campeonato Nacional. The team was founded on 5 May 1979, and the name of the club comes from the l ...

in 2014, where proclaimed champion of the 2015 Torneo Clausura. In 2015, he returned to

after eight years of his successful spell.

Post retirement

In March 2021, he joined ESPN Chile as a

sport commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

Honours

Club

;Argentinos Juniors *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

: 2010 Clausura ;Cobresal * Primera División de Chile: 2015 Clausura

References

External links

Gençlerbirliği Site Profile

Profile
at TFF.org
Primera División statistics
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Peric, Nicolas 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Talca Footballers from Maule Region Chilean people of Croatian descent Chilean men's footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chile men's international footballers Rangers de Talca footballers C.D. Universidad de Concepción footballers Audax Italiano footballers Gençlerbirliği S.K. footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers Club Olimpia footballers C.D. Cobreloa footballers C.D. Cobresal footballers Chilean Primera División players Süper Lig players Argentine Primera División players Paraguayan Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Men's association football goalkeepers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Turkey Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Paraguay 2007 Copa América players Chilean association football commentators