Kristiano Samuel Armenteros Nunez Mendoza (born 27 May 1990), known as Samuel Armenteros, is a Swedish

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 plays as a striker for Saudi Arabian club Al-Kholood.

Club career

Born in Masthugget,

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, to a Cuban father and a Swedish mother, Armenteros moved to the Netherlands at age 16 to join

SC Heerenveen Sportclub Heerenveen (; West Frisian: Sportklub It Hearrenfean) is a Dutch football club from Heerenveen. They currently play in the Eredivisie, the top level of football in the Netherlands. History Sportclub Heerenveen was founded on 20 July ...

's youth system, and made it into the first team under head coach

Gertjan Verbeek Gertjan Verbeek (; born 1 August 1962) is a Dutch former professional footballer who last managed Eerste Divisie side Almere City. Coaching career Netherlands After retiring from his playing career in 1994, Verbeek stayed with SC Heerenveen as ...

. He was successively released by Heerenveen in 2009, and later chose to rejoin Verbeek at

Heracles Almelo Heracles Almelo is a Dutch professional football club based in Almelo, founded in 1903. The club has won the Dutch national title twice, in 1927 and 1941. Heracles won the Eerste Divisie title during the 2004–05 season, gaining promotion to th ...

, where he showed himself as a promising striker and managed to score his first

Eredivisie The Eredivisie (; ''"Honour Division"'' or ''"Premier Division"'') is the highest level of professional football in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956, two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is c ...

goals. In September 2015, Armenteros signed a two-year contract with reigning

Azerbaijan Premier League The Azerbaijan Premier League ( az, Azərbaycan Premyer Liqası) is a professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Azerbaijan football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. It is conteste ...

Champions

FK Qarabağ FK or fk may refer to: In arts and entertainment: * Flyer Killer, fictional automated robots in the ''Terminator'' film franchise. * Fox Kids, a former American children's television programming block. * Funky Kong, a video game character. Place: ...

. On 29 August 2016, Armenteros returned to

, signing a one-year contract with the club.

Benevento

On 30 August 2017, Armenteros signed a contract with

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

team

Benevento Benevento (, , ; la, Beneventum) is a city and ''comune'' of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the ...

. Armenteros struggled at Benevento, getting little playing time, and looked for a transfer in January 2018. Before departing for Benevento in August, he played 45 minutes for Heracles's B team while recovering from injury, meaning that he had officially played for two teams on the fall-through-spring league calendar. Under FIFA rules, he couldn't play for a third team that used that calendar, and any transfer would require going to a league that plays on a spring-to-fall calendar.

Loan to Portland Timbers

In February 2018, Armenteros was loaned by Benevento to

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

. He won MLS's Goal of the Week twice in a row in May 2018. His loan contract expired on 31 December 2018, and he returned to Benevento.

Loan to Crotone

On 30 January 2020, he joined

Crotone Crotone (, ; nap, label= Crotonese, Cutrone or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( grc, Κρότων or ; la, Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages until ...

on loan.

Fujairah

On 5 October 2020, Armenteros signed with Emirati club

Fujairah Fujairah City ( ar, الفجيرة) is the capital of the emirate of Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates. It is the seventh-largest city in UAE, located on the Gulf of Oman (part of the Indian Ocean). It is the only Emirati capital city on the ...

Second return to Heracles Almelo

On 31 January 2022, Armenteros returned to

until the end of the 2021–22 season, with an option to extend.

Al-Kholood

On 11 August 2023, Armenteros joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Kholood.

International career

Having appeared for the Sweden U17, U19, and U21 teams a total of 18 times, Armenteros made his full international debut for

on 13 June 2017 in a friendly 1–1 draw with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. He also scored first his international goal in that game, 13 minutes after coming on as a substitute for

John Guidetti John Alberto Guidetti (, ; born 15 April 1992) is a Swedish professional footballer who plays as a striker for AIK. Whilst growing up Guidetti played football in his native Sweden as well as Kenya. He returned to Sweden in 2008 and played with ...

. Armenteros made his competitive international debut for Sweden on 31 August 2017 in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

when he replaced Jakob Johansson in the 82nd minute of a 2–3 loss.

Personal life

Born in Sweden, Armenteros is of

Afro-Cubans Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural ele ...

descent.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Sweden's goal tally first.''

Honours

Anderlecht *

Belgian First Division The Belgian Pro League,(officially the Jupiler Pro League due to sponsorship reasons with Jupiler), is the top league competition for association football clubs in Belgium. Contested by 18 clubs since the 2020–21 season and reduced to 16 team ...

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 ...

Qarabağ *

: 2015–16 *

Azerbaijan Cup The Azerbaijan Cup is a major association football competition in Azerbaijan. In its original form, it started in 1936, when Azerbaijan was a republic of the Soviet Union and it was not disputed by Azerbaijani teams in the Soviet league pyramid. ...

: 2015-16 Heracles Almelo *

Eerste Divisie The Eerste Divisie (, en, First Division) is the second-highest tier of football in the Netherlands. It is linked with the top-level Eredivisie and with the third-level Tweede Divisie via promotion/relegation systems. It is also known as the ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

Individual * Eerste Divisie Team of the Year:

References

External links

Samuel Armenteros
at ''

Voetbal International ''Voetbal International'' (VI) is a Dutch football magazine. It is the oldest Dutch football magazine that is still running. History and Profile ''Voetbal International'' was established in 1965. VI was one of the founding members of ESM but l ...

'' * {{DEFAULTSORT:Armenteros, Samuel 1990 births Living people Footballers from Gothenburg Swedish people of Cuban descent Men's association football forwards Swedish men's footballers Sweden men's international footballers Sweden men's under-21 international footballers Cuban men's footballers SC Heerenveen players Heracles Almelo players R.S.C. Anderlecht players Feyenoord players Willem II (football club) players Qarabağ FK players Benevento Calcio players Portland Timbers players FC Crotone players Fujairah FC players Al-Kholood Club players Eredivisie players Belgian Pro League players Azerbaijan Premier League players Serie A players Serie B players Major League Soccer players UAE Pro League players Saudi First Division League players Swedish expatriate men's footballers Cuban expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate men's footballers in Belgium Expatriate men's footballers in Azerbaijan Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in the United Arab Emirates Expatriate men's footballers in Saudi Arabia Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the Netherlands Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Belgium Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Azerbaijan Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Italy Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United States Swedish expatriate sportspeople in the United Arab Emirates Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia