Víctor Hugo Aristizábal Posada (born 9 December 1971) is a Colombian retired 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 striker. He scored 15 goals in 66 games for the Colombia national team between 1993 and 2003.

Club career

Aristizábal was born in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

, Antioquia. He started his career in

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional association football, football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the countr ...

, and played there from 1990 to 1996 only interrupted by a short spell with

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

in 1994. Winning the Colombian league twice with Nacional, he eventually moved to play in Brazil. He played for

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for 'Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the GaWC a ...

and Santos before spending two seasons at Nacional and

Deportivo Cali Asociación Deportivo Cali, best known as Deportivo Cali, is a Colombian sports club based in Cali, most notable for its football team, which currently competes in the Categoría Primera A. Deportivo Cali is one of the most successful footba ...

. In 2002, he once again moved to Brazil, and played for EC Vitória, Cruzeiro and

Coritiba Coritiba Foot Ball Club, commonly known as Coritiba and colloquially referred to as "Coxa-Branca" or "Coxa", is a Brazilian football club from Curitiba, capital city of the Brazilian state of Paraná. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest f ...

. Aristizábal is the all-time top foreign goalscorer in the Brazilian league. He is also the all-time Colombian goalscorer with 348 goals, of which about 200 goals were scored with Atlético Nacional, club which he is also the top goalscorer. He is the only player that has won six championship with Atlético Nacional. He announced his retirement from football in November 2007 after suffering an awkward knee

injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, o ...

International career

Between 1993 and 2003, Aristizábal played 66 international matches and scored 15 goals for the Colombia national team. He was an unused substitute for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

, but played all three matches at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

. Aristizábal finished as top scorer with six goals in the

2001 Copa América The 2001 Copa América was held in Colombia, from 11 to 29 July. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. Colombia won the tournament for the 1st time without conceding a goal. Brazil national football team, Brazil ...

held in Colombia, as ''Los Cafeteros'' won the title for the first time. He was also a member of the nation's squad for the

2003 FIFA Confederations Cup The 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup football tournament was the sixth FIFA Confederations Cup, held in France in June 2003. France retained the title they had won in 2001, but the tournament was overshadowed by the death of Cameroon player Marc-Vivie ...

, where they finished in fourth place. During the

2006 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA confederations. Each confederation – the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa), CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean), CONMEBOL (South Americ ...

campaign, Aristizábal announced he was retiring from international soccer after being dropped for a match against

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Colombia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Aristizábal goal.''

Honours

Atlético Nacional *

Fútbol Profesional Colombiano Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

: 1991, 1994, 1999, 2005-I, 2007-I, 2007-II *

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana ( en, Interamerican Cup) was an annual club football competition contested between a representative from North America (CONCACAF) and South America (CONMEBOL). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACA ...

: 1990, 1995 *

Copa Merconorte The Copa Merconorte () was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited in ...

: 2000 Cruzeiro *

Campeonato Brasileiro Série A The Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (; English: "Brazilian Championship A Series"), commonly referred to as the Brasileirão (; English: "Big Brazilian"), and also known as Brasileirão Assaí due to sponsorship with Assaí Atacadista, is a Br ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...

Campeonato Mineiro Campeonato Mineiro is the state football league of the state of Minas Gerais and is controlled by the Minas Gerais Football Federation FMF (Federação Mineira de Futebol). The history of Campeonato Mineiro can be divided into two parts: befor ...

Coritiba *

Campeonato Paranaense Campeonato Paranaense, which has been contested since 1915, is the top-flight football league of the state of Paraná, Brazil. Format The format has changed in 2014. 12 teams are together in a single group. They play against each other once, ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

Colombia *

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 ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

Individual * Copa América top scorer: 2001 * Colombian League top scorer: 2005-I

References

External links

*
Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América
Víctor Aristizábal listed in the top 10 {{DEFAULTSORT:Aristizabal, Victor 1971 births Living people Colombian footballers Association football forwards Colombia international footballers Olympic footballers of Colombia Copa América-winning players Colombian people of Basque descent Footballers at the 1992 Summer Olympics 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players 1993 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 2001 Copa América players 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup players Categoría Primera A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players La Liga players Atlético Nacional footballers Valencia CF players São Paulo FC players Santos FC players Deportivo Cali footballers Esporte Clube Vitória players Cruzeiro Esporte Clube players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players Colombian expatriate footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Spain Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Brazil Footballers from Medellín