Alejandro Adrián Escalona Martínez, (born 14 August 1979) is a retired Chilean

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 ...

who played as wing–back. A youth international for

Chile 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 east a ...

, Escalona played for

Colo-Colo Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo () is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano they play in the Chilean Primera División, from which they have never been relegated. The team has pla ...

Torino Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. T ...

, Benfica, River Plate and Grêmio, but was mostly linked to

Everton de Viña del Mar Everton de Viña del Mar is a Chilean football club based in the city of Viña del Mar. The club was founded 24 June 1909 after a group of Anglo-Chilean teenagers formed a football club and named it after the English team Everton who had re ...

, representing them on three spells.

Career

Early life

Born in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, Escalona joined

in 1995, where he finish his youth development. He made his professional debut in 1997, in a single appearance, winning his first honour, the 1997 Torneo Clausura. The following season, he played 16 matches with one goal, adding another league

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...

. He started

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 shoot ...

at Colo-Colo, but after a receiving praise in the

1999 South American U-20 Championship The 1999 South American Youth Championship (Sudamericana sub-20) is a football competition contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in Argentina between January 5 and January 25, 1999, the 23rd time the ...

, he moved to

. In Italy, he was unable to replicate his performances, and played only three games and saw the team being

relegated In sports leagues, promotion and relegation is a process where teams are transferred between multiple divisions based on their performance for the completed season. Leagues that use promotion and relegation systems are often called open leagues. ...

Europe, Argentina and Brazil

In early July 2000, Escalona was set to join

Napoli Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

, but no agreement was reached with Torino. On the 12th, Benfica successfully signed with Escalona, with Cristián Uribe playing an important role in convincing the 21 year-old. He made his debut for Benfica in a friendly against Linfield on 3 August, during the Carlsberg Belfast Challenge. After the match, in an interview for the Portuguese media, he downplayed the fact that he was unknown in Portugal, saying: "I will show on the field what I am worth". However, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

that saw three managers pass through Benfica, Escalona could never gain his place, battling with the youngster Diogo Luís and the Paraguayan Rojas for the position and playing just nine league matches. In January 2001, his agent, Pablo Tallarico was involved in a fake Italian passports scandal, that included Uribe and

Pablo Contreras Pablo Andrés Contreras Fica (; born 11 September 1978) is a Chilean retired footballer who last played for Melbourne Victory and the Chile national football team as a centre back or even as a right back. Contreras began his career at Colo-Colo ...

. Initially, he denied knowledge of any wrongdoing, but in May, he had his passport seized by the

Polícia Judiciária The (PJ; en, Judiciary Police) is the national criminal investigation police agency of Portugal, focused in fighting serious crimes, including homicides, kidnapping, organized crime, terrorism, illegal drug trade, corruption, cybercrime and ...

, and his contract with Benfica terminated. On 30 July 2001, Escalona signed a one-year deal with River Plate, but played just one league game under

Manuel Pellegrini Manuel Lúis Pellegrini Ripamonti (; ; born 16 September 1953) is a Chilean professional football manager and former player who is the manager of Real Betis. As a coach, he has managed teams in Spain, England, Argentina, Chile, China and Ecuador. ...

. Released by River Plate, he returned to Chile in January 2003, joining

in the second tier. His good performances, which included a promotion to the top tier, helped secure a loan deal to Grêmio in March 2005. He helped Grêmio win the 2005 Série B and earn promotion back to the Série A, despite being sent-off in the crucial match, dubbed the Batalha dos Aflitos.

Late career

After his loan deal expired, Escalona joined Naútico in December 2006, but failed to impress, and was released just four months later. In July 2007, he re-signed with Everton for six months, playing 13 games in the 2007 season. After not competing in 2008, he moved to San Luis Quillota in 2009, where he helped them win promotion from the second tier in the first year and played 24 matches in the 2010 Primera División campaign that ended with relegation. In his last two seasons, he had a third spell at Everton, returned to San Luis Quillota and finished at

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 fo ...

in 2012.

Honors

Club

;Colo-Colo *

Primera División de Chile 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 Alí Rafael Primera Rosel ...

(2): 1997 Clausura,

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

;River Plate * Argentine Primera División (1): 2002 Clausura ;Everton * Primera B (1): 2003 ;Gremio *

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had been ...

(1): 2005 *

Campeonato Gaúcho The Campeonato Gaúcho Série A1 (Gaúcho Championship A1 Series or Série A1), officially named as Campeonato da Primeira Divisão de Futebol Profissional da FGF - Divisão Especial - Série A1 and commonly known as Campeonato Gaúcho or Gauchã ...

(1): 2006 ;San Luis * Primera B (1): 2009 Clausura

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Escalona, Alejandro 1979 births Living people Footballers from Santiago Chilean footballers Chile under-20 international footballers Colo-Colo footballers Torino F.C. players S.L. Benfica footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense players Clube Náutico Capibaribe players San Luis de Quillota footballers Curicó Unido footballers Chilean Primera División players Serie A players Primeira Liga players Argentine Primera División players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Primera B de Chile players Chilean expatriate footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Italy Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Brazil Association football defenders