Diego Alfonso Valdés Contreras (born 30 January 1994) is a Chilean 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 plays as an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...

for

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

club América and the Chile national team.

Club career

Audax Italiano

He made his professional debut in 2012, in a match against Universidad Católica for the

Chilean Primera División The Chilean Primera División (English: First Division) is the top-tier league of the Chilean football league system. It is organized by the ''Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, ANFP''. The league is known as the Campeonato AFP PlanVital ...

Morelia

Valdés joined Monarcas Morelia from

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 ...

on June 14, 2016, on a two million dollar move. Valdés made his debut on July 15, 2016, against

Club Tijuana Club Tijuana Xoloitzcuintles de Caliente, commonly known as Tijuana, or simply as '' Xolos'', is a Mexican professional football club based in Tijuana. The club's badge is the founder's (Jorge Hank) hairless xoloitzcuintle, Hermoso. Founded ...

losing 2–0.

America

Valdés joined

Club America Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises ...

from

Club Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

on January 1, 2022. On 30 August 2023, Valdés renewed his contract with America until 2026. Valdés won the Liga MX with America on 17 December 2023.

International career

Valdés was expected to play for the

Chile national under-20 football team Chile national under-20 football team, also known as Chile Sub-20 or La Rojita, is part of the Federación de Fútbol de Chile. The U-20 team is considered to be the breeding ground for future Chile national football team pla ...

in the 2013

South American Youth Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as U-20 South American Championship and es, Torneo Juventudes de América, "Campeonato Sudamericano Sub 20" or pt, Juventude da América (English: "America's Youth") is a South American ...

in Argentina. However, he was left out of the team at the last minute by manager Mario Salas. The team's performance in Argentina qualified them for a place in the Turkey 2013 under-20 World Cup and when team member

Diego Rojas Diego Nicolás Rojas Orellana (born 15 February 1995) is a Chilean footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Curicó Unido. Club career Rojas debuts at UC in the national tournament play from the 55 minute to Cobresal. On 1 February 20 ...

was injured and unable to play, Valdés was selected to take his place. He got his first call up to the senior

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 ...

squad for a friendly against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in January 2015 and made his international debut in the match.

International

International goals

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

Racism controversy

On September 10, 2018, a day before a friendly match between Chile and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, Valdés made a racist gesture, slanting his eyes with his hands at a fan publicity event. The gesture was reported internationally and created furor in Korea, resulting in Valdes posting an apology widely seen as inadequate. This was the second racist incident in Korea from a visiting South American team, following a similar incident in 2017 in which Colombian football player

Edwin Cardona Edwin Andrés Cardona Bedoya (; born 8 December 1992) is a Colombian professional footballer who plays for Argentine Primera Division club Racing Club and the Colombia national team. Club career Colombia Cardona made his professional deb ...

was banned for five games by

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

after making a similar gesture.

Honours

América *

: Apertura 2023, Clausura 2024 *

Campeón de Campeones ''Campeón de Campeones'' ( es, Champion of Champions) is an annual Mexican football competition established in 1942. In its current form, the winner of the Apertura season faces the winner of the Clausura season, for both Liga MX and Liga MX Feme ...

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Individual *

Best XI: Apertura 2021, Clausura 2022 *

All-Star:

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Best Offensive Midfielder:

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 ...

References

External links

* * * 1994 births Living people People from Puente Alto Footballers from Santiago Metropolitan Region Chilean men's footballers Footballers from Santiago Chile men's under-20 international footballers Chile men's international footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Audax Italiano footballers Atlético Morelia players Santos Laguna footballers Club América footballers Chilean Primera División players Liga MX players Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Men's association football midfielders 2019 Copa América players 2024 Copa América players {{Chile-footy-midfielder-stub