Johan Vonlanthen Benavídez (born 1 February 1986) is a Swiss 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 ...

who played as a winger. Having made his Swiss Super League debut BSC Young Boys at the age of 16, he moved to PSV in 2003. He initially announced the end of his active career in May 2012. He came back out of retirement in May 2013 and signed for

Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are among what is possibly the most ancient living group of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grasshop ...

in June. He retired in August 2018 after two years with

FC Wil FC Wil (''Fussball Club Wil 1900'') is a football club based in Wil, Switzerland. They play in the ''Sportpark Bergholz'', which has a total capacity of 6,048. The club has consistently played in the Swiss second tier since regaining promotion i ...

Club career

Early career

Vonlanthen played as a junior for BSC Young Boys in Switzerland. In the 2001–02 season, he made his debut as a 16-year-old in the Swiss Super League starting eight games and appearing once as a substitute. In the summer of 2003, he was transferred to the Dutch

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 ...

club

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

. On 21 June 2004, Vonlanthen became the youngest goalscorer when he scored for the Switzerland national team against

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

, Portugal at the age of 18 years and 141 days old. He made a good initial impression and helped PSV qualify for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

. After a good first season, he began to lose form and as a consequence was loaned out to Italian side Brescia Calcio for the last six months of the 2004–05 season. He was again loaned out to NAC Breda for the 2005–06 season.

Red Bull Salzburg

At the start of the 2006–07 season, Vonlanthen transferred to Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga. On 13 July 2009,

FC Zürich Fussballclub Zürich, commonly abbreviated to FC Zürich or simply FCZ, is a Swiss football club based in Zürich. The club was founded in 1896 and has won the Swiss Super League 13 times and the Swiss Cup 10 times. The most recent titles a ...

signed the Swiss forward on a season long loan deal. The move was not made permanent, and Vonlanthen returned to Salzburg for the start of the 2010–11 season.

Itagüí, Wohlen and initial retirement

Vonlanthen moved to Colombian Primera División side

Itagüí Itagüí () is a city of Colombia, located in the south of the Aburrá Valley in the Antioquia Department. It is part of The Metropolitan Area of the Aburrá Valley. Demographics The population at the 2005 census was 230,272. Its density is 17&nb ...

in August 2011. On 30 May 2012, Vonlanthen announced his retirement at age 26. According to him, he 'could not face the prospect of undergoing a knee operation'.

Return

On 13 June 2013, Vonlanthen came out of retirement to join

, signing a one-year deal with an option for a further two years. On 27 December 2013, Vonlanthen was loaned out to Swiss second division side

Schaffhausen Schaffhausen (; gsw, Schafuuse; french: Schaffhouse; it, Sciaffusa; rm, Schaffusa; en, Shaffhouse) is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimate ...

, due to a lack of playtime at Grasshoppers. He retired in August 2018 after two years with

International career

Vonlanthen's stepfather is a Swiss national, giving him the right to play for that country. On 6 June 2004, Vonlanthen made his senior debut for the Switzerland national team against

Liechtenstein Liechtenstein (), officially the Principality of Liechtenstein (german: link=no, Fürstentum Liechtenstein), is a German-speaking microstate located in the Alps between Austria and Switzerland. Liechtenstein is a semi-constitutional monarch ...

. He came on as a substitute in the 81st minute to replace Alexander Frei. Switzerland went on to beat Liechtenstein 1–0. At

Euro 2004 The 2004 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as Euro 2004, was the 12th edition of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football competition contested by the men's national teams of UEFA member associations. The ...

, Vonlanthen became the second youngest player to play in the tournament when he came on as a substitute against

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. On 21 June 2004, Vonlanthen became the youngest scorer ever in the European Championships when he equalised against

, beating

Wayne Rooney Wayne Mark Rooney (born 24 October 1985) is an English professional football manager and former player, who is the manager of Major League Soccer club D.C. United in the United States. He spent much of his playing career as a forward while ...

's record – which had only been set four days before – by three months. Since the European Championships in Portugal, Vonlanthen has managed to hold a regular position in the national team and as well as playing frequently in the under 21s side. He was part of the squad that very narrowly lost out to Spain on a place in the 2009 European Championships. He had scored the equaliser in the first leg in a 2–1 win but the Spanish came back to win 3–1 in the second leg and 4–3 on aggregate. Vonlanthen was called up to the Swiss squad to play in

2006 World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Germany 2006, was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to host the ...

, but was unable to participate due to a

hamstring In human anatomy, a hamstring () is any one of the three posterior thigh muscles in between the hip and the knee (from medial to lateral: semimembranosus, semitendinosus and biceps femoris). The hamstrings are susceptible to injury. In quadrupe ...

injury. He was also called up for

Euro 2008 The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship, commonly referred to as UEFA Euro 2008 or simply Euro 2008, was the 13th UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial football tournament contested by the member nations of UEFA (the Union of Europea ...

Career statistics

Club

International

References

External links

www.psvweb.nl profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vonlanthen, Johan 1986 births Living people People from Santa Marta Association football wingers Swiss people of Colombian descent Colombian footballers Swiss men's footballers Swiss expatriate sportspeople in Italy Switzerland international footballers Switzerland youth international footballers Switzerland under-21 international footballers BSC Young Boys players PSV Eindhoven players Brescia Calcio players NAC Breda players FC Red Bull Salzburg players FC Zürich players Águilas Doradas Rionegro players FC Wohlen players Grasshopper Club Zürich players FC Schaffhausen players Servette FC players FC Wil players Swiss expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in the Netherlands Expatriate footballers in Austria Expatriate footballers in Italy UEFA Euro 2004 players UEFA Euro 2008 players Austrian Football Bundesliga players Swiss Super League players Swiss Challenge League players Eredivisie players Serie A players Categoría Primera A players Sportspeople from Magdalena Department