Johnny Cristián Herrera Muñoz (, born 9 May 1981) is a Chilean 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

. He has played the most part of his career at Universidad de Chile, winning for the club eight league titles, a Copa Sudamericana, three cup titles and a supercup in 2015. He has represented Chilean football team at U20 level and Olympic level too, playing 21 official times for the adult team. Herrera has been part of Chile's both Copa América titles in 2015 and

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the Impeachment of Dilma Rousseff, impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses duri ...

Club career

Born in

Angol Angol is a commune and capital city of the Malleco Province in the Araucanía Region of southern Chile. It is located at the foot of the Nahuelbuta Range and next to the Vergara River, that permitted communications by small boats to the Bío- ...

, Herrera joined

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile ( es, Universidad de Chile) is a public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

youth squad and was promoted to the first/adult team in 1999. Three years later, he became the first-choice keeper after being back-up for Sergio Vargas, who left ''The Lions'' after 10 years playing there. In 2004, Herrera won his first professional title after defeating

Cobreloa Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a Chilean football professional club based in Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. That competes in the Primera B. The club's home ground is the Estadio Zorros del ...

as visitors in the Torneo Apertura final, where he scored the winning goal during the shootout, giving the club their twelfth League title. During those years, Herrera collated his football career with his studies, area where he was dedicated to the Pedagogy in Physical Education, a career he studied at the University of the Americas (UDLA). In 2006, Herrera moved to Brazilian club

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians ( grc, Α΄ ᾽Επιστολὴ πρὸς Κορινθίους) is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-aut ...

. Following an unsuccessful spell at Brazil — where only played nine official games — he returned to Chile and signed for Everton from

Vina del Mar Vina may refer to: People * Émilie Vina (born 1982), French cross-country skier * Ionuț Vînă (born 1995), Romanian footballer * Vina Bovy (1900–1983), Belgian operatic soprano * Vina Mazumdar (1927–2013), Indian academic and feminist ...

in 2007. There, he helped the team to win the 2008 Torneo Apertura. However, in June 2008, Herrera left Everton to sign for Audax Italiano. In 2011, Herrera returned to Universidad de Chile. That year he had a brilliant season, being a major figure in the club's first treble in its history after winning both league tournaments (

Apertura The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is divi ...

and

Clausura The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is divi ...

) and the Copa Sudamericana, under the guidance of coach

Jorge Sampaoli Jorge Luis Sampaoli Moya (; born 13 March 1960) is an Argentine football coach who is currently manager for Sevilla of La Liga. Sampaoli started out as a youth player and eventually switched to management after a severe injury. Sampaoli starte ...

. Noteworthy, Herrera was even chosen as the goalkeeper of the season by Conmebol. In 2012, he helped Universidad de Chile to win the Torneo Apertura, which meant the club's first ever league tri-championship, as well as the last reached during the Sampaoli era. On 20 May 2013, he featured in Universidad de Chile's 2–1 victory over Universidad Católica in the 2012–13 Copa Chile Final, the club's fourth cup in the contest. On 18 March 2014, Herrera scored his first official goal in a 1–0 Copa Libertadores group stage win over Peru's

Real Garcilaso Cusco Fútbol Club (known as ''Real Garcilaso'' until 2019) is a professional Peruvian football club based in the city of Cusco, that competes in the Liga 2, the top flight of Peruvian football. History Beginnings The club was founded in ...

, through a penalty kick. The same year he helped the club win the Torneo Apertura. His first League goal came on 22 November during a University Derby against Católica in a 2–2 draw. On 2 December, Herrera won his twelfth professional title after defeating in the Copa Chile Final to rivals

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 ...

in the shootout, where he saved a penalty and scored the winning goal. On 13 February 2016, he scored his third official goal in a 2–1 defeat to

Palestino Club Deportivo Palestino is a professional football club based in the city of Santiago, Chile. The club was founded in 1920 and plays in the Primera División de Chile. They play their home games at the Estadio Municipal de La Cisterna stadi ...

, scoring from a penalty.

International career

Herrera has been representing the Chile national team since he was a youth player, participating in its U-20 and U-23 levels, the latter as one of the 23 players nominated to the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

in Sydney. His first call-up to the senior team was in 2002 in a game against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

; his last was in 2005. Years later, during the best moment of his career between 2011 and 2012 playing for

, Herrera curiously did not receive nominations from Claudio Borghi, the incumbent coach. The press usually alluded to an internal dispute between them, but with Borghi's departure in December 2012, the situation changed in Herrera's favor. After almost seven years of absence, Herrera was reconsidered by

, who finally took the helm. He received his first call up from Sampaoli for the friendly matches against Haiti and

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 ...

in January 2013, where he stated that Herrera would play against Haiti, rotating the goal-keeping duties with Christopher Toselli. Nevertheless, he played both games which were 2–1 and 3–0 wins respectively. On 5 March 2014, Herrera played against

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

in Stuttgart replacing first-choice

Claudio Bravo Claudio Andrés Bravo Muñoz (; born 13 April 1983) is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for La Liga club Real Betis and captains the Chile national team. He started playing with Colo-Colo and moved to Real Sociedad ...

who missed the match due to injury. Chile lost 1–0 through a

Mario Götze Mario Götze (born 3 June 1992) is a German professional footballer who plays for Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt and the Germany national team. Although his favoured position is that of a playmaker, Götze has also played as a false ni ...

goal. Having been part of the entire qualification campaign since Sampaoli's taking, Herrera was named in Chile's list of 23 for the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

in Brazil. On 5 June, he played in a 2–0 friendly win over

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

, prior to the World Cup. He was part of the

2015 Copa América The 2015 Copa América was the 44th edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South America, and took place in Chile between 11 June and 4 July 2015. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, ...

champion team as back-up keeper to Claudio Bravo as well as in the 2016 Centenario edition. In 2017, he was nominated to the

Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, ...

and played two matches against

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

(a 2–0 victory) and Australia (a 1–1 draw). That cup, Chile was runner-up after being defeated 1–0 by Germany in the final.

Post retirement

Since 2019, Herrera has performed sporadically as a

football commentator In sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real-time commentary of a game or event, usually during a live broadcast, traditionally delivered in the historical present tense. Radio was ...

in media such as

Radio Cooperativa Radio Cooperativa is a radio station in Chile, based in Santiago. It is operated by ''Compañía Chilena de Comunicaciones S.A.''. The station is notable for opposing the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990) and denouncing its human rights v ...

. Following his retirement from football, in 2021 he definitely joined TNT Sports Chile to be a panelist for the TV program ''Todos Somos Técnicos'' (We Are All Coaches).

Honours

Club

Universidad de Chile *

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 ...

(8):

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 ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

, 2004 Apertura, 2011 Apertura, 2011 Clausura, 2012 Apertura, 2014 Apertura, 2017 Clausura * Copa Sudamericana: 2011 *

Copa Chile The Copa Chile (''Chile Cup'') is an annual cup competition for Chilean football teams. Due to time constraints and club pressure, the trophy was cancelled in 2000, but returned in 2008. Its precursor was the Campeonato de Apertura (''Opening Ch ...

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 ...

, 2015 * Supercopa de Chile: 2015 Everton *

: 2008 Apertura

International

Chile * Copa América: 2015,

Individual

* Campeonato Nacional (Chile) Goalkeeper of the Season: 2011 * CONMEBOL Goalkeeper of the Season: 2011 * Copa Sudamericana Team of the Season: 2011 * Campeonato Nacional (Chile) Team of the Season: 2010, 2011,

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gat ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Herrera, Johnny 1981 births Living people People from Angol Chilean footballers Chile under-20 international footballers Chile international footballers Universidad de Chile footballers Sport Club Corinthians Paulista players Audax Italiano footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Chilean Primera División players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Chilean expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Brazil Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Brazil University of the Americas (Chile) alumni Association football goalkeepers 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players Copa América-winning players Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic bronze medalists for Chile Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Chilean association football commentators TNT Sports Chile color commentators