José Luis Villanueva Ahumada (born November 5, 1981) is a Chilean former

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Club career

Second Division in Chile

In 2001, Chilean first division side

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 ...

loaned Villanueva out to second division squad

Deportes Temuco Deportes Temuco is a Chilean football club based in Temuco, Araucanía Region. It currently plays in the Chilean Primera División B, holding home games at the new '' Estadio Municipal Germán Becker''. The club was founded on February 22, 196 ...

, where he scored seven goals and helped the club gain promotion to the first division. The following year, instead of returning to Palestino, Villanueva was again loaned out, this time to second division club

Deportes Ovalle Club Deportes Ovalle is a Chilean football club who currently play in the fourth level of Chilean football, the Segunda División Profesional de Chile. The club's stadium is the Estadio Municipal de Ovalle. Their main rivals are Deportes La ...

. In 2002, Villanueva scored 20 goals with Ovalle.

Palestino

After the 2002 campaign, Villanueva was called to stay with his original team in first division. Villanueva continued his goal-scoring during the 2003 season with Palestino by scoring 22 goals in 34 matches, including in the Pre-Sudamericana Cup. After the season, Palestino once again loaned Villanueva out, this time to Universidad Católica. From 2004 to 2005, Villanueva scored 16 more goals.

Out of Chile

Palestino sold him to Argentine side Racing Club in 2005 for $600,000, immediately becoming a fan favourite. In a match against

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the south east of the Greater Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and it is the seat of the eponymous county. With a population of 230,810, it is located south of the ...

, Villanueva scored two goals to lead Racing Club to a 4–1 victory. With less than a minute left in the match, Villanueva was substituted off. As he left the pitch, the fans could be heard chanting "''shileno, shileno''", just how River Plate fans had chanted for Chilean legend

Marcelo Salas José Marcelo Salas Melinao (; born 24 December 1974), nicknamed ''Matador'' (due to his goalscoring celebrations), ''El Fenómeno'' and ''Shileno'', is a Chilean former footballer who played as a striker. Salas is considered the best strik ...

and

Alexis Sánchez Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (; born 19 December 1988), also known mononymously as Alexis, is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Ligue 1 club Marseille and the Chile national team. He is often lauded as the g ...

years prior. Villanueva then had spells in South Korea for

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan Hyundai FC ( ko, 울산 현대 축구단) is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League ...

in 2007 and in Brazil for Vasco da Gama in 2008 before moving to Uzbekistan. In Tashkent based club Bunyodkor, he played under number 17. During AFC Champions League he couldn’t participate in the competition due to the limit of foreign players as Rivaldo, Victor and Ramos were chosen.

International career

Villanueva represented Chile internationally at the under-20 level at the

2001 South American U-20 Championship The 2001 South American U-20 Championship (Sudamericana sub-20) was a football competition contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in Ecuador between January 12 and February 4, 2003, it was the 20th ...

and under-23 level during the preolympic qualifications in 2004, and represented the adult squad since 2003.

After football

After his retirement, he continued playing football at amateur level for the club Alianza of

La Reina La Reina ( Spanish: "The Queen") is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region created in 1963 from an eastern portion of the Ñuñoa commune. It belongs to the Northeastern zone of Santiago de Chile. La Re ...

. At the same time, he writes a popular "opinion piece" about football i
PrensaFútbol.com
and works as a football commentator in both TV and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

programs. Currently, he works for both ESPN Chile and ''Radio Pauta''. Since 2016, he has an undertaking called "The Football Experience" which helps amateur football players to live an experience as a

professional footballer Association football is the world's most popular sport and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries. Around the world, the sport is played at a professi ...

, organizing matches around the world.

Personal life

He also is married with 30-year-old journalist, Fernanda Bünzli. He likes to travel around the world and he hopes he could write in the future about his experiences. He hopes to end his career with his favorite Chilean squad Universidad Católica and then study a professional career.

Honours

Club

;Bunyodkor *

Uzbek League Uzbekistan Super League ( uz, O'zbekiston Superligasi), also called Coca-Cola Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons ( uz, Coca-Cola O'zbekiston Superligasi / Coca-Cola Ўзбекистон Суперлигаси), is the top division ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

Uzbek Cup The O‘zbekiston Kubogi or ( uz, O‘zbekiston Kubogi, script=Latn or ) Uzbek Cup is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer). Previous champions All champions as Uzbek SSR in Soviet times: *1939: Dinamo Tashkent *1940: Dinamo T ...

: 2008 ;Universidad Católica *

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 ...

(1): 2011

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Villanueva, Jose Luis 1981 births Living people Chilean footballers Chile international footballers Chile under-20 international footballers Chilean expatriate footballers Club Deportivo Palestino footballers Deportes Temuco footballers Deportes Ovalle footballers C.D. Cobreloa footballers Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Atlético Morelia players Ulsan Hyundai FC players CR Vasco da Gama players FC Bunyodkor players Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players C.D. Antofagasta footballers Deportes Magallanes footballers Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Argentine Primera División players Liga MX players K League 1 players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Uzbekistan Super League players Chinese Super League players Primera Nacional players Expatriate footballers in Argentina Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Mexico Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in South Korea Chilean expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate footballers in Brazil Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Uzbekistan Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Uzbekistan Expatriate footballers in China Chilean expatriate sportspeople in China Footballers from Santiago Association football forwards Association football commentators Chilean association football commentators