José Manuel "Sema" Velázquez Rodríguez, (born 8 September 1990) is a Venezuelan 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, rugb ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal 2 SABSEG for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pri ...

club Santa Clara and the Venezuela national team.

Club career

Velázquez started his career at just six when he started to play for various youth clubs in town. He made his professional debut with ACD Lara in 2007. Having made himself a regular at the age of 17,

Deportivo Anzoátegui ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable), an aerial lift station in Ecatepec, Mexico * Deport ...

secured his services at the beginning of 2008. He signed for

Villarreal Villarreal ( ca-valencia , Vila-real) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's ...

in 2009 to play for its reserve team. However, he did not feature in any match since he joined the squad, and was loaned to Venezuelan club Mineros de Guayana for the end of the 2010–11 season and the whole 2011–12 campaign. On 7 July 2012, he signed a three-year contract for Panathinaikos F.C.

International career

Velázquez has played at every level from under-15 to under-20.

International goals

:''As of match played 13 June 2016. Venezuela score listed first, score column indicates score after each Velázquez goal.''

Under 20s

Velázquez was selected to play for Venezuela in the

2009 South American Youth Championship The 2009 South American Youth Championship (Sudamericano sub-20) was a football competition for national teams U-20 who are associated with the football federation CONMEBOL. It was the 24th time the tournament was held and took place in Venezuela ...

César Farías César Alejandro Farías Acosta (born 7 March 1973) is a Venezuelan football manager, currently in charge of Ecuadorian club Aucas. Farías is known for having coached Deportivo Táchira, Mineros de Guayana, Deportivo Anzoátegui and the Ven ...

, partnering Carlos Salazar in central defence. During the Round of 16 of the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confedera ...

held in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, he play the full 90 minutes against UAE but Venezuela was eventually defeated 1–2.

Senior Team

Velázquez is a member of the

Venezuela national football team The Venezuela national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Venezuela) represents Venezuela in men's international football and is controlled by the Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF), the governing body for football in Venezuela. The ...

, having debuted on 28 March 2009 against

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest ...

Honours

;

SC *

Copa Venezuela The Copa Venezuela ( en, Venezuela Cup) is the national cup football competition of Venezuela. Organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation, it is contested in the second half of the season by the teams in the Primera División and Segunda Di ...

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; ...

; AC Mineros *

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...

References

External links

* * *
Goal.com Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Velazquez, Jose Manuel 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Ciudad Bolívar Venezuelan men's footballers Venezuela men's international footballers Venezuelan expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Deportivo Anzoátegui players Asociación Civil Deportivo Lara players A.C.C.D. Mineros de Guayana players Villarreal CF B players Panathinaikos F.C. players F.C. Arouca players C.D. Veracruz footballers Club Nacional footballers Deportivo Táchira F.C. players C.D. Santa Clara players Super League Greece players Primeira Liga players Liga MX players Paraguayan Primera División players Liga Portugal 2 players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Greece Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Venezuela men's under-20 international footballers Copa América Centenario players 2021 Copa América players Italian people of Venezuelan descent