Leonardo Iván Véliz Díaz (born September 3, 1945) 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, rugb ...

who played as a

left winger A midfielder is an 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 central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Everton, O'Higgins,

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile. They currently participate in the Primera División de Chile. It has a branch of women's football, and competes ...

and

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 ...

of Chile and in the Chile national team in the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

in Germany.

Managerial career

He worked as manager of both Chile U17 and Chile U20, leading the first in the 1993 FIFA World Championship and the second in the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship. From 1998 to 2000 he worked for the

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...

youth system, where he coincided with players such as

Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest pl ...

Ricardo Quaresma Ricardo Andrade Quaresma Bernardo (; born 26 September 1983) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a winger. He began his career at Sporting CP and went on to play for Barcelona, Inter Milan, Porto (twice), Chelsea, Beşiktaş ...

and Fábio Paím.

Personal life

He is well known by his nickname ''Pollo'' (Chicken). His son, Daniel Sebastián Véliz, represented Chile at under-20 level in the 1992 South American Championship. In 2004, he was elected a

councillor A councillor is an elected representative for a local government council in some countries. Canada Due to the control that the provinces have over their municipal governments, terms that councillors serve vary from province to province. Unl ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

, supported by Party for Democracy. In 2009, he was a candidate for

deputy Deputy or depute may refer to: * Steward (office) * Khalifa, an Arabic title that can signify "deputy" * Deputy (legislator), a legislator in many countries and regions, including: ** A member of a Chamber of Deputies, for example in Italy, Spain, ...

, supported by for . In 2010, he switched to the other political hand after supporting

Sebastián Piñera Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique OMCh (; born 1 December 1949) is a Chilean billionaire businessman and politician who served as president of Chile from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018 to 2022. The son of a Christian Democratic polit ...

in his candidacy for

President of Chile The president of Chile ( es, Presidente de Chile), officially known as the President of the Republic of Chile ( es, Presidente de la República de Chile), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is re ...

Honours

Unión Española *

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 '' ANFP''. The league is known as the Campeonato AFP PlanVital for sponsorship reasons. Format As of the ...

: 1975, 1977 Colo-Colo * Chilean Primera División: 1972, 1979, 1981 Chile * Copa O'Higgins:

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo ...

* :

References

External links

Profile at FIFA.com
Profile at Living people 1945 births Sportspeople from Valparaíso Chilean footballers Chile international footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Unión Española footballers Colo-Colo footballers O'Higgins F.C. footballers Chilean Primera División players 1974 FIFA World Cup players 1975 Copa América players 1979 Copa América players Association football wingers Chilean football managers Chile national under-20 football team managers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate football managers in Portugal Chilean politicians Chilean sportsperson-politicians 21st-century Chilean politicians {{Chile-footy-bio-stub