Alberto Junior Rodríguez Valdelomar, nicknamed ''El mudo'' () (born 31 March 1984), is a Peruvian 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 lea ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

Club career

Born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, Rodríguez joined

Sporting Cristal Club Sporting Cristal S.A., shortened to Sporting Cristal, is a Peruvian sports club located in the city of Lima, best known for its association football, soccer team. It was founded on 13 December 1955 in the Rímac District, Rímac district by e ...

's youth system at the age of 16. He never appeared in less than 30 Primera División matches over four full seasons, with the capital side winning three ''

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 ...

'' titles. On 28 December 2006, Rodríguez signed a three-and-a-half-year deal with

Primeira Liga The Primeira Liga (), also known as Liga Portugal Betclic for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Portugal and the highest level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga ...

club

S.C. Braga Sporting Clube de Braga (), commonly known as Sporting de Braga or just Braga, is a Portuguese sports club from the city of Braga. Best known for the men's professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese foo ...

and, on 18 February 2007, played his first league match against

U.D. Leiria União Desportiva de Leiria (), commonly known as União de Leiria, is a Portuguese professional football club based in Leiria. Founded on 6 June 1966, it currently plays in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pe ...

. He finished his first season in Portugal with nine appearances, helping the

Minho Minho or Miño may refer to: People * Miño (surname) * Choi Min-ho, South Korean singer and actor known mononymously as Minho Places * Minho (river) or Miño, in Portugal and Spain Jamaica * Rio Minho, a river Portugal * Minho Province ...

team to finish fourth. Rodríguez was irregularly used in the following campaigns due to constant injury problems, but contributed 20 games as the team finished in a best-ever second place in 2010, adding seven in their subsequent runner-up run in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. On 27 May 2011, he agreed to a four-year contract with

Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP or simply Sporting (particularly within Portugal), or as Sporting Lisbon in other countries,

. Under former Braga boss

Domingos Paciência Domingos José Paciência Oliveira, known simply as Domingos as a player (; born 2 January 1969), is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a striker, currently a manager. He achieved success with both Porto and the Portugal national te ...

, Rodríguez's only season was again greatly undermined by physical problems, and he only played 13 competitive matches. In mid-July 2012 he was loaned to

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

, moving to the Spanish club as many teammates, but returned to

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

after failing his medical. On 24 July 2012, Rodríguez bought out his contract with Sporting and signed for one year with Rio Ave F.C. in the same league. After returning to his country, he represented in quick succession Sporting Cristal,

FBC Melgar Foot Ball Club Melgar, known simply as FBC Melgar or Melgar, is a Peru, Peruvian professional Association football, football club based in Arequipa. It is one of Peru's oldest football teams, founded in 1915 under the name Juventud Melgar by a ...

Club Universitario de Deportes Club Universitario de Deportes is a Peruvian sports club based in Lima, which has Association football, soccer as its main activity. It also has women's football, volleyball and basketball sections. The football team, popularly known as Universi ...

and

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...

(Colombia).

International career

Rodríguez represented

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

during the

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

qualifiers after winning the first of his 75

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Java ...

on 2 April 2003 in a friendly with

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, and quickly became a defensive cornerstone for the national side. He appeared for the country at the

2007 Copa América The 2007 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, known simply as the 2007 Copa América or 2007 Copa América Venezuela, was the 42nd edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The c ...

, in an eventual quarter-final exit. Rodríguez was also selected for the

2011 Copa América The 2011 Campeonato Sudamericano Copa América, better known as the 2011 Copa América or the Copa América 2011 Argentina, was the 43rd edition of the Copa América, the main international association football, football tournament for national ...

squad, being an important defensive unit as the

Sergio Markarián Sergio Apraham Markarián Abrahamián (born 1 November 1944) is a Uruguayan-Argentine former football coach of Armenian descent. In 2015, he was the head coach of the Greece national team. Early life Markarián lived in Argentina during most o ...

-led team finished in third place in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. At age 34, he was selected to the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting rights in l ...

in Russia, making his debut in the competition on 16 June by playing the entire 1–0 group stage loss against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

Sporting Cristal *

Peruvian Primera División The Peru First Division (; known simply as ''First Division'', and Liga 1 Te Apuesto for sponsorship reasons), officially known as Liga 1, is the top flight of association football in Peru. It has been referred to as Torneo Descentralizado since ...

2002, 2004, 2005 Braga *

UEFA Intertoto Cup The UEFA Intertoto Cup (from , "between" and , " betting pool"),Most precisely, from ( football pool); cf. originally called the International Football Cup, was a summer football competition between European clubs. The competition was dis ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

runner-up:

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

Sporting CP *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; ) is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Generali Tranquilidade since the 2024–25 seaso ...

runner-up: 2011–12 Rio Ave *Taça de Portugal runner-up: 2013–14 *

Taça da Liga The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual club football competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the top two tiers of Portuguese football – the ...

runner-up: 2013–14 Peru *

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

third place:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Alberto 1984 births Living people 21st-century Peruvian sportsmen Peruvian men's footballers Footballers from Lima Men's association football central defenders Peruvian Primera División players Sporting Cristal footballers FBC Melgar footballers Club Universitario de Deportes footballers Club Alianza Lima footballers Alianza Atlético footballers Primeira Liga players S.C. Braga players Sporting CP footballers Rio Ave F.C. players Categoría Primera A players Atlético Junior footballers Peru men's international footballers 2007 Copa América players 2011 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2018 FIFA World Cup players Peruvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Colombia