Arturo Alfonso González González (born 5 September 1994), also known as Ponchito, is a Mexican 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 plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

club

Pachuca Pachuca (; ), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the east-central Mexico, Mexican States of Mexico, state of Hidalgo (state), Hidalgo, located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca Municipality, Pach ...

. Participating for the national team throughout various age groups, González was part of the team that won the 2011 U-17 World Cup. He made his debut with the senior Mexico national team in 2014 in a friendly match against

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

Early life

Arturo González was born in

Reynosa Reynosa () is a border city in the northern part of the state of Tamaulipas, in Mexico which also holds the municipal seat of Reynosa Municipality. The city is located on the southern bank of the Rio Grande in the international Reynosa–McAlle ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas, is a state in Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into 43 municipalities. It is located in nor ...

to Luis Enrique González and Irma González. As a child, he played baseball, the most popular sport in his hometown, However, after breaking an arm he began training in football. In December 2008 and January 2009 he went to the US city of

Mission, Texas Mission is a city in Hidalgo County, in the US state of Texas, United States. The population was 85,778 at the 2020 census and an estimated 86,635 in 2022. Mission is part of the McAllen–Edinburg–Mission and Reynosa–McAllen metropolitan ...

to try out for the youth team of

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

. with a positive verdict from the coaches, he joined to the club's youth academy in 2009. After 2 years with the Youth Academy, he was called up to represent Mexico in the 2011 U17 World Cup, after good performances the youth team of Atlas during the 2010–11 season.

Club career

Atlas

2011–2012

González made his senior debut with

on 18 February 2012 against

Tigres UANL Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, abbreviated as Tigres UANL and simply known as Tigres or internationally as Tigres de México, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Monterrey metropo ...

coming in as a substitute for Alonso Zamora in the 65th minute of the game. He also made another appearance against Jaguares summing 2 appearances during the Clausura 2012 season.

2012–2013

González played his first match in the Apertura 2012 against

coming in the 65th minute. He appeared in the match against San Luis coming on the 53rd minute, which they lost 3–2. He came on for the second half of the Clasico Tapatio match against

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, which they lost 2–0. He played all 90 minutes against

Puebla Puebla, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Puebla, is one of the 31 states that, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 217 municipalities and its capital is Puebla City. Part of east-centr ...

scoring his first goal in a 2–2 draw. He played the last match against León losing 3–1. He played the first match in the Clausura 2013 against Pumas coming on in the 39th minute in a 1–1 draw. He played in the match against León losing 1–0. He played in 2 of 19 matches, which

lost in the quarter-finals to

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V., simply known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club based in Torreón, Coahuila. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Founded in 1983 as Club Santos I ...

on a 3–1 aggerate.

2013–2014

He made his Apertura 2013 debut against

on a 1–1 draw. His next game against

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

scoring a goal, but losing 2–1. He appeared against

losing 2–0. He appeared on the final game of the semester losing to Tigres 1–0. For the Clausura 2014 he started to be a regular and contributing to the team and scoring 3 goals against

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

, Pumas, and Jaguares. He played a total of 1,315 minutes.

2014–2015

He played in the first match against Tigres on a 0–0 draw. He took part in the 2–0 win over

. In the third match against Jaguares, he scored a spectacular free kick goal in a 4–2 win. He was the man of the match in the game against Pumas after scoring the only goal of the match. He played against Leones Negros on a derby in a 1–0 win in a last-minute win penalty scored by Luis Nery Caballero. He played against

in a 3–1 loss, scoring a goal. He played against Santos in a 1–1 draw. He played all 90 minutes against

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

in another 1–1 draw. He played in a home win against

scoring a goal with a header. He played against

Monterrey Monterrey (, , abbreviated as MtY) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León. It is the ninth-largest city and the second largest metropolitan area, after Greater Mexico City. Located at the foothills of th ...

in a 2–1 away loss. He played against

Querétaro Querétaro, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Querétaro, 18 municipalities. Its capital city is Querétaro Cit ...

in a 2–1 win. He played the Clasico Tapatío against Chivas winning 1–0 with a goal scored from Enrique Pérez.

2015–2016

On 1 July 2016, his move to Monterrey was confirmed.

Monterrey

2016–2017

On March 22, 2017, he scored a goal in a friendly match against

Rio Grande Valley FC Toros Rio Grande Valley FC, also known as RGVFC or Rio Grande Valley FC Toros, was an American professional soccer team based in Edinburg, Texas, Edinburg, Texas operated by Lone Star, LLC. They joined the USL Championship in the 2016 season. The tea ...

to open their new HEB stadium. It was the second goal ever in the history of the stadium.

2017–2018

In August, he suffered a cruciate ligament tear in his right knee which left him out of the season.

2019–2020

With Monterrey's victory of the

2019–20 Copa MX The 2019–20 Copa MX was the 82nd staging of the Copa MX, the 54th staging in the professional era and the fifteenth tournament played since the 1996–97 edition. The tournament started on 30 July 2019 and ended on 4 November 2020. It marked ...

, they had obtained the

continental treble A treble in association football is achieved when a club team wins three trophies in a single season. A continental treble involves winning the club's top-level domestic league competition, main domestic cup competition, and main continental tro ...

Loan to Pachuca

On 1 July 2024, González joined

on a one-year loan.

International career

Youth

González competed in the 2011 U-17 World Cup in Mexico. He was given the number 10 shirt for the tournament, and scored his first and only goal of the tournament against Netherlands in the last minutes of the match breaking the tie, and clinching a 3–2 victory for Mexico. He would help the national team reach the final against Uruguay, where he assisted teammate Giovanni Casillas in the last few minutes in a 2–0 victory in the Azteca. González was left out of the squad for the

2013 CONCACAF U-20 Championship The 2013 CONCACAF Under-20 Championship was an association football tournament that took place between February 18 and March 3, 2013. The CONCACAF U-20 Championship determined the four CONCACAF teams that would participate at the 2013 FIFA U-20 Wo ...

by coach Sergio Almaguer. However, he appeared in the

2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the nineteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. It ran from 21 June to 13 July 2013. At the FIFA Executive Meeting in Zürich on 3 March 2011, ...

hosted in Turkey, appearing in all 4 matches and scoring one goal against Spain in the knockout stage, However, it wasn't enough since Mexico lost 1–2 and were eliminated from the tournament. Gonzalez also appeared in the

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

and

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

editions of the

Toulon Tournament The Maurice Revello Tournament (officially French: the ''Festival International "Espoirs" – Tournoi Maurice Revello''), previously known as the Toulon Tournament, is a Association football, football tournament, which traditionally features invit ...

Senior

González received his first call-up to the senior national team on 1 October 2014, for two friendly matches against

on 9 October, and

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

on 11 October 2014. He made his debut against

coming in for

Marco Fabián Marco Jhonfai Fabián de la Mora (; born 21 July 1989) is a Mexican professional Association football, footballer who plays as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder. He is an Football at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's tou ...

in the 76th minute of the game. Arturo became the first youth player from the 2011 U-17 national team squad to make his debut with the national team. Later he was called up again against Netherlands and Belarus on 12 and 18 November.

Career statistics

Club

International

Style of play

An attacking-midfielder, capable of playing from the left and in a

playmaker In association football, a playmaker is a footballer who controls the flow of the team's play, and is often involved in offensively and defensively playing Passing (association football), passing moves which lead to Goal (sport), goals, through ...

role, González possesses a good eye for a pass, and is able to beat defenders on occasion with his dribbling ability.

Honours

Monterrey *

: Apertura 2019 *

Copa MX Copa MX, also known as Copa Corona MX for sponsorship reasons, was an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic cup tournament for clubs at the highest and second levels of Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Copa ...

: Apertura 2017, 2019–20 *

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

Mexico Youth *

FIFA U-17 World Cup The FIFA U-17 World Cup, founded as the FIFA U-16 World Championship, later changed to U-17 in 1991 and to its current name in 2007, is the annual world championship of association football for male players under the age of 17 organized by ''Fé ...

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 ...

* CONCACAF Olympic Qualifying Championship:

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Individual *

Player of the Month: September 2021

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Alfonso 1994 births Living people Men's association football midfielders Atlas F.C. footballers C.F. Monterrey players Liga MX players Mexico men's youth international footballers Mexico men's under-20 international footballers Mexico men's international footballers Footballers from Tamaulipas Sportspeople from Reynosa Footballers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Mexico Mexican men's footballers 21st-century Mexican sportsmen