Emiliano Daniel Velázquez Maldonado (born 30 April 1994) is an Uruguayan 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

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 ...

for

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

Club career

Danubio

Born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Velázquez graduated from local

Danubio F.C. Danubio Fútbol Club is a Uruguayan association football, football club based in Jardines del Hipódromo, Montevideo that currently plays in the Uruguayan Primera División. Founded in 1945, the club's home stadium is Jardines del Hipódromo Ma ...

's youth system, and made his first-team debut on 3 June 2012, starting and being

sent off In sports, an ejection (also known as dismissal, sending-off, disqualification, or early shower) is the removal of a participant from a contest due to a violation of the sport's rules. The exact violations that lead to an ejection vary depending ...

in a 2–1 away loss against C.A. Bella Vista. It was his maiden appearance of the campaign. Velázquez appeared regularly in the 2012–13 season, appearing in 24 matches (all starts, 2106 minutes of action), as his side finished dead last in ''Apertura'' but was fifth in ''Clausura''. On 31 August 2013, he scored his first professional goal, netting the last of a 2–1 away win against Liverpool F.C. Montevideo; he was an ever-present figure during the club's winning campaign.

Atlético Madrid

On 27 August 2014, Velázquez signed a five-year deal with

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), commonly referred to as Atlético Madrid or simply Atlético, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid that plays in La Liga. The club play their home game ...

, and the following day he was loaned to

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. They compete in La Liga, the top tier of the Football in Spain, Spanish football. The team has pla ...

for the 2014–15 season. He made his

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 ...

debut on 28 September, starting in a 1–0 home win against

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, who compete in Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system, following the ...

. Velázquez scored his first goal in the main category of Spanish football on 21 December, netting the last in a 1–1 draw at

Granada CF Granada Club de Fútbol (), known simply as Granada or ''"Graná"'', is a professional List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club based in the city of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, that currently plays in Segunda ...

. After contributing with 27 appearances and avoiding relegation, his loan was extended for another year on 2 July 2015. After an unassuming loan spell at

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 ...

side

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 ...

, Velázquez returned to Getafe on 26 July 2017, also in a one-year loan deal. On 24 August, however, he joined

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

club

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in the Villa de Vallecas district of Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish foot ...

on a season-long loan from the latter.

Rayo Vallecano

After contributing with two goals in 25 appearances as Rayo achieved promotion to the top tier as champions, Velázquez signed a three-year contract with the club on 23 July 2018. He would be mainly used as a backup to Jordi Amat and Abdoulaye Ba during the 2018–19 season, as the ''Franjirrojos'' were immediately relegated back. In July 2019, Velázquez suffered a serious

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injury which sidelined him for most of the campaign. He returned to action nearly a year later, and subsequently became a regular starter under Andoni Iraola as the club achieved another promotion in

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 ...

Santos

On 30 August 2021, Velázquez signed a contract with Brazilian club Santos until the end of 2022. He made his club debut on 18 September, starting in a 0–0 away draw against

Ceará Ceará (, ) is one of the 26 states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, northeastern part of the country, on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast. It is the List of Brazilian states by population, eighth-largest Brazilian State by ...

. On 5 July 2022, Velázquez terminated his contract with Santos.

Juárez

On 12 July 2022, Velázquez switched teams and countries again, after signing 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 ...

side Juárez.

Nacional

On 8 September 2023, Velázquez moved to his home country after 9 years to play for

International career

Velázquez appeared with Uruguay under-17's in the

2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 14th edition of the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth association football, football championship contested by the under-17 national teams of the member associations of FIFA. It was h ...

, being also his side's

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. He also played for the under-20's in

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. On 8 September 2013, Velázquez was called up to the main squad by manager

Óscar Tabárez Óscar Washington Tabárez Silva (; born 3 March 1947), known as ''El Maestro'' (The Teacher), is a Uruguayan former professional football manager and former player. After an unassuming career as a player and after working as a primary school ...

for a friendly against

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. He only made his full international debut on 10 October of the following year, starting in a 1–1 draw against

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

at the Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), alternatively transliterated as Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; , ), is a List of governorates of Saudi Arabia, governorate and the largest city in Mecca Province, Saudi Arabia, and the country's second largest city after Riyadh, located ...

Personal life

Velázquez's older brother

Matías Matías is the Spanish version of Matthias (given name), Matthias. In Scandinavian languages (Norwegian, Swedish, Danish and Finnish) and in Portuguese it is unaccented as Matias. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Matías Alemann ...

is also a footballer. A

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

, he also represented Danubio. In September 2020, Velázquez acquired the Spanish nationality after six years living in the country.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Rayo Vallecano *

: 2017–18

References

External links

Profile
at the Uruguayan Football Association website {{DEFAULTSORT:Velazquez, Emiliano 1994 births Footballers from Montevideo Living people Men's association football defenders Uruguayan men's footballers Danubio F.C. players Atlético Madrid footballers Getafe CF footballers S.C. Braga players Rayo Vallecano players Santos FC players FC Juárez footballers Club Nacional de Football players Uruguayan Primera División players La Liga players Segunda División players Primeira Liga players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Liga MX players Uruguay men's youth international footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico