Jesús Manuel Medina Maldonado (born 30 April 1997) is a Paraguayan 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 for Russian club

Spartak Moscow Spartak Moscow may refer to the following teams based or formerly based in Moscow, Russia: * FC Spartak Moscow, an association football club * HC Spartak Moscow, a professional ice hockey team * Spartak GM Moscow, a semi-professional rugby club * ...

and the Paraguay national team.

Club career

Medina made his senior debut as a 15-year-old for Libertad on 7 July 2012 in a 1–0 win over

Club Rubio Ñu Club Rubio Ñu is a Paraguayan Association football, football club based in the neighborhood of Santísima Trinidad (Asunción), Santísima Trinidad in Asunción. The club was founded August 24, 1913 and plays in Paraguayan División Intermedia, ...

. On 31 December 2017, it was announced that Medina was signing with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

(MLS) side

New York City FC New York City Football Club (often referred to as NYCFC) is an American professional Association football, soccer club based in New York City. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern C ...

ahead of their 2018 season. Medina ultimately played over a hundred MLS games. However, after a disappointing 2021 season, New York City opted to decline their contract option on Medina. On 17 January 2022, he signed a contract with

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

(RPL) club

CSKA Moscow CSKA Moscow () is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. It was created in 1911 in the Russian Empire on base of OLLS (Skiing Society, founded 1901). Later, during the Soviet Union, Soviet era, it was the central part of the Armed Forces (sports ...

until the end of the 2024–25 season. In July 2023, there were reports in the press about the imminent transition of Medina to

. The fee for the transfer, which led to significant media attention due to CSKA and Spartak being rivals, was estimated to be between 7 million and 7.5 million euros. On 10 July 2023, Spartak formally announced the transfer and Medina signed a three-year contract. On 5 August 2023, Medina scored within the first 40 seconds of making his debut after coming on as a substitute in what was eventually a 1-4 win over

Rubin Kazan FC Rubin Kazan (; ) is a Russian professional football club based in the city of Kazan. They play in the Russian Premier League. Founded in 1958, Rubin played its first-ever top flight season in 2003. It has remained there through the 2021–2 ...

. This was the quickest goal by any player in their debut in RPL history.

International career

Paraguay U17 and U20

Medina was part of the Paraguay U17 squad for the

2013 South American Under-17 Football Championship The 2013 South American Under-17 Football Championship () was the 15th U-17 tournament for national teams affiliated with CONMEBOL. It was held in Argentina. This tournament gave four berths to the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup, which was held in Uni ...

, scoring four times as the team finished fifth. He was also named to the Paraguay U20 squad for the

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 ...

and

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

South American Youth Football Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as South American U-20 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 20, is a South American football tournament organized by the CONMEBOL for South American national teams of men under age o ...

s (

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

U-20 Championship). In the 2015 tournament, he scored a goal in a 4–2 win over Bolivia U20 in the group stage, and in the 2017 tournament he scored twice in a 3–2 group stage loss to Brazil U20.

Paraguay

He was named in the senior team's provisional squad for

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, but was cut from the final squad. On 1 July 2017, Medina made his debut for Paraguay in a friendly match against Mexico, coming in as a substitute in the 85th minute.

Personal life

In February 2019, Medina earned a U.S. green card which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

New York City FC *

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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 ...

CSKA Moscow * Russian Cup:

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References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Medina, Jesus 1997 births Footballers from Asunción Living people Paraguayan men's footballers Paraguay men's under-20 international footballers Men's association football wingers Club Libertad footballers New York City FC players PFC CSKA Moscow players FC Spartak Moscow players Designated Players (MLS) Major League Soccer players Paraguayan Primera División players Russian Premier League players Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Russia Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Russia Paraguay men's international footballers 21st-century Paraguayan sportsmen