José Luis Villanueva Ahumada (born November 5, 1981) 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Club career

Second Division in Chile

In 2001, Chilean first division side

Palestino The term ''Palestino'' is the Spanish word for "Palestinian". The word "''Palestino''" is used in Cuba as a disparaging nickname for illegal migrants within the country. The nickname is used as a rhetorical device, that compares illegal migrants ...

loaned Villanueva out to second division squad

Deportes Temuco Club de Deportes Temuco is a Chile, Chilean Soccer, football club based in Temuco, Araucanía Region. It currently plays in the Primera B de Chile, Chilean Primera División B, holding home games at the new ''Estadio Municipal Germán Becker''. T ...

, where he scored seven goals and helped the club gain promotion to the first division. The following year, instead of returning to Palestino, Villanueva was again loaned out, this time to second division club

Deportes Ovalle Club Deportes Ovalle is a Chilean football club who currently play in the fourth level of Chilean football, the Segunda División Profesional de Chile. The club's stadium is the Estadio Municipal de Ovalle. Their main rivals are Deportes La Se ...

. In 2002, Villanueva scored 20 goals with Ovalle.

Palestino

After the 2002 campaign, Villanueva was called to stay with his original team in first division. Villanueva continued his goal-scoring during the 2003 season with Palestino by scoring 22 goals in 34 matches, including in the Pre-Sudamericana Cup. After the season, Palestino once again loaned Villanueva out, this time to Universidad Católica. From 2004 to 2005, Villanueva scored 16 more goals.

Out of Chile

Palestino sold him to Argentine side Racing Club in 2005 for $600,000, immediately becoming a fan favourite. In a match against

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

, Villanueva scored two goals to lead Racing Club to a 4–1 victory. With less than a minute left in the match, Villanueva was substituted off. As he left the pitch, the fans could be heard chanting "''shileno, shileno''", just how River Plate fans had chanted for Chilean legend

Marcelo Salas José Marcelo Salas Melinao (; born 24 December 1974), nicknamed ''Bullfighter, Matador'' (due to his Goal celebration, goalscoring celebrations), ''El Fenómeno'' and ''Shileno'', is a Chilean former association football, footballer who play ...

and

Alexis Sánchez Alexis Alejandro Sánchez Sánchez (; born 19 December 1988), also known mononymously as Alexis, is a Chilean professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Udinese and the Chile national team. He is often regarded as the ...

years prior. Villanueva then had spells in South Korea for

Ulsan Hyundai Ulsan HD FC (), formerly Ulsan Hyundai FC, is a South Korean professional football club based in Ulsan that competes in the K League 1, the top tier of South Korean football. Founded in 1983 as Hyundai Horang-i, they joined the K League in 198 ...

in 2007 and in Brazil for

Vasco da Gama Vasco da Gama ( , ; – 24 December 1524), was a Portuguese explorer and nobleman who was the Portuguese discovery of the sea route to India, first European to reach India by sea. Da Gama's first voyage (1497–1499) was the first to link ...

in 2008 before moving to Uzbekistan. In Tashkent based club Bunyodkor, he played under number 17. During AFC Champions League he couldn’t participate in the competition due to the limit of foreign players as Rivaldo, Victor and Ramos were chosen.

International career

Villanueva represented Chile internationally at the under-20 level at the

2001 South American U-20 Championship The 2001 South American U-20 Championship (Sudamericana sub-20) was a football competition contested by all ten U-20 national football teams of CONMEBOL. The tournament was held in Ecuador between 12 January and 4 February 2003, it was the 20th tim ...

and under-23 level during the preolympic qualifications in 2004, and represented the adult squad since 2003.

After football

After his retirement, he continued playing football at amateur level for the club Alianza of

La Reina La Reina (Spanish: "The Queen"; distorted from Larraín) is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region, created in 1963 from an eastern portion of the Ñuñoa commune. It belongs to the Northeastern zone of Sa ...

. At the same time, he writes a popular "opinion piece" about football i
PrensaFútbol.com
and works as a football commentator in both TV and

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

programs. Currently, he works for both ESPN Chile and ''Radio Pauta''. Since 2016, he has an undertaking called "The Football Experience" which helps amateur football players to live an experience as a

professional footballer Association football is the world's most popular sport and is worth US$600 billion worldwide. By the end of the 20th century it was played by over 250 million players in over 200 countries. Around the world, the sport is played at a profes ...

, organizing matches around the world.

Personal life

He is married to 30-year-old journalist, Fernanda Bünzli. He likes to travel around the world and he hopes he could write in the future about his experiences. He hopes to end his career with his favorite Chilean squad Universidad Católica and then study a professional career.

Honours

Club

;Bunyodkor *

Uzbek League Uzbekistan Super League (; ), known as Artel Uzbekistan Super League due to sponsorship reasons (; ), is the top division of professional football in Uzbekistan. It is operated under the auspices of the Uzbekistan Professional Football League a ...

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 ...

Uzbek Cup The O‘zbekiston Kubogi ( or ), known simply as Uzbek Cup, is the top knockout tournament in Uzbek football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football pl ...

: 2008 ;Universidad Católica *

Copa Chile The Copa Chile (''Chile Cup'') is an annual cup competition for Chilean football teams. Due to time constraints and club pressure, the trophy was cancelled in 2000, but returned in 2008. Its precursor was the Campeonato de Apertura (''Opening Ch ...

(1):

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:Villanueva, Jose Luis 1981 births Living people Chilean men's footballers 21st-century Chilean sportsmen Chile men's international footballers Chile men's under-20 international footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Club Deportivo Palestino footballers Deportes Temuco footballers Deportes Ovalle footballers C.D. Cobreloa footballers Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers Atlético Morelia players Ulsan HD FC players CR Vasco da Gama players FC Bunyodkor players Tianjin Jinmen Tiger F.C. players C.D. Antofagasta footballers Deportes Magallanes footballers Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Argentine Primera División players Liga MX players K League 1 players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Uzbekistan Super League players Chinese Super League players Primera Nacional players Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in South Korea Chilean expatriate sportspeople in South Korea Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Uzbekistan Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Uzbekistan Expatriate men's footballers in China Chilean expatriate sportspeople in China Footballers from Santiago, Chile Men's association football forwards Chilean association football commentators