José Pedro Fuenzalida Gana (; born 22 February 1985) is a Chilean 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

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Club career

A product of the Universidad Católica youth set-up, Fuenzalida was promoted to the first-adult team in 2004, at the age of 19. He debuted in a 4–0 defeat with

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile currently participating in the Primera División de Chile. History Foundation, Amateur Era and First seasons ...

at San Carlos de Apoquindo for a league game, during a moment considered one of the club's biggest sports crises. Similarly, Fuenzalida collated his football career with his studies in

business administration Business administration is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. Overview The administration of a business includes the performance o ...

at the University of the Andes, which he abandoned after a short time. During the winter of 2007, Fuenzalida aged twenty-two decided to take a break as footballer to study commercial engineering at

Pontifical Catholic University of Chile The Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC Chile; ) is a traditional private university based in Santiago, Chile. It is one of the thirteen Catholic universities existing in Chilean university system and one of the two pontifical univ ...

. After six month studying, he returned to professional football and joined rivals

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

on a four-year deal. Fuenzalida debuted on 13 January 2008 against

Universidad de Concepción Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

and scored his first goal in a 2–1 home win over

Deportes Antofagasta Deportes Antofagasta is a Chilean football club based in the city of Antofagasta currently playing in the Primera B Of Chile. The club's home stadium is the Estadio Bicentenario Calvo y Bascuñán, which has a capacity of 21,178. History The c ...

. In June, he joined O'Higgins on loan after an unsuccessful

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concen ...

where only scored one goal in seven games. In December 2009, it was reported that Fuenzalida finished his loan spell at O'Higgins and would return to Colo-Colo to face the next season. Seasons later, he helped the team to win the 2014 Torneo Apertura, being a key player in the title obtention which was his first honour playing for the club. On 29 July 2014, Fuenzalida reached a one-and-half year with Argentine powerhouse

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

. Following an unsuccessful spell at Boca, he returned to Universidad Católica in 2016, signing for

Las Condes Las Condes is a commune of Chile located in Santiago Province, Santiago Metropolitan Region. The area is inhabited primarily by upper middle- to high-income families and is known in the Chilean collective consciousness as home to the country's e ...

-based club as a free agent. He helped the team to win Torneo Clausura. Fuenzalida left Universidad Católica at the end of the 2022 season, not confirming his retirement. However, in April 2023, his wife confirmed he had retired from football.

International career

Fuenzalida has played in the U-20 and U-23 levels of the Chile national team in the 2005 FIFA U-20 World Cup and the 2008 Toulon Tournament, respectively. Usually called up by

Marcelo Bielsa Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera (, nicknamed ''El Loco Bielsa'' , meaning 'The Madman Bielsa'; born 21 July 1955) is an Argentine professional Association football, football manager who is the current manager of the Uruguay national football team ...

for the

2010 World Cup qualification 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 ...

, he was chosen by Jorge Sampaoli in Chile’s list of 23 for

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

. In 2015, after being disaffected of the 30-man provisional list for the

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 ...

, he was re-considered by Sampaoli in the definitive list following the withdrawal of the injured Carlos Carmona.

Personal life

Following his retirement, Fuenzalida and his family emigrated to

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, and he began to study English.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Chile's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Fuenzalida goal.''

Honours

Universidad Católica *

Chilean Primera División The Chilean Primera División () is a professional association football league in Chile and the highest level of the Chilean football league system. Founded in 1933, it is organized by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP). The l ...

(7): 2005–C, 2016–C, 2016–A,

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

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 ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

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 ...

Supercopa de Chile The Supercopa de Chile (''Supercup of Chile'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Chile organised by the Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP). This competition serves as the season opener and is played between t ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

Colo-Colo * Chilean Primera División: 2014–C Boca Juniors * Primera División de Argentina:

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 ...

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

: 2014–15 Chile *

Individual * Chilean Primera División's El Gráfico Golden Ball:

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 ...

* SIFUP Best Right Back:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fuenzalida, Jose Pedro 1985 births Living people People from Santiago Province, Chile Chilean men's footballers 21st-century Chilean sportsmen Footballers from Santiago Metropolitan Region Footballers from Santiago, Chile Men's association football fullbacks Men's association football wingers Chile men's international footballers Chile men's under-20 international footballers Chile men's youth international footballers University of the Andes, Chile alumni Pontifical Catholic University of Chile alumni Club Deportivo Universidad Católica footballers Colo-Colo footballers O'Higgins F.C. footballers Boca Juniors footballers Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players 2014 FIFA World Cup players 2015 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup players 2019 Copa América players Copa América–winning players Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Chilean expatriates in the United States