Raúl Mario Ruidíaz Misitich (, Croatian: ''Misitić''; born 25 July 1990) is a Peruvian professional footballer who currently plays for

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

club Seattle Sounders and the Peru national team, as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He is of maternal Croatian descent and his nickname, "The Flea", stems from his small frame and his ability to get past defenders with great ball control. Ruidíaz began his career at Universitario de Deportes, a powerhouse of a club in Peru, where he became an idol during the 2011 season, at just 21 years old. In January 2012, he joined

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club Universidad de Chile.

Club career

Universitario

Ruidíaz grew up in the Lima neighbourhood of Villa María del Triunfo and made his first steps in club football at

club Universitario de Deportes aged eight. In January 2008, the player was promoted to the first adult team and immediately loaned to

América Cochahuayco The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the club's filial team, directed by the coach

Héctor Chumpitaz Héctor Eduardo Chumpitaz Gonzáles (; born April 12, 1943, in Cañete) is a former footballer from Peru. Voted one of the greatest defenders of all times, among the 30 best defenders in football history and included within the 100 best pl ...

, an historic football player of the Peruvian national team in the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 i ...

. His first professional goal was against Hijos de Acosvinchos. After the arrival of Jorge Gonzáles, he began to play as a

. Ruidíaz made his professional debut in the Peruvian First Division on 4 October 2009 against

Total Chalaco Total Chalaco was a professional Peruvian football club based in Callao. The club last played in the Peruvian Primera División in 2010. They placed last and were relegated and subsequently dissolved. The club was founded as Total Clean FBC, and ...

in the Monumental, at the age of 19. The coach at the time, Juan Reynoso, decided to play him from the start of the match, which finished 2–1 in favor of Universitario. He finished the season by scoring 3 goals in 7 games in the Peruvian 2009 Championship and also won his first National title with Universitario de Deportes. Ruidíaz has often been called ''pequeño Messi'' (little Messi) in his home country, mainly because of his ability to charge a player one on one, as well as his unique technical skills. Ruidiaz was listed among the greatest talents of South American football by O Globo Brazilian newspaper in 2010.

Universidad de Chile

On 20 January 2012, Ruidíaz was appointed as new player of the

club Universidad de Chile. Despite some early success with his new club, Raul's lack of match fitness and the emergence of young talented strikers at the club Ruidíaz fell out of favour with the Universidad de Chile manager towards the end of the season. On 15 July 2012, Ruidíaz and club Universidad de Chile had mutually agreed to release him.

Morelia

After participating in the Copa América Centenario, Ruidíaz signed for Mexican club Monarcas Morelia on a season-long loan deal for a reported fee of €105,000. He was presented to the media in Morelia on 1 July 2016 and was given the number 9 shirt. Ruidíaz made his

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

debut on 15 July 2016 replacing Diego Valdés in a 2–0 away loss to Tijuana. The following week, in Morelia's home opener, Ruidíaz scored his first goal in a 2–2 draw against

Querétaro Querétaro (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Querétaro ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Querétaro, links=no; Otomi language, Otomi: ''Hyodi Ndämxei''), is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. I ...

. On 1 August 2016, Ruidíaz scored a hat-trick in a 4–2 away win against Santos Laguna. Ruidíaz ended the season with 11 goals which made him the season's top scorer along with Tijuana's Dayro Moreno. Before Morelia's Clausura 2017 home opener against Tijuana, Ruidíaz was honored with a commemorative plaque at Estadio Morelos for being the club's first Liga MX scoring champion. Ruidíaz later scored the second goal in Morelia's 2–0 opening match victory over Tijuana. Later that night, it was announced Morelia signed Ruidíaz to a permanent three-year transfer. Later in the season Ruidíaz scored his second hat-trick for Morelia in a 4–0 win over UNAM. In the final game of the season, Ruidíaz scored a crucial game-winning goal in a 2–1 away victory over

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

. The goal helped Morelia avoid relegation, helped the team qualify to the '' liguilla'' and helped Ruidíaz win his second straight Liga MX scoring title.

Seattle Sounders FC

On 6 June 2018, it was reported that Ruidíaz would be signing a contract with MLS side

Seattle Sounders FC Seattle Sounders Football Club is an American professional men's soccer club based in Seattle. The Sounders compete as a member of the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). The club was established on November 13, 2007, and began ...

. The signing was made official on June 29, as the club announced Ruidiaz as a Designated Player. He set club records for being the fastest to 10 goals in MLS play (in 14 games), and scoring in the most consecutive appearances (8 games). On 10 November 2019, Ruidíaz scored Seattle's final goal in a 3–1 home win over Toronto FC in the MLS Cup Final. In the

2022 CONCACAF Champions League Final The 2022 CONCACAF Champions League Final was the final round of the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League, the 14th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 57th edition of the premier soccer club competition org ...

, he scored two goals in a 3–0 win in the second leg against UNAM, in which his club secured their first title in the competition by winning 5–2 on aggregate.

International career

Ruidíaz made his international debut on 7 June 2011 in a 0–0 draw against

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in Niigata in the Kirin Cup. In the same month, Ruidíaz was called up by coach

Sergio Markarián Sergio Apraham Markarián Abrahamián (born 1 November 1944) is a Uruguayan-Argentine former football coach of Armenian descent. In 2015, he was the head coach of the Greece national football team. Early life Markarián lived in Argentina durin ...

to represent Peru in the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

held in Argentina, Ruidíaz was a member of the Peruvian squad that finished

3rd Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

, after a 4–1 victory over Venezuela, Ruidíaz made only one appearance in the tournament in a match against Chile in which Peru lost 1–0. Ruidíaz was named as a member of Peru's 23-man squad for the Copa América Centenario in 2016. In Peru's third group match against Brazil on 12 June 2016, Ruidíaz scored a controversial goal, a winner in the 75th minute by guiding the ball into the net with his arm. After a lengthy discussion between the referee and his assistant, the goal was allowed to stand, and Brazil went on to lose 1–0, resulting in their elimination from the tournament. The result sent Peru through to the

knockout stage A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

as winners of Group B. In May 2018, he was named in Peru's provisional 24 man

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for the

2018 World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Russia.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''As of match played 27 March 2018. Peru score listed first, score column indicates score after each Ruidíaz goal.''

Honours

Universitario de Deportes * Torneo Descentralizado:

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

Universidad de Chile * Primera División de Chile: 2012 Apertura Seattle Sounders FC * MLS Cup:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Peru *

runner-up:

; third place:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

Individual * Peruvian Primera División top scorer: 2013 Torneo Descentralizado *

Golden Boot: Apertura 2016, Clausura 2017 *

Best XI: Apertura 2016, Clausura 2017 *

Best Forward: 2016–17 * Liga MX Balón de Oro: 2016–17 * MLS Cup Playoffs top scorer:

* MLS Best XI:

2020 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 events, COVID- ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

* MLS All-Star:

Best XI:

References

External links

Raúl Ruidíaz
at Football-Lineups * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ruidiaz, Raul 1990 births Living people Peruvian people of Croatian descent Footballers from Lima Peruvian footballers Association football forwards Peruvian Primera División players Peruvian Segunda División players Club Universitario de Deportes footballers U América F.C. footballers FBC Melgar footballers Chilean Primera División players Universidad de Chile footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Coritiba Foot Ball Club players Liga MX players Atlético Morelia players Major League Soccer players Seattle Sounders FC players Designated Players (MLS) Peruvian expatriate footballers Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Chile Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate footballers in Chile Expatriate footballers in Brazil Expatriate soccer players in the United States Peru international footballers 2011 Copa América players Copa América Centenario players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 Copa América players