Herlyn Ysrael Zúñiga Yáñez (born 27 August 1976) is a Peruvian dentist and 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 striker for the Peru national team and for clubs including

Coventry City Coventry City Football Club is an English professional football club based in Coventry, West Midlands. The club plays in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. The club is nicknamed The Sky Blues after the sky blue colou ...

, Estudiantes and Melgar. Since retirement, Zúñiga has reverted to dentistry in his homeland, which he obtained qualifications for concurrently during his tenure at Sporting Cristal.

Club career

Zúñiga initially trained as a

dental technician A dental technician is a member of the dental team who, upon prescription from a dental clinician, constructs custom-made restorative and dental appliances. There are four major disciplines within dental technology. These are ''fixed prosthesis ...

before deciding to become a professional footballer at the relatively late age of 22. He gained some international fame after scoring a league-record equalling 32 goals for Melgar in his first season in the

Primera División Peruana Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

in 1999. His goalscoring success prompted English

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

club

to purchase him for £750,000 in February 2000. However, he was unable to find any form in England; scoring three goals in 30 appearances spread over two and a half years with Coventry before he was released in the summer of 2002. After leaving Coventry he joined Argentine club Estudiantes, but again struggled to recapture his scoring form. Zúñiga returned to his homeland following the conclusion of his spell in Argentina to join Sporting Cristal, a club he spent time at as a teenager before leaving the game to study to be a dental worker.

International career

He won 21 caps and scored 3 goals for the

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

.Appearances for Peru National Team
- RSSSF He was recalled against Ecuador in June 2007.

International

''As of 9 July 2007''

Honours

Club

Guardia Republicana *

Peruvian Segunda División The Peruvian Second Division (; known simply as ''Second Division'', and Liga 2 Caja Cusco for sponsorship reasons), officially known as Liga 2, is the second-highest division in the Peruvian football league system. Founded in 1943, it is a profess ...

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

Sporting Cristal *

Peruvian Primera División The Peru First Division (; known simply as ''First Division'', and Liga 1 Te Apuesto for sponsorship reasons), officially known as Liga 1, is the top flight of association football in Peru. It has been referred to as Torneo Descentralizado since ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

Juan Aurich * Peruvian First Division:

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 ...

FBC Melgar * Peruvian First Division:

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 ...

References

External links

* * *
Ysrael Zúñiga
at Perú.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuniga, Ysrael 1976 births Living people Footballers from Lima Men's association football forwards Peruvian men's footballers Peru men's international footballers Coronel Bolognesi footballers FBC Melgar footballers Coventry City F.C. players Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Cruz Azul footballers Club Universitario de Deportes footballers Atlético Universidad footballers Sporting Cristal footballers Bursaspor footballers Juan Aurich footballers Copa Perú players Peruvian Primera División players Peruvian Segunda División players Premier League players Argentine Primera División players Süper Lig players 1999 Copa América players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 Copa América players Peruvian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Turkey