Víctor Aristizábal

Football player infobox
playername= Víctor Aristizábal


fullname = Víctor Hugo Aristizábal Posada
height = 1.85 m (6ft 1in)
weight = 78 kg
nickname = Aristi
dateofbirth = birth date and age|1971|12|09
cityofbirth = Medellín
countryofbirth = Colombia
position = Forward (retired)
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1990-1994 1994 1994-1996
1997-1998 1998-1999
2000-2001
2002
2003
2004
2005-2007
clubs = Atlético Nacional
Valencia CF
Atlético Nacional
São Paulo FC
Santos FC
Deportivo Cali
EC Vitória
Cruzeiro EC
Coritiba FC
Atlético Nacional
caps(goals) = 0? (67) 07 0(0) 38 (17)
25 0(9)
11 0(2)
28 (14)
21 (10)
36 (21)
25 0(6)
85 (49)
nationalyears = 1993-2003
nationalteam = Colombia
nationalcaps(goals) = 66 (15)
pcupdate = (UTC)
ntupdate =

Víctor Hugo Aristizábal Posada (born December 9, 1971 in Medellín, Antioquia) is a Colombian retired football striker who scored 15 goals in 66 games for the Colombia national team between 1993 and 2003.

He started his career in Atlético Nacional, and played there from 1990 to 1996 only interrupted by a short spell with Valencia CF in 1994. Winning the Colombian league twice with Nacional, he eventually moved to play in Brazil. He played for São Paulo and Santos before spending two seasons at Nacional and Deportivo Cali. In 2002 he once again moved to Brazil, and played for EC Vitória, Cruzeiro and Coritiba. Aristizábal is the all-time top foreign goalscorer in the Brazilian league. He is also the all-time Colombian goalscorer with 348 goals, in which over 200 goals he has scored with Atletico Nacional and this makes him the top goalscorer in this club. Afterwards he rejoined Atletico Nacional for a third time, winning the Apertura 2005. He also won the Apertura 2007 and Clausura 2007. He is the only player that has won 6 championship (5 domestic leagues) with Atlético Nacional.

He announced his retirement from football on November 2007 after suffering an awkward knee injury [ [http://www.adnmundo.com/contenidos/deportes/victor_hugo_aristizabal_atletico_nacional_medellin_lesion_anuncia_retiro_futbol_profesional_colombia_27_11_07_deporetes.html Víctor Aristizábal se retira por lesión] Retrieved 21 December 2007]

He was dubbed by Francisco Maturana "the best football player in the world without ball".

Colombian National Team

Víctor Hugo Aristizábal was a king football striker for Colombia. Between 1993 and 2003 he played 66 international matches and scored 32 goals for the Colombia national team. He was an unused substitute for the 1994 FIFA World Cup, but played all three matches at the 1998 FIFA World Cup. He performed exceptionally well at Copa America 2001, the 2002 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers and the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup. During the 2006 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, the disillusioned Colombia striker Victor Aristizabal, dropped for the World Cup qualifier against Brazil, announced he was retiring from international soccer. Colombia were beaten 2-1 by the world champions in their opening South American qualifier for the 2006 finals in Germany with Aston Villa's Juan Pablo Angel, Aristizabal's rival as central striker, scoring an equaliser.

Víctor Aristizábal has been the most successful player in the Colombian soccer tournament. He has scored 348 goles and the majority of them in Atletico Nacional. He has been know to Atletico Nacional as a leader and a player with heart. He loves the team he has played most of his career for. He was born to score and his pasion is Atletico Nacional. He has been given the nickname of "La Leyenda" or the legend due to his high performance in the soccer achievements. The Nacional Fans adore him, yet his skills where not enough to win over supporter from other colombian teams, and he is mostly loathed outside Medellin. His talent as a club player is a hard contrast with his career in the national team, where his most notable act taking top scorer award, put this too was tarnished in a tournament where only Colombia played with there top squad.

Retirement

July 12, 2008, more than 45,000 fans were in Víctor Hugo Aristizábal testimonial match, were he scored two goals [ [http://colombiareports.com/2008/07/13/aristizabal-scores-twice-in-testimonial-match/ Aristizábal scores twice in testimonial match] ] . The match was played at Estadio Atanasio Girardot (Medellin). Carlos Valderrama "El Pibe, Enzo Francescoli, Alex Aguinaga, Iván Hurtado, René Higuita, Juan Pablo Ángel, Farid Mondragón, Jorge Bermudez, Leonel Alvarez, Freddy Grisales "Totono Grisales", Sergio Galván Rey, Mario Yepes, John Jairo Tréllez, Mauricio Serna "El Chicho Serna", Gerardo Bedoya and others famous players were on Víctor Hugo Aristizábal's last match. Diego Armando Maradona called Aristizábal to excuse himself for his absence. At the minute 6, Iván René Valenciano scored the first goal after a perfect pass by "El Pibe" Valderrama. At the minute 27, René Higuita saved Atlético Nacional with his famous "scorpion kick". 2 minutes later Aristizábal scored his second goal with a beautiful bicycle kick. Again Iván René Valenciano scored the second goal for Amigos del Mundo, the final score was 2-2. Both Aristizábal (minute 20) and Valenciano (minute 51) missed a Penalty kick each.

Honors and awards

Club

* Atlético Nacional
** Fútbol Profesional Colombiano: 1991, 1994, 1999, 2005-I, 2007-I, 2007-II
** Copa Interamericana: 1990, 1995
** Copa Merconorte: 2000
* Cruzeiro
** Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: 2003
** Copa do Brasil: 2003
** Campeonato Mineiro:2003

Country

* Colombia
** Copa América: 2001

Individual

* Copa América 2001: top scorer
* Colombian League Top Scorer: 2005-I

References

External links

* [http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=1531 Career details] at National Football Teams
* [http://www.midfielddynamo.com/cups/ca/10_heroes.htm#SectionAristizabal Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América] Victor Aristizabal listed in the top 10

Navboxes
title= Víctor Aristizábal international tournaments
list1=