Humberto Suazo

Coordinates	40°42′15.0″N73°55′4.0″N
Name	Humberto Suazo
Fullname	Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo
Birth date	May 10, 1981
Birth place	San Antonio, Chile
Height
Position	Striker
Currentclub	Monterrey
Clubnumber	26
Youthyears1	1987–1996
Youthclubs1	Club Torino
Youthyears2	1996–2000
Youthclubs2	Universidad Católica
Years1	2000–2001
Clubs1	Ñublense
Caps1	0
Goals1	0
Years2	2001–2002
Clubs2	Magallanes
Caps2	0
Goals2	0
Years3	2002–2003
Clubs3	San Antonio Unido
Caps3	0
Goals3	0
Years4	2003–2004
Clubs4	San Luis
Caps4	40
Goals4	40
Years5	2004–2006
Clubs5	Audax Italiano
Caps5	62
Goals5	40
Years6	2006–2007
Clubs6	Colo-Colo
Caps6	54
Goals6	52
Years7	2007–
Clubs7	Monterrey
Caps7	120
Goals7	65
Years8	2010
Clubs8	→ Real Zaragoza (loan)
Caps8	17
Goals8	6
Nationalyears1	2006–
Nationalteam1	Chile
Nationalcaps1	46
Nationalgoals1	19
Club-update	27 April 2011
Nationalteam-update	25 June 2010

Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo (born May 10, 1981 in San Antonio, Chile), is a Chilean football player, who currently plays as a striker in Monterrey. In 2006 he was awarded by IFFHS as the world's top goal scorer of the year.

Youth Years

At six years old, Suazo's father took him to play with Club Torino in his hometown of Santiago. His father had made a name for himself playing with the same team. At the age of 14 he tried out for Catolica.

In December 1995, Suazo tried out for Universidad Católica. In March of the following year he was part of the club's youth system. However, Suazo's time spent there was troubled. He did not like to practice and at any given chance he would leave the facilities and return to San Antonio. Suazo now admits he wasted the opportunity the club gave him.

Club career

Early career

In 2000, because of his lack of discipline Universidad Católica loaned Suazo out to , Ñublense. His professional debut came against Magallanes, the club he would later play for, and he scored his first goal. At the end of the year he fractured his fibula and was sidelined for seven months. The injury also kept him out of the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. In 2000, he won the Milk Cup.

At the end of 2001, no longer part of Universidad Católica, Suazo played for Magallanes. He would go on to join his hometown club San Antonio Unido in 2002. In 2003 Suazo turned heads with his new club San Luis Quillota of the Chilean third division, when he scored 40 goals in one season.

The next two seasons, Suazo would spend with Audax Italiano. In early 2004, Suazo suffered another major injury which kept him out a significant amount of time. With Audax, Suazo scored 40 goals before being transferred to Colo-Colo.

Colo-Colo

Suazo began his career with Colo Colo just in time for the Copa Libertadores 2006. Even though Colo-Colo exited the tournament early, Suazo showed his ability by scoring a hat-trick against Chivas de Guadalajara.

In the in Chile, Suazo led all scorers with 14 goals in 33 games on the way to capturing Colo-Colo's 24^th national championship.

Colo-Colo, with the help of Suazo's tournament-leading 10 goals in 12 games, reached the finals of Copa Sudamericana 2006. On the way to the finals, he netted a hat-trick against Gimnasia LP. Suazo dazzled fans and scouts alike throughout the tournament, which raised questions about him staying with the team in 2007. Teams such as Santos Laguna of Mexico and Calcio Catania of Italy were both rumored to be interested in the player. However, Colo-Colo put those rumors to rest when they bought the rest of Suazo's ownership from his former club, Audax, on December 15, 2006, for one million US dollars. Ten percent of that fee ($100,000) went to Suazo's pocket. The move also assured his services to the club until June 2007.

In the 2006 clasura tournament final, Colo-Colo played again against Suazo's former team Audax. Colo-Colo won the first leg 3-0, with Suazo scoring his thirteenth goal of the season, and the second leg 3-2, with Suazo scoring the first two goals .

In the 2007 Apertura tournament, Suazo finished as the leading goal scorer, also scoring in the final match against Palestino. His lone goal, coming in at the 79th minute, gave Colo-Colo their 26th tournament win, cementing his place in Colo-Colo history.

Monterrey

After months of speculation over where Suazo would end up after his contract expired in June, Suazo was finally sold for $5 million to a Mexican club, Monterrey. The fee paid by the Mexican team is one of the highest for a Chilean player coming out of Chile.

Suazo's performance during his first tournament wasn't what was expected (only three goals in twelve games) and combined with conflicts with teammates and coaches, it led to speculations that Suazo had been sold to Argentine club Independiente. However the deal fell through once the Argentine club refused to pay $8 million for the transfer. On January 4, Humberto called for a press conference, and in front of television cameras and news media, he acknowledged the fact that his performance and attitude wasn't positive during his first 6 months with the club, but that from now and on, he was determined to change things. He was going to take responsibility for his actions and committed himself to work hard to achieve better results.

On April 6 Suazo scored four goals against Veracruz, in his team's victory 7-2. This feat is the most a player from Monterrey has achieved in one game (tied with Milton Carlos). In his second season at Monterrey, he ended up as top goalscorer of the Mexican tournament with a total of 13 goals in 17 games. Suazo then scored 3 more games at the playoffs, 1 in the quarter final's 1st leg against Chivas, and two more against Santos Laguna in the semifinals, though Monterrey was unable to advance to the final. The next tournament was a pretty poor one for both Suazo and Monterrey, failing to advance to the playoffs. The following tournament, Clausura 2009, Suazo helped Monterrey achieve quarter finals where they lost against Puebla. Suazo scored a goal in the 1st leg where Monterrey lost 3-1.

In the Apertura 2009 final, Suazo became a key player in the title. In the Final's first leg, he gave an extraordinary game and helped Monterrey get back from a 3-1 loss at halftime in their home stadium to win 4-3, with Suazo scoring 2 of the goals. In the 2nd leg, he made a pass for his colleague, Aldo de Nigris, and then scored a goal himself at injury time to secure the title. Rayados won by a aggregate score of 6-4 against Cruz Azul, taking the championship.

Real Zaragoza

On 8 January 2010, he left Monterrey and signed for the Spanish club Real Zaragoza on a loan deal with an option for Zaragoza to buy Suazo for 10 million euros. He made his debut for Zaragoza in a 0-0 draw against Xerez at La Romareda stadium.

As of the 20th of May, 2010, Suazo's card still belongs to Monterrey and its worth has been raised to $25 million, provided that Real Zaragoza does not make valid their option to buy his card at $14 million.

Statistics

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- !rowspan="2"|Club !rowspan="2"|Season !colspan="2"|League !colspan="2"|Libertadores !colspan="2"|Sudamericana !colspan="2"|Interliga !colspan="2"|CONCACAF !colspan="2"|Total |- !GP!!Goals!!GP!!Goals!!GP!!Goals!!GP!!Goals!!GP!!Goals!!GP!!Goals |- |rowspan="3" valign="center"| Colo-Colo |Apertura 2006 |21||19||2||3||-||-||-||-||-||-||23||22 |- |Clausura 2006 |16||15||-||-||12||10||-||-||-||-||28||25 |- |Apertura 2007 |17||18||7||5||-||-||-||-||-||-||24||23 |- |rowspan="3" valign="center"| Monterrey |2007–2008 |31||19||-||-||-||-||2||1||-||-||33||20 |- |2008–2009 |32||14||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||32||14 |- |2009–2010 |22||11||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||22||11 |- |rowspan="1" valign="center"| Real Zaragoza |2009–2010 |17||6||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||-||17||6 |- |rowspan="1" valign="center"| Monterrey |2010–2011 |35||21||-||-||-||-||-||-||8||4||43||25 |}

International

Suazo has also become a fixture with his international side. In 2006 he scored 17 goals in national and international matches, surpassing Peter Crouch by one goal for the "World's Top Goal Scorer Award". His four international goals all came in friendlies. He scored goals against New Zealand and Sweden. His other two goals came in the form of penalties versus Ivory Coast and Colombia. In January 2007 he was awarded world's top goal scorer of 2006 by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics in Salzburg, Austria. He was also awarded the Silver Football as world's second first league top scorer with 34 goals, behind Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Ajax Amsterdam with 35 goals.

Suazo played for Chile in the Copa América 2007, scoring three goals, two in his first match against Ecuador, and one in the quarter final match against Brazil. He finished as CONMEBOL's top scorer of the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification with 10 goals, one ahead Brazilian striker Luís Fabiano.

International goals

{|class="wikitable" style="font-size:100%" |+ ! # !! Date !! Venue !! Opponent !! Score !! Result !! Competition |- | 1. ||24 March 2006||Estadio El Teniente, Rancagua, Chile || ||align="center"|1–1 ||align="center"|4–1 ||International Friendly |- | 2. ||30 May 2006||Stade Jean-Bouloumie, Vittel, France || ||align="center"|1–1 ||align="center"|1–1 ||International Friendly |- | 3. ||2 June 2006||Rasunda Stadion, Stockholm, Sweden || ||align="center"|1–1 ||align="center"|1–1 ||International Friendly |- | 4. ||16 August 2006||Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile || ||align="center"|1–0 ||align="center"|1–2 ||International Friendly |- | 5. ||27 June 2007||Polideportivo Cachamay, Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela || ||align="center"|1–1 ||align="center"|2–3 ||Copa America 2007 |- | 6. ||27 June 2007||Polideportivo Cachamay, Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela || ||align="center"|2–2 ||align="center"|2–3 ||Copa America 2007 |- | 7. ||7 July 2007||Estadio Olímpico Luis Ramos, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela || ||align="center"|1–5 ||align="center"|1–6 ||Copa America 2007 |- | 8. ||17 October 2007||Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile || ||align="center"|1–0 ||align="center"|2–0 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 9. ||18 June 2008||Estadio Olímpico Luis Ramos, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela || ||align="center"|1–1 ||align="center"|2–3 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 10. ||18 June 2008||Estadio Olímpico Luis Ramos, Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela || ||align="center"|2–3 ||align="center"|2–3 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 11. ||10 September 2008||Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago, Chile|| ||align="center"|2–0 ||align="center"|4–0 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 12. ||29 March 2009||Estadio Monumental "U", Lima, Peru || ||align="center"|0–2 ||align="center"|1–3 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 13. ||6 June 2009 ||Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asuncion, Paraguay || ||align="center"|0–2||align="center"|0–2 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 14. ||9 September 2009||Estádio de Pituaçu, Salvador, Brasil || ||align="center"|2–1 ||align="center"|4–2 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 15. ||9 September 2009||Estádio de Pituaçu, Salvador, Brasil || ||align="center"|2–2 ||align="center"|4–2 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 16. ||10 October 2009||Estadio Atanasio Girardot, Medellin, Colombia || ||align="center"|1–2 ||align="center"|2–4 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 17. ||14 October 2009||Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile || ||align="center"|1–0 ||align="center"|1–0 ||FIFA World Cup qualifier |- | 18. ||30 May 2010||Estadio Municipal de Concepción, Concepción, Chile || ||align="center"|1–0 ||align="center"|3–0 ||International Friendly |- | 19. || 19 June 2011 || Estadio Monumental, Santiago, Chile || ||align="center"| 3– 0 ||align="center"| || International Friendly |- |}

Titles

Club

{|class="wikitable" !Season !Club !Title |- |Apertura 2006||Colo-Colo|| |- |Clausura 2006||Colo-Colo|| |- |Apertura 2007||Colo-Colo|| |- |Apertura 2009||Monterrey||Primera División de México |- |Apertura 2010||Monterrey||Primera División de México |- |2010–11||Monterrey||CONCACAF Champions League |}

Individual

Torneo Apertura (Chile) Top Scorer: 2006, 2007

Torneo Clausura (Mexico) Top Scorer: 2008

Copa Sudamericana: Top Scorer 2006

2010 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONMEBOL) : Top Goal Scorer (10 goals)

Primera División de México Apertura 2009 Liguilla : Top Goal Scorer, Tied with teammate Aldo de Nigris (4 Goals)

Primera División de México Apertura 2009 : Balon de Oro for Best Player of the Tournament.

Primera División de México Apertura 2010 : Balon de Oro for Best Player of the Tournament.

References

External links

Career details at National Football Teams

Category:1981 births Category:Living people Category:People from San Antonio Category:Chilean footballers Category:Chilean expatriate footballers Category:Chile international footballers Category:Chilean Primera División players Category:Association football forwards Category:San Luis de Quillota footballers Category:San Antonio Unido footballers Category:Universidad Católica footballers Category:Ñublense footballers Category:C.D. Magallanes footballers Category:Audax Italiano players Category:CSD Colo-Colo players Category:CF Monterrey footballers Category:Real Zaragoza footballers Category:La Liga footballers Category:Chilean expatriates in Spain Category:Chilean expatriates in Mexico Category:Expatriate footballers in Mexico Category:Expatriate footballers in Spain Category:2007 Copa América players Category:2010 FIFA World Cup players