Víctor Aristizábal

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Aristizábal and the second or maternal family name is Posada.

Víctor Aristizábal

Personal information
Full name	Víctor Hugo Aristizábal Posada
Date of birth	(1971-12-09) December 9, 1971
Place of birth	Medellín, Colombia
Height
Position(s)	Forward (retired)
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1990–1994	Atlético Nacional	142	(70)
1994	Valencia	7	(0)
1994–1996	Atlético Nacional	38	(17)
1997–1998	São Paulo	25	(9)
1998–1999	Santos	11	(2)
2000	Atlético Nacional	25	(13)
2001	Deportivo Cali	28	(14)
2002	Vitória	21	(10)
2003	Cruzeiro	36	(21)
2004	Coritiba	25	(6)
2005–2007	Atlético Nacional	85	(49)
Total		633	(211)
International career
1993–2003	Colombia	66	(15)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of (UTC)

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 Atlético Nacional and this makes him the top goalscorer in this club. Afterwards he rejoined Atlético 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

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

International

Between 1993 and 2003, Aristizábal played 66 international matches and scored 15 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.

Aristizábal finished as top scorer with six goals in the 2001 Copa América held in Colombia, as Los Cafeteros won the title for the first time. He was also a member of the nation's squad for the 2003 FIFA Confederations Cup, where they finished in fourth place.

During the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification campaign, the disillusioned Aristizábal announced he was retiring from international soccer after being dropped for a match against Brazil.

International goals

Scores and results list Colombia's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	30 May 1993	Estadio Nacional Julio Martínez Prádanos, Santiago, Chile	Chile	1–0	1–1	Friendly
2.	16 July 1993	Estadio 9 de Mayo, Machala, Ecuador	Mexico	2–1	2–1	1993 Copa América
3.	9 February 1994	Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia	1–0	1–0	Friendly
4.	26 February 1994	Weingart Stadium, Monterey Park, United States	South Korea	2–2	2–2
5.	2 June 1996	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Perú	Peru	1–1	1–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.	16 June 1997	Estadio Ramón Tahuichi Aguilera, Santa Cruz, Bolivia	Costa Rica	4–1	4–1	1997 Copa América
7.	11 July 2001	Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, Barranquilla, Colombia	Venezuela	2–0	2–0	2001 Copa América
8.	14 July 2001		Ecuador	1–0	1–0
9.	17 July 2001		Chile	1–0	2–0
10.	23 July 2001	Estadio Centenario, Armenia, Colombia	Peru	1–0	3–0
11.				3–0
12.	26 July 2001	Estadio Palogrande, Manizales, Colombia	Honduras	2–0	2–0
13.	14 November 2001	Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay	Paraguay	1–0	4–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification
14.				2–0
15.				3–0

Retirement

July 12, 2008, more than 45,000 fans were in Víctor Hugo Aristizábal testimonial match, where he scored two goals. The match was played at Estadio Atanasio Girardot (Medellín). Carlos "El Pibe" Valderrama, Enzo Francescoli, Alex Aguinaga, Iván Hurtado, René Higuita, Juan Pablo Ángel, Faryd Mondragón, Jorge Bermudez, Leonel Álvarez, 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
• Coritiba
  • Campeonato Paranaense: 2004

Country

• Colombia
  • Copa América: 2001

Individual

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

External links

• Víctor Aristizábal at National-Football-Teams.com
• Midfield Dynamo's 10 Heroes of the Copa América Víctor Aristizábal listed in the top 10

Preceded by Ronaldo and Rivaldo

Copa America Top Goalscorers Copa América 2001

Succeeded by Adriano