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José Luis Villanueva
Personal information
Full name	José Luis Villanueva Ahumada
Date of birth	November 5, 1981 (age 43)
Place of birth	Santiago, Chile
Height	1.77 m (5 ft 9+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Forward
Youth career
	Palestino
Senior career*
Years	Team
2001–2003	Palestino
2001	→ Deportes Temuco (loan)
2002	→ Deportes Ovalle (loan)
2004	Cobreloa
2004–2005	Universidad Católica
2005–2006	Racing Club
2006	Morelia
2007	Ulsan Hyundai Horang-i
2008	Vasco da Gama
2008–2009	Bunyodkor
2010	Tianjin Teda
2011	Universidad Católica
2012	Deportes Antofagasta
2012–2013	Boca Unidos
2013–2015	Magallanes
Total
International career
2001	Chile U20
2004	Chile U23
2003–2006	Chile
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals

José Luis Villanueva Ahumada (born November 5, 1981) is a Chilean former footballer who played as a forward.

Club career

Second Division in Chile

In 2001, Chilean first division side Palestino loaned Villanueva out to second division squad Deportes Temuco, where he scored seven goals and helped the club gain promotion to the first division. The following year, instead of returning to Palestino, Villanueva was again loaned out, this time to second division club Deportes Ovalle. In 2002, Villanueva scored 20 goals with Ovalle.

Palestino

After the 2002 campaign, Villanueva was called to stay with his original team in first division. Villanueva continued his goal-scoring during the 2003 season with Palestino by scoring 22 goals in 34 matches, including in the Pre-Sudamericana Cup. After the season, Palestino once again loaned Villanueva out, this time to Universidad Católica. From 2004 to 2005, Villanueva scored 16 more goals.^[1]

Out of Chile

Palestino sold him to Argentine side Racing Club in 2005 for $600,000, immediately becoming a fan favourite. In a match against Quilmes, Villanueva scored two goals to lead Racing Club to a 4–1 victory. With less than a minute left in the match, Villanueva was substituted off. As he left the pitch, the fans could be heard chanting "shileno, shileno", just how River Plate fans had chanted for Chilean legend Marcelo Salas and Alexis Sánchez years prior.

Villanueva then had spells in South Korea for Ulsan Hyundai in 2007 and in Brazil for Vasco da Gama in 2008 before moving to Uzbekistan.^[2] In Tashkent based club Bunyodkor, he played under number 17. During AFC Champions League he couldn’t participate in the competition due to the limit of foreign players as Rivaldo, Victor and Ramos were chosen.

International career

Villanueva represented Chile internationally at the under-20 level at the 2001 South American U-20 Championship and under-23 level during the preolympic qualifications in 2004, and represented the adult squad since 2003.^[3]

After football

After his retirement, he continued playing football at amateur level for the club Alianza of La Reina.^[4] At the same time, he writes a popular "opinion piece" about football in PrensaFútbol.com and works as a football commentator in both TV and radio programs. Currently, he works for both ESPN Chile and Radio Pauta.^[5]

Since 2016, he has an undertaking called "The Football Experience" which helps amateur football players to live an experience as a professional footballer, organizing matches around the world.^[4]^[6]

Personal life

He is married to 30-year-old journalist, Fernanda Bünzli. He likes to travel around the world and he hopes he could write in the future about his experiences. He hopes to end his career with his favorite Chilean squad Universidad Católica and then study a professional career.