Marcelo Salas

Marcelo Salas

Personal information
Full name	José Marcelo Salas Melinao
Date of birth	December 24, 1974 (1974-12-24) (age 36)
Place of birth	Temuco, Chile
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing position	Striker
Club information
Current club	Unión Temuco (Chairman)
Youth career
1983–1991	Santos Temuco
1991–1993	Universidad de Chile
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps†	(Gls)†
1993–1996	Universidad de Chile	75	(50)
1996–1998	River Plate	53	(24)
1998–2001	Lazio	79	(34)
2001–2005	Juventus	18	(2)
2003–2005	→ River Plate (loan)	32	(10)
2005–2008	Universidad de Chile	82	(37)
Total		329	(155)
National team
1994–2007	Chile	71	(37)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (Goals).

This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Salas and the second or maternal family name is Melinao.

José Marcelo Salas Melinao (born December 24, 1974 in Temuco), better known as El Matador, Shileno or simply Marcelo Salas, is a former football player from Chile. He, along with world cup veterans, 3 time Best Player of America Elías Figueroa and former Real Madrid and Inter Milan forward Iván Zamorano, has been one of Chile's most prestigious footballers. He has played in Chile, Argentina and Italy where he has won titles for every team he has played for. He has a deft touch with his left foot, which has led to some spectacular goals all around the globe, including two in a historical 2-0 win for Chile in Michael Owen's debut for England in Wembley Stadium right before the 1998 World Cup.

Career

Universidad de Chile

Salas was a youth product of the Deportes Temuco youth team until his father took him to Santiago de Chile to be incorporated into Universidad de Chile, the chilean club with the highest average attendance in the country.

Salas made his debut playing for Universidad de Chile in 1993 and became a starter on January 4, 1994 against Cobreloa where he would also score a goal. Salas helped the team win back to back titles in 1994 and 1995 leaving a trail of 74 goals which included a strong 1996 campaign in Copa Libertadores.

River Plate

Later in 1996, Salas moved on to Argentina to play with River Plate of the Argentine first division, a move that was met with some criticism by the Argentine press as a Chile born player had never really had an impact playing in Argentina. The move was also criticised by Argentine great Diego Maradona as Salas was scouted by arch rival Boca Juniors prior to joining River. Salas quickly silenced his critics and won over Argentine fans, as a major contributor to one of the clubs greatest runs ever. From 1996-1998 Salas scored 26 goals in 51 games, helping River to win the Torneo de Apertura 1996, the Clausura 1997, the Apertura 1997 and the 1997 Supercopa Sudamericana. These accomplishments would cement his legacy in Argentina as one of its greatest foreign born players earning the nickname, "El shileno (sic) Salas". During that time he also helped Chile in the World Cup qualification as the top scorer along Ivan Zamorano in the South American zone. In 1998, he participated with Chile in the World Cup making a strong performance with 4 goals in 4 matches.

S.S. Lazio and Juventus

In the same year, on the strength of his performances both in Argentina and the World Cup, he was sold to S.S. Lazio in Italy for US$18,000,000.^{[citation needed]}

Salas played in Italy for five years, three with S.S. Lazio (1998–2001), a key catalyst in helping turn around a Lazio team that hadn't won a Scudetto since the 1973-1974 season. His first Serie A appearance was on October 4, 1998. He scored his first goal playing for Lazio a few days later against Inter. With Lazio he won an Italian cup, a Cup Winners' Cup and a European Super Cup. In 2001 he was transferred to Juventus (for cash plus Darko Kovačević^[1]) where Salas would endure the worst moments of his career; he was hampered by injuries, allowing him to participate in only 14 games and scoring just 2 goals.

River Plate

In 2003 Salas was loaned back to River Plate^[2] but was unable to regain his old form as he was still hampered by injuries. Constantly in and out of the lineup and only able to score 17 goals in 43 matches Salas considered retiring from football, but decided he would make one final push with River. His return would spark River to a semi-final appearance in the Copa Libertadores (Salas scoring a hat-trick en route) but they lost to eventual champions Sao-Paulo.

Universidad de Chile

In late July 2005, it was confirmed that he would return to his original football team, Universidad de Chile,^[3] and the never-ending love of the fans of Universidad de Chile for Salas was evident. Although the press was tough on him for being an injury-prone player (Salas played just 10 games in 2005), he carried Universidad de Chile to the cup finals. The 2005 final was decided on a shootout, won by Universidad Católica. After retirement rumors flourished in the summer of 2006, Salas began campaign with Universidad de Chile and led the team to the final one more time, which saw Universidad de Chile dropping the title to archrivals Colo-Colo on penalties.

After a 6 month layoff, Salas confirmed he would return to his beloved team with a contract for a year and a half, thus continuing the whirl-wind that has been his career. At this point Salas also expressed interest in returning to the Chilean National which he had not played for since 2005. Then, under the direction of Marcelo Bielsa, Salas participated in two exhibition matches held in Austria on September 7, and September 11 of 2007, and the first four games of the 2010 World Cup qualifying stage. He scored two goals against Uruguay on November 18, 2007, reaching the record of 37 goals for his country.

Salas announced his retirement on November 26, 2008, at the age of 33.

Retirement

Salas played his farewell game on June 2, 2009. Amongst the invited players were his friends from the 1993-1996 Universidad de Chile squads, River Plate, Juventus, plus members of Chile's France '98 World Cup squad. More than 50,000 people showed up to pay him one final salute. Playing for both sides, he managed to score three goals.^[4]

Honours

• Primera División de Chile: 1994, 1995
• Argentinean Torneo Apertura: 1997
• Argentinean Torneo Clausura: 1997, 2004
• South American Super Cup: 1997
• UEFA Cup Winners Cup: 1999
• UEFA Supercup: 1999
• Italian Serie A: 2000, 2002, 2003
• Italian Cup: 2000
• Italian Supercup: 1998, 2000, 2002
• Canada Cup: 1995
• FIFA World Cup Bronze Shoe: 1998

International goals

Scores and results list Chile's goal tally first.

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition	Scored
1	1994-05-18	Santiago	Argentina	3–3	International Match	1
2	1995-03-29	Los Angeles	Mexico	2–1	International Match	1
3	1995-04-22	Temuco	Iceland	1–1	International Match	1
4	1995-05-28	Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton	Canada	2–1	Canada Cup	1
5	1995-10-11	Concepción	Canada	2–0	International Match	1
6	1996-02-14	Coquimbo	Peru	4–0	International Match	1
8	1996-05-26	Santiago	Bolivia	2–0	International Match	2
9	1996-07-06	Santiago	Ecuador	4–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
10	1996-08-25	Liberia	Costa Rica	1–1	International Match	1
11	1996-11-12	Santiago	Uruguay	1–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
12	1997-06-08	Quito	Ecuador	1–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
15	1997-07-05	Santiago	Colombia	4–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	3
16	1997-09-10	Santiago	Argentina	1–2	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
19	1997-10-12	Santiago	Peru	4–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	3
20	1997-11-16	Santiago	Bolivia	3–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
22	1998-02-11	Wembley Stadium, London	England	2–0	Friendly	2
23	1998-04-22	Santiago	Colombia	2–2	International Match	1
24	1998-05-24	Santiago	Uruguay	2–2	International Match	1
25	1998-05-31	Montélimar	Tunisia	3–2	International Match	1
26	1998-06-04	Avignon	Morocco	1–1	International Match	1
28	1998-06-11	Parc Lescure, Bordeaux	Italy	2–2	1998 FIFA World Cup	2
29	1998-07-17	Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Saint-Étienne	Austria	1–1	1998 FIFA World Cup	1
30	1998-07-27	Parc des Princes, Paris	Brazil	1–4	1998 FIFA World Cup	1
31	2000-06-29	Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago	Paraguay	3–1	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
32	2000-08-15	Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago	Brazil	3–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
34	2001-08-14	Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago	Bolivia	2–2	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification	2
35	2005-06-04	Estadio Nacional de Chile, Santiago	Bolivia	3–1	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification	1
37	2007-11-18	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo	Uruguay	2–2	2010 FIFA World Cup qualification	2

Career statistics

Club performance			League		Cup		Continental		Total
Season	Club	League	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Chile			League		Copa Chile		South America		Total
1993	Universidad de Chile	Primera División	15	1					15	1
1994			25	27	15	12	6	2	46	41
1995			27	17	4	0	7	5	38	22
1996			10	5	5	2	12	5	27	12
Argentina			League		Cup		South America		Total
1996-97	River Plate	Primera División	26	11	-		4	0	30	11
1997-98			27	13	-		10	7	37	20
Italy			League		Coppa Italia		Europe		Total
1998-99	Lazio	Serie A	30	15	7	5	6	3	43	23
1999-00			28	12	3	0	11	5	42	17
2000-01			21	7	2	1	9	0	32	8
2001-02	Juventus	Serie A	7	1	2	1	2	0	11	2
2002-03			11	1	2	0	2	1	15	2
Argentina			League		Cup		South America		Total
2003-04	River Plate	Primera División	17	6	-		4	2	21	8
2004-05			15	4	-		7	5	22	9
Chile			League		Copa Chile		South America		Total
2005	Universidad de Chile	Primera División	10	5	-				10	5
2006			28	13	-				28	13
2007			14	8	-				14	8
2008			30	11					30	11
Total	Chile		159	87	21	14	25	12	208	113
	Argentina		85	34			25	14	110	48
	Italy		97	36	16	7	30	9	143	52
Career total			333	155	40	21	80	35	453	211

^{[5] [6]}

Chile national team
Year	Apps	Goals
1994	3	1
1995	12	4
1996	11	6
1997	7	9
1998	10	10
1999	5	0
2000	7	2
2001	2	2
2002	0	0
2003	0	0
2004	4	0
2005	3	1
2006	0	0
2007	6	2
Total	70	37

References

1. ^ "Salas joins Juventus". BBC Sport. 2001-08-17. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/europe/1496917.stm. Retrieved 2010-04-06. 
2. ^ Reports and Financial Statements at 30 June 2004
3. ^ Six-Monthly Report at 31 December 2005
4. ^ http://www.triunfo.cl/prontus_triunfo/site/artic/20090603/pags/20090603013702.html
5. ^ http://www.national-football-teams.com/v2/player.php?id=1435
6. ^ http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/salas-intlg.html

External links

• (Spanish) Official Website
• International Career
• Marcelo Salas – FIFA competition record
• 1st in South America Player of the Year 1997
• 7th in South America Player of the Year 1996
• 8th in the World Player of the Year Award 1997
• 14th in the World Player of the Year Award 1998
• Argentina Player of the Year 1997
• Bronze Boot Award in the World Cup 1998
• 31st in IFFHS South American Player of the Century

Persondata
Name	Salas, Marcelo
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 24, 1974
Place of birth	Temuco, Chile
Date of death
Place of death