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Iván Zamorano

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Iván Zamorano

Iván Luis Zamorano Zamora (Latin American Spanish: [iˈβan samoˈɾano]; born 18 January 1967) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is regarded as one of Chile's most recognized footballers and one of the greatest strikers of his generation.

He first appeared as a member of the Chile national team in 1987, appearing on the team every year until 2001. During his tenure, he played in the 1998 World Cup, four Copa América tournaments, and the Olympics in 2000 with the u-23 team, where he won a bronze medal and was the top scorer of the tournament. He played for several clubs, notably Spanish clubs Sevilla and Real Madrid; Italian club Inter Milan as well as Liga MX club América. He won the 1994–95 La Liga title and was the season's top scorer with Real Madrid. He also won the UEFA Cup with Inter Milan in 1998, as well as the Liga MX title with America his first season with the club. A powerful and prolific goal-scorer, he was particularly renowned for his strength and ability in the air, with many of his goals coming from headers.

In 2004, Zamorano was selected among the FIFA 100, a list of the best living football players in the world compiled by Pelé.

Zamorano was nicknamed Bam Bam and Iván el Terrible.

Zamorano started his career in Chile with Cobresal in December 1985. He was loaned out to Chilean Primera Division B club Trasandino (called Cobreandino between 1985 and 1992) for the 1985–86 season. He returned to the club shortly after and won the 1987 Copa Chile with Cobresal. In 1988, he moved to Europe to Swiss team St. Gallen, becoming the league's top scorer in the 1989–90 season, and scoring 37 goals in 61 matches across three seasons. In 1990, Zamorano debuted in the Spanish Primera División with Sevilla, where he would play 63 matches and score 23 goals in all competitions before being sold to Real Madrid for $6 million.

With Real Madrid, between 1992 and 1996, Zamorano won one league, one Copa del Rey and one Spanish Supercup title. In 1995, under manager Jorge Valdano, Zamorano helped Real Madrid win the Spanish League title, as he scored 28 goals – including a hat–trick against Barcelona – and received the Pichichi Trophy as the season's top scorer. That year, he formed a particularly effective attacking partnership with playmaker Michael Laudrup. In the 1992–93 and 1994–95 seasons, he won the EFE Trophy, which is awarded to the best Ibero-American player in La Liga every year by Spanish news agency EFE. In total, Zamorano appeared 173 times for Real Madrid, scoring 101 goals.

After six seasons in the Spanish league, Zamorano played four seasons in Serie A with Inter Milan, from 1996 to 2000, where he was teammates with Youri Djorkaeff, Diego Simeone, Javier Zanetti and Ronaldo, among others. He was initially the club's premier striker, playing with the number nine shirt. However, after Roberto Baggio's arrival at the club, Ronaldo was forced to give up number ten, and wear number nine according to the terms of a Nike sponsorship. Therefore Zamorano had to give up his number and chose number 18, adding a "+" to his shirt to create the equation '1+8', making him mathematically still a number 9 striker. In May 1998, Inter won the UEFA Cup after beating Lazio in the final 3–0, with Zamorano scoring the opening goal. He had also scored in the second leg of the previous year's final, with the game going to penalties. However, Zamorano missed his penalty as Inter lost the shootout to Schalke 04 4–1.

Zamorano would move to Mexico in 2001 to play for América for two seasons, winning the Torneo de Verano in the first season. He concluded his career playing for Colo-Colo in 2003, making a childhood dream come true. He announced his retirement in July of that year after a professional career spanning more than 16 years.

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