Alejandro Botero López (born October 8, 1980) is a former Colombian football player. He played as goalkeeper in the professional divisions of Colombian and Argentine football. After his retirement from professional football in 2012, he resumed his career as a commercial aviator, which he had started in the years during which he was playing in Argentine football.

Career

He played in the goalkeeper position, both wearing the shirt of the Colombian professional football team and in football teams in that country and in Argentina. His sports career began at the age of 18, serving the

Deportivo Cali Asociación Deportivo Cali, best known as Deportivo Cali, is a Colombian sports club based in Cali, most notable for its football team, which currently competes in the Categoría Primera A. Deportivo Cali is one of the most successful football t ...

club, where he played for 4 years. In the Argentine club Independiente de Avellaneda, he was champion in 2002; however, in this club he did not have the opportunity to be a starting goalkeeper. Later, Botero went down a division to play with

Argentinos Juniors Asociación Atlética Argentinos Juniors is an Argentine sports club based in La Paternal, Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its association football, football team, which currently plays in the Argentine Primera División, and was reco ...

. At the end of the 2003–2005 season, this team managed to be promoted to play in the

Argentine first division Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

, with Botero having a successful performance. In September 2005, he returned to the Deportivo Cali club, a Colombian team where he had started his career as a football player. There he won the professional football tournament that year. In 2006, he returned to Argentine football, playing with the San Martín de San Juan club, where he had the opportunity to play for the second time with a team that was promoted to the Argentine first division. In 2009, he returned to Colombian football, where he joined the

Boyacá Chicó Boyacá is the name of a region in Colombia. It may refer to other connections to Colombia: * Battle of Boyacá * Boyacá Department (Gran Colombia) * Boyacá Department ** Boyacá, Boyacá, a municipality * Boyacá State, a former state * Puerto ...

team. His professional career began in 1998 and ended in 2012.

Retirement from football

In 2011, while he was playing for the Deportes Tolima team in Colombia, he made the decision to retire from professional football, to dedicate himself to resuming his career as a commercial aviator. He had already partially started this career, at the ''Academia Flight Center'' in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

, from the time he was playing in Argentine football. His father, David Botero, was a tourism agent and airline representative, which inspired Alejandro as a child to be passionate about the field of aviation. Once he obtained his commercial pilot licenses, Botero López managed to be hired by

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias de Colombia S.A.'', "Airways of Colombia", and stylized as avianca since October 2023) is the largest airline in Colombia. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it ...

Clubs

Titles

National championships

Botero developed his entire professional career in the national football of Colombia and Argentina:

External links

BDFA profileStatistics
at

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Botero, Alejandro 1980 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers Deportivo Cali footballers Club Atlético Independiente footballers Argentinos Juniors footballers San Martín de San Juan footballers Boyacá Chicó F.C. footballers 21st-century Colombian sportsmen Deportes Tolima footballers Argentine Primera División players Categoría Primera A players Colombian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Footballers from Pereira, Colombia