Cléber Manuel Chalá Herrón (born June 29, 1971 in Imbabura) is a retired

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

ian football midfielder who played 86 games for the Ecuador national team between 1992 and 2004.

Club career

At club level he has played mostly for

Nacional Quito Club Deportivo El Nacional (until 2018 ''Club Especializado de Alto Rendimiento El Nacional'') is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Quito, known best for their professional football team. The team currently plays in the Serie A, the first-tier ...

where he has made over 450 appearances and participated in 4 Ecuadorian league championship winning campaigns (1992, 1996, 2005A & 2006). He has also played club football for

Deportivo Quito Sociedad Deportivo Quito is an Ecuadorian club football club based in Quito. For most of its existence, it competed in Serie A, the highest level of the Ecuadorian professional football league. And currently competes in the Second Category of Pi ...

and

Universidad San Martín de Porres Universidad (Spanish for "university") may refer to: Places * Universidad, San Juan, Puerto Rico * Universidad (Madrid) Football clubs * Universidad SC, a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala ...

in Peru. He also had a spell in England with

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

but never played in the first team. He was signed along with fellow countryman

Agustín Delgado Agustín Javier Delgado Chalá (born 23 December 1974) is an Ecuadorian politician and former professional footballer who played as a forward. Nicknamed ''El Tín'', he was the all-time top scorer for the Ecuador national team with 31 goals ...

, but neither made an impact in English football.

International career

Chalá played for Ecuador at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

and in the

1993 Copa América The 1993 Copa América was the 36th Copa América, CONMEBOL's football tournament for national teams. It was held in Ecuador between 15 June and 4 July. All 10 CONMEBOL members took part, but for the first time two nations from outside CONMEBOL w ...

1997 Copa América The 1997 Copa America was the 38th edition of the Copa America. It was held in Bolivia from 11 to 29 June. It was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. In this edition, Costa Rica and Mexico were the invited teams to br ...

and

2001 Copa América The 2001 Copa América was held in Colombia, from 11 to 29 July. It was organised by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body. Colombia won the tournament for the 1st time without conceding a goal. Brazil were the two-time defending cha ...

Personal life

He was father-in-law to fellow Ecuadorian footballer

Christian Benítez Christian Rogelio Benítez Betancourt (1 May 1986 – 29 July 2013), also known as Chucho, was an Ecuadorian professional association football, footballer who played as a striker (association football), striker. He began his career with Club De ...

, who married Chalá's daughter Lizeth in 2007.Un año después: ¿el Chucho Benítez estaba condenado a morir?
- La Historia

References

External links

1971 births Living people Footballers from Imbabura Province Ecuadorian men's footballers Ecuador men's international footballers 1993 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 2001 Copa América players 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2004 Copa América players C.D. El Nacional footballers Southampton F.C. players S.D. Quito footballers Club Deportivo Universidad de San Martín de Porres players Ecuadorian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Peru Men's association football midfielders {{Ecuador-footy-midfielder-stub