Jhon Eduis Viáfara Mina (born 27 October 1978) is a Colombian former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He was part of the Once Caldas team that won the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

in 2004, and later played in Europe for rivals

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

and

Southampton Southampton () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire, S ...

in England, and

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septemb ...

in Spain. With the Colombia national team, he went to the

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...

. In 2020, he was extradited to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking. He was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in

U.S. federal prison The Federal Bureau of Prisons classifies prisons into seven categories: * United States penitentiaries * Federal correctional institutions * Private correctional institutions * Federal prison camps * Administrative facilities * Federal correctio ...

Football career

Early career

Born in the Colombian town of Robles, Viáfara came to international attention whilst playing for Once Caldas, for whom he was instrumental during his club's success in the

2004 Copa Libertadores The 2004 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2004 Copa Toyota Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 45th edition of the Copa Libertadores, CONMEBOL's premier annual international club tournament. The tournament was w ...

, scoring with a long range strike in the final against

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

Portsmouth

His performances made him a regular in the

Colombia national football team The Colombia national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Colombia) represents Colombia in men's international football and is managed by the Colombian Football Federation, the governing body for football in Colombia. They are a mem ...

, and earned him a €2.2 million move to English club

on 23 June 2005. He played 14 league matches under

Alain Perrin Alain André Christian Perrin (born 7 October 1956) is a French professional football manager and former player. Perrin made his managerial breakthrough at Troyes, whom he took from the fourth tier to Ligue 1 and UEFA Cup qualification by winnin ...

at Portsmouth, scoring one league goal, in a 2–1 loss at

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

on 27 August. Perrin was sacked and Viáfara was dropped by returned-manager

Harry Redknapp Henry James Redknapp (born 2 March 1947) is an English former football manager and player. He has previously managed AFC Bournemouth, West Ham United, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, Queens Park Rangers and Birmingham City. In hi ...

. On 30 January 2006, Viáfara was loaned for six months to Spanish club

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

, along with

Mark González Mark Dennis González Hoffmann (born 10 July 1984) is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played top flight football in Chile, Russia, Spain, Brazil and England. He was described by José Mari Bakero, the s ...

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. At the end of this deal, Real declined the chance to purchase Viáfara and he returned to Portsmouth again, after 11 matches played and two red cards.

Southampton

On 4 August 2006 he signed a three-year deal with Portsmouth's south-coast rivals

of the

Football League Championship The English Football League Championship (often referred to as the Championship for short or the Sky Bet Championship for sponsorship purposes) is the highest division of the English Football League (EFL) and second-highest overall in the E ...

. The transfer fee for the three-year deal was undisclosed, but is believed to be in the region of £750,000. He appeared consistently in the 2006–07 season. He scored two goals in the Championship Play-off Semi-final Second Leg against

Derby County Derby County Football Club () is a professional association football club based in Derby, Derbyshire, England. In 2022, it was announced that DCFC was acquired by Clowes Developments (UK) Ltd, a Derbyshire-based property group. Founded in 1884 ...

on 15 May 2007, although it was not enough as Derby went on to win the tie in a penalty shootout. In July 2008, manager

Jan Poortvliet Jan Poortvliet (; born 21 September 1955) is a Dutch professional football coach and a former player who played as a left-back. He works as the coach of the Under-18 squad of FC Eindhoven He represented the Netherlands national team at the 197 ...

dropped Viáfara who was homesick and negotiating a move back to Once Caldas.

Return to Colombia

After Viáfara's return to Once Caldas the team's fortunes improved, they won their third Colombian league championship in Apertura 2009. In 2010, he joined La Equidad and helped them to reach the final of the Apertura 2010 tournament as well as reaching the playoff stages of the Clausura 2010. In 2011, he was signed by Junior and got off to an excellent start, scoring vital goals in both of the side's first two games in the

Copa Libertadores 2011 The 2011 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2011 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, South America's premier international club football tourname ...

group stages. He retired from football in 2015.

International career

Viáfara went to the

with Colombia in

and

. He scored his only international goal on 25 March 2007 in a 3–1 friendly victory over Switzerland in

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at th ...

International goals

''Source:''

Honours

América de Cali *

Copa Mustang Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

: 2000 Once Caldas *

: 2003, 2009 *

Drug trafficking conviction

On 19 March 2019, Viáfara was arrested in

Cali Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the secon ...

for drug traffic and cocaine exportation to the United States. He was extradited to the US in January 2020, where he denied allegations of being in the

Clan del Golfo The Clan del Golfo (English: The Gulf Clan), also known as Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (Autodefensas Gaitanistas de Colombia – AGC) and formerly called Los Urabeños and Clan Úsuga, is a prominent Colombian neo-paramilitary gro ...

. It was heard in court that Viáfara had been identified by the

Drug Enforcement Administration The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA; ) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating drug trafficking and distribution within th ...

in 2017, based on intelligence shared with Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. He used the aliases "Futbolista" (Footballer), "Goleador" (Goalscorer) and " Makelele". He was indicted by a grand jury in June 2018. In March 2021, he was convicted and sentenced to 135 months in

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Viafara, John 1978 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Colombia men's international footballers 2004 Copa América players 2007 Copa América players Deportivo Pasto footballers América de Cali footballers Once Caldas footballers Portsmouth F.C. players Real Sociedad footballers Southampton F.C. players La Equidad footballers Atlético Junior footballers Deportivo Pereira footballers Independiente Medellín footballers Deportivo Cali footballers Águilas Doradas Rionegro players Colombian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Colombian expatriate sportspeople in England Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Categoría Primera A players La Liga players Premier League players English Football League players Men's association football midfielders People extradited from Colombia to the United States Footballers from Valle del Cauca Department Copa Libertadores-winning players Colombian drug traffickers Colombian people imprisoned abroad Prisoners and detainees of the United States federal government Sportspeople convicted of crimes