José Manuel "Sema" Velázquez Rodríguez, (born 8 September 1990) is a Venezuelan professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

for

Liga Portugal 2 The Liga Portugal 2 (), also known as Liga Portugal Meu Super for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division of the Portuguese football league system. At the end of each season, the two top-finishing teams are promoted to the top-tier Pr ...

club Alverca and the Venezuela national team.

Club career

Velázquez started his career at just six when he started to play for various youth clubs in town. He made his professional debut with ACD Lara in 2007. Having made himself a regular at the age of 17, Deportivo Anzoátegui secured his services at the beginning of 2008. He signed for

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

in 2009 to play for its reserve team. However, he did not feature in any match since he joined the squad, and was loaned to Venezuelan club Mineros de Guayana for the end of the 2010–11 season and the whole 2011–12 campaign. On 7 July 2012, he signed a three-year contract for

Panathinaikos F.C. Panathinaikos Football Club ( ), known as Panathinaikos, or by its full name, and the name of its parent sports club, Panathinaikos A.O. or PAO (; ''Panathinaïkós Athlitikós Ómilos'', ), is a Greek professional football club based in Athen ...

International career

Velázquez has played at every level from under-15 to under-20.

International goals

:''As of match played 13 June 2016. Venezuela score listed first, score column indicates score after each Velázquez goal.''

Under 20s

Velázquez was selected to play for Venezuela in the 2009 South American Youth Championship by

César Farías César Alejandro Farías Acosta (born 7 March 1973) is a Venezuelan football manager. Farías is known for having coached Deportivo Táchira, Mineros de Guayana, Deportivo Anzoátegui and the Venezuelan U-20 team. He is the first and only ma ...

, partnering Carlos Salazar in central defence. During the Round of 16 of the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confede ...

held in

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, he play the full 90 minutes against

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a federal elective monarchy made up of seven emirates, with Abu Dhabi serving as i ...

but Venezuela was eventually defeated 1–2.

Senior Team

Velázquez is a member of the

Venezuela national football team The Venezuela national football team (), nicknamed ''La Vinotinto'' ("The Red Wine"), represents Venezuela in men's FIFA, international association football, football and is controlled by the Venezuelan Football Federation, Federación Venezola ...

, having debuted on 28 March 2009 against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

Honours

; Deportivo Anzoátegui SC *

Copa Venezuela The Copa Venezuela () is the national cup football competition of Venezuela. Organized by the Venezuelan Football Federation, it is contested in the second half of the season by the teams in the Primera División and Segunda División, excluding ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

; AC Mineros *

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

References

External links

* * *
Goal.com Profile
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Velazquez, Jose Manuel 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Ciudad Bolívar Footballers from Bolívar (state) Venezuelan men's footballers Venezuela men's international footballers Venezuelan expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Men's association football central defenders Deportivo Anzoátegui players Asociación Civil Deportivo Lara players A.C.C.D. Mineros de Guayana players Villarreal CF B players Panathinaikos F.C. players F.C. Arouca players C.D. Veracruz footballers Club Nacional footballers Deportivo Táchira F.C. players C.D. Santa Clara players Super League Greece players Primeira Liga players Liga MX players Paraguayan Primera División players Liga Portugal 2 players Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Portugal Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Greece Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Venezuela men's under-20 international footballers Copa América Centenario players 2021 Copa América players Italian people of Venezuelan descent