Rafael Enrique Pérez Almeida (born 9 January 1990), commonly known as Rafa Pérez (; ), is a Colombian 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

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Cartagena, Pérez made his senior debuts with

Real Cartagena Real Cartagena is a professional Colombian football team based in Cartagena, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. They play their home games at the Jaime Morón León stadium. History The origins of Real Cartagena date back to 197 ...

in 2008. In 2012, he moved abroad, signing with

China League One The Chinese Football League 1 (), also known as China League One or Chinese Jia League (), is the second level of professional football in China, under the Chinese Super League. The league is under the auspices of the Chinese Football Association ...

team

Chongqing Lifan Chongqing Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the Central People's Government, along with Beijing, Shanghai ...

, but returned to his home country only a year later, after agreeing to a deal with

Independiente Medellín Deportivo Independiente Medellín, also known as Independiente Medellín or DIM, is a Colombian professional football club (association football), football club based in Medellín that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their ...

. On 12 December 2013 Pérez moved to

Independiente Santa Fe Club Independiente Santa Fe, known simply as Santa Fe, is a Colombian professional Association football, football team based in Bogotá, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Estadio El Campín, El Cam ...

. On 26 May of the following year he joined Portuguesa, but only appeared rarely for ''Lusa''.

Litex Lovech

On 11 January 2015, Pérez signed with Bulgarian side

Litex Lovech FC Lovech (; formerly Litex Lovech) is a Bulgarian professional association football, football club based in Lovech, that competes in the Second Professional Football League (Bulgaria), Second League. The club was founded in 1921 as Hisarya Spor ...

, being given the number 5 jersey. He made his debut for the club on 28 February, playing the full 90 minutes in a 1–0 home win against

Ludogorets Razgrad Professional Football Club Ludogorets 1945 (), commonly known as Ludogorets Razgrad or simply Ludogorets, is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Razgrad, which currently competes in the First Professional Football League ...

. On 12 December 2015, he was sent off after an altercation with Miguel Bedoya in a heated league match that was eventually abandoned after the Litex players were ordered off the pitch.

CSKA Sofia

In the summer of 2016 he joined

CSKA Sofia CSKA Sofia () is a Bulgarian professional association football club based in Sofia and currently competing in the country's premier football competition, the First League. ''CSKA'' is an abbreviation for ''Central Sports Club of the Army'' ...

. Pérez remained with the "redmen" until he cancelled his contract with the team in May 2017.

Atlético Junior

On 2 June 2017, after Pérez had officially parted company with

, he joined

Honours

Club

Real Cartagena * Primera B (1):

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 ...

Junior *

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...

(2): 2018-I, 2019-I *

Copa Colombia The Copa Colombia (); officially known as Copa BetPlay Dimayor is an annual football tournament in Colombia. It is contested by the 36 professional clubs affiliated to the División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano (DIMAYOR) and is the ...

(1):

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

Superliga Colombiana The Superliga Colombiana (''Colombian Superleague''), officially known as Superliga BetPlay Dimayor due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is an official competition contested between the winners of the Apertura and Finalización t ...

(1):

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

References

External links

* * * * 1990 births Living people Colombian men's footballers Footballers from Cartagena, Colombia Real Cartagena footballers Independiente Medellín footballers Independiente Santa Fe footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Associação Portuguesa de Desportos players First Professional Football League (Bulgaria) players China League One players Categoría Primera A players FC Lovech players PFC CSKA Sofia players Atlético Junior footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Colombian expatriate men's footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Bulgaria Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Bulgaria Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Men's association football defenders 21st-century Colombian sportsmen {{Colombia-footy-defender-stub