Rafael Édgar Dudamel Ochoa (born January 7, 1973), is a

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player who played as a

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

. He is the manager of Colombian club

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several am ...

. As a player, Dudamel made 56 appearances for the Venezuela national team.

Playing career

Club

During his career, Dudamel played for several Venezuelan and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

n football clubs. Among the Venezuelan clubs are Universidad de Los Andes, El Vigía,

Atlético Zulia Atlético Zulia Fútbol Club was a Venezuelan professional club and the club has won one First Division title in the professional era. The club was based in Maracaibo. History The club was founded in 1996 as Atlético Zulia Fútbol Club, and pa ...

, UA Maracaibo and

Deportivo Táchira ''Deportivo'' (Spanish, 'sporting') may refer to: * Deportivo de La Coruña, commonly known as simply Deportivo, a Spanish football club * Déportivo, a French rock band * Deportivo (Mexicable) Mexicable is an aerial lift line in Ecatepec de ...

Atlético Huila Atlético Huila is a professional Colombian association football, football team based in Neiva, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera B. The club was founded in 1990, making it one of the youngest professional football clubs in Colombia. ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Millonarios and Cortulua are the Colombian clubs where he played. He has also played for

Quilmes Quilmes () is a city on the coast of the Rio de la Plata, in the , on the southeast end of the Greater Buenos Aires, being some away from the urban centre area of Buenos Aires. The city was founded in 1666 and is the seat of the eponymous '' ...

, of

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 ...

. He was transferred to

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premiership, the first tier of South African football league syste ...

, of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

in 2005. In 2007 after the Copa America, he transferred to

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

, a top Colombian club, alongside Venezuelan international Jorge Rojas. He left América and returned to

Estudiantes de Mérida Estudiantes (in English: ''students'') is the name of different sports clubs in the Spanish-speaking world: Argentina * Estudiantes de La Plata, sports club based in La Plata, Buenos Aires Province * Estudiantes de Buenos Aires, football club based ...

on August 29, 2008.

International

As of November 2007, Dudamel has 56 caps and one goal for 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 ...

. He was capped for the first time in 1993. He scored a direct free kick in the

World Cup 1998 The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

qualifier against Argentina.

International goal

, - , 1. , , October 9, 1996 , , Pueblo Nuevo, San Cristóbal, Venezuela , , , , 2–4 , , 2–5 , ,

1998 FIFA World Cup qualification The 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification competition was a series of tournaments organised by the six FIFA FIFA#Structure, confederations. Each confederation — the Asian Football Confederation, AFC (Asia), Confederation of African Football, CAF (Afr ...

, ,

Managerial career

On 18 October 2017 Dudamel is appointed manager of Venezuela's national football team. On 5 June 2016 Dudamel gets his first win in an official tournament as national coach with a 1–0 victory over Jamaica in the 2016 Copa America. In his next match at the tournament, he upsets Uruguay 1–0. The winner was scored by Salomon Rondón, who tapped in after a long range attempt by Alejandro Guerra was saved. In the final group match, he drew against Mexico 1-1. In the knockout stages, Venezuela lost immediately, 4–1 to Argentina. At the 2017 FIFA Under-20 World Cup, Dudamel led the U20s to the final, where they lost to England 1–0 in the final. It was the nation's best ever performance at U20 competition. On 2 January 2020, he resigned from the Venezuela national team, and four days later signed a two-year contract with Brazilian club

Atlético Mineiro Atlético, Spanish for ''athletics'', or Athletico in English, may refer to: Sports Teams Athletico *Athletico SC (Lebanon), a Lebanese football academy *Athletic Bilbao, or Atletico Bilbao, Basque students athletic club (also forming Athletic Cl ...

. On 27 February 2020, he was sacked by Atlético, following eliminations from the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

and the

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil () is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and it is the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de Portugal, ...

. He spent time at

Universidad de Chile The University of Chile () is a public research university in Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the co ...

between 2020 and 2021, and in September 2021 he was appointed as manager of

, becoming Colombian champion at the end of the season.

Managerial statistics

* Official FIFA matches only.

Honors

Player

Universidad de Los Andes *

Primera División Venezolana Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Ely Rafael Primera Ros ...

: 1990–91 Santa Fe *

Copa Conmebol The Copa CONMEBOL () was an annual football cup competition organized by CONMEBOL between 1992 and 1999 for South American football clubs. During its time of existence, it was a very prestigious South American club football contest, similar to the ...

runner-up: 1996 Atlético Zulia *

: 1997–98 Deportivo Cali *

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 ...

: 1998 *

Copa Merconorte The Copa Merconorte () was an international football competition organized by CONMEBOL from 1998 to 2001 by clubs from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela and starting in 2000 clubs from the CONCACAF confederation were invited includin ...

runner-up: 1998 *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

runner-up: 1999 Millonarios *

: 2001 Mamelodi Sundowns *

Premier Soccer League The Premier Soccer League (PSL) is the administrative body for professional soccer leagues and cups in South Africa. It is based in Johannesburg, and was founded in 1996 following an agreement between the National Soccer League and the remnant ...

: 2005–06

Coach

Venezuela *

Kirin Cup The is an association football tournament organised in Japan by the Kirin Brewery Company. The host, Japan national football team, Japan, is a participant in every edition. The tournament was founded in 1978 then known as Japan Cup (Internatio ...

: 2019 Venezuela U-20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

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 ...

South American Youth Football Championship The South American Youth Football Championship, also known as South American U-20 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 20, is a South American football tournament organized by the CONMEBOL for South American national teams of men under age o ...

third place:

Venezuela U-17 *

South American Under-17 Football Championship The South American U-17 Championship (; ), branded as CONMEBOL Sub 17, is a football competition held every two years for South American under-17 teams. The tournament was born in 1985 out of a need for a classification tournament for the newly cre ...

runner-up:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Deportivo Cali *

: 2021–II Atlético Bucaramanga *

: 2024–I

References

External links

* *
International statistics
at

rsssf The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

*
Colombia.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dudamel, Rafael 1973 births Living people Venezuelan men's footballers Venezuela men's international footballers People from San Felipe, Venezuela Sportspeople from Yaracuy 1991 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players 1995 Copa América players 1997 Copa América players 2001 Copa América players Copa América Centenario managers 2019 Copa América managers Men's association football goalkeepers Atlético Huila footballers Independiente Santa Fe footballers Zulia F.C. players Quilmes Atlético Club footballers Deportivo Cali footballers Millonarios F.C. players Unión Atlético Maracaibo players Cortuluá footballers Deportivo Táchira F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Estudiantes de Mérida F.C. players América de Cali footballers Real Esppor Club players Venezuelan Primera División players Categoría Primera A players Primera Nacional players South African Premier Division players Venezuelan expatriate men's footballers Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in South Africa Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Expatriate men's soccer players in South Africa Venezuelan football managers Venezuelan expatriate football managers Estudiantes de Mérida managers Asociación Civil Deportivo Lara managers Venezuela national football team managers Clube Atlético Mineiro managers Club Universidad de Chile managers Deportivo Cali managers Club Necaxa managers Atlético Bucaramanga managers Deportivo Pereira managers Venezuelan Primera División managers Campeonato Brasileiro Série A managers Chilean Primera División managers Categoría Primera A managers Liga MX managers Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Chile Venezuelan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate football managers in Brazil Expatriate football managers in Chile Expatriate football managers in Colombia Expatriate football managers in Mexico