Víctor Hugo Mella González (born November 14, 1974), referred as Victor Mella, is a Chilean former

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 ...

er who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

, spending two seasons in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

, two in the Chilean leagues and three in Mexico.

Career

Mella was born 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 country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile. He began his career in both the

Cobresal Club de Deportes Cobresal, or simply Cobresal, is a Chilean football club based in El Salvador, Atacama, a Chilean mining camp, and participates in Campeonato Nacional. The team was founded on 5 May 1979, and the name of the club comes from the ...

and the

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

youth program. In 1995, he played for

Fernández Vial Fernández () is a Spanish patronymic surname meaning "son of Fernando" of Germanic origin. The Germanic name Ferdinand that it derives from ( Gothic: ''Frið-nanð'') means "brave traveler." The Portuguese version of this surname is Fernandes. ...

on loan from Colo-Colo. In February 1996, the San Jose Clash selected Mella in the ninth round of the

1996 MLS Inaugural Player Draft The MLS Inaugural Player Draft, held before Major League Soccer's initial 1996 season, distributed players to the league's ten inaugural teams. The Inaugural Player Draft occurred on February 6 and 7, 1996 after each team was allocated four marqu ...

. He played the team's first five games before being waived. On May 24, 1996, the

New England Revolution The New England Revolution are an American professional association football, soccer club based in the Greater Boston area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. It is on ...

claimed him off waivers.SHOOTOUT VICTORY FOR REVOLUTION
/ref> He played only three league games with the Revolution before being released. He returned to Chile where he spent the 1997 season playing for Colo-Colo and on loan for

Everton de Viña del Mar Everton de Viña del Mar is a Football in Chile, Chilean football club based in the city of Viña del Mar. The club was founded 24 June 1909 after a group of British Chilean, Anglo-Chilean teenagers formed a football club and named it after th ...

. On January 15, 1998, he signed again with the Clash. This time, he played 31 games, scoring 4 goals. He then moved to Mexico to play for Real Zacatecas and

Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave, is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entit ...

. After suffering a serious injury, he returned to Chile to play for

Magallanes Magallanes may refer to: * Ferdinand Magellan (1480–1521), Portuguese explorer who led part of the first expedition around the world * Strait of Magellan, the strait between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, located in Chile Places * Magallanes ...

. He finished his career with

Atlético Celaya The Club Atlético Celaya was a Mexican football club from Celaya, Guanajuato. The club was formed in 1994 when the two second-division clubs Atletico Cuernavaca (Morelos) and Escuadra Celeste de Celaya (Guanajuato) merged. Another team, Atléti ...

at the age of 28.

Post-retirement

Following his retirement, he made his home in

, Mexico, and worked as a coach for football academies.

References

External links

* * 1974 births Living people 20th-century Chilean sportsmen Chilean men's footballers Footballers from Santiago, Chile Men's association football forwards Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Major League Soccer players Ascenso MX players Colo-Colo footballers C.D. Arturo Fernández Vial footballers Everton de Viña del Mar footballers Deportes Magallanes footballers San Jose Earthquakes players New England Revolution players Real Sociedad de Zacatecas footballers Atlético Celaya footballers Santos Laguna footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Chilean football coaches {{Chile-footy-forward-stub