- Source: Arturo Sanhueza
Héctor Arturo Sanhueza Medel (born 11 March 1979), known as Arturo Sanhueza, is a Chilean former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He is currently the assistant coach in Deportes La Serena.
Club career
Born in Concepción, Bío-Bío Region, Sanhueza started his career at hometown club Fernández Vial before moving to Everton, where he would spend an entire season. After Vina del Mar team's relegation, he moved to crosstown rivals Santiago Wanderers, led by Jorge Garcés, where he helped to win the 2001 league title.
Following three seasons at Valparaíso-based team, in 2005, he signed for Chilean powerhouse Colo-Colo after rejecting an offer from Mexico's Atlante. As an anecdote, in 2005 he took part of the reality TV show Adidas Selection Team from Fox Sports Chile, where a squad made up by youth players from professional teams faced players from schools, standing out future professional footballers such as Felipe Seymour, Nelson Saavedra, Eduardo Vargas, among others. Nevertheless, with Claudio Borghi arrival to the bench, Sanhueza became an undisputed player in the Apertura and Clausura titles as well as in the Copa Sudamericana which Colo-Colo was runner-up.
In December 2006, he was heavily linked with Argentinian giants Boca Juniors which wanted to sign him for replace Fernando Gago, who left Boca for Real Madrid.
After another four seasons playing for Colo-Colo where he won four league titles as captain, in December 2010 he wasn't considered by coach Diego Cagna and the club held a farewell for him during a press conference.
In 2011 Sanhueza moved to Deportes Iquique, freshly promoted to the top division after failing to join Chinese Super League side Changchun Yatai F.C., being only 20 days in this country. Following a season and half, in June 2012 he signed for Universidad de Concepción. However, after only six months playing, in December he announced his retirement from football.
On 8 January 2013, Sanhueza reversed his decision to retire and joined Primera B club Deportes Temuco. Three years later he, as captain, achieved the 2015–16 second-tier title and thereby the promotion to Primera División. Nevertheless he left Temuco and joined Cobreloa, Chilean powerhouse team which lost the category in 2015 and failed to achieve the promotion to first-tier.
At the end of 2022 season, he retired from the football activity as a professional player after a twenty-five-year career.
Post-retirement
In April 2023, Sanhueza joined amateur club Colo Colito from Concepción, at the same time he performs as a football commentator at radio level.
In 2024, he joined the technical staff of Erwin Durán in Deportes La Serena as assistant coach.
Honours
Santiago Wanderers
Primera División: 2001
Colo-Colo
Primera División (6): 2006-A, 2006-C, 2007-A, 2007-C, 2008-C, 2009-C
Copa Sudamericana: Runner–up 2006
Deportes Temuco
Primera B: 2015–16
Individual
Campeonato Nacional Team of the Season (3): 2006, 2007, 2008
References
External links
Arturo Sanhueza at Soccerway
Arturo Sanhueza at BDFA (in Spanish)
Arturo Sanhueza at Football-Lineups
Arturo Sanhueza at MemoriaWanderers.cl (in Spanish)