Full name Joaquin Botero Vaca 1998 Deportivo Municipal 1997 Mariscal Braun Height 1.71 m | Years Team Role Football player Place of birth La Paz, Bolivia Name Joaquin Botero | |
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Date of birth (1977-12-10) December 10, 1977 (age 38) Similar People Jose Alfredo Castillo, Luis Gatty Ribeiro, Alex da Rosa, Limberg Gutierrez, Joselito Vaca | ||
Joaquín Botero Vaca (born December 10, 1977 in La Paz) is a retired Bolivian football striker.
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He is the all-time record Bolivia national team's goalscorer and was the top goalscorer in world football in the 2002 season, with 49 goals scored for Club Bolívar.
Club career
After scoring 133 goals for Bolívar and becoming the club's 2nd highest goalscorer of all time, he left the club to play abroad.
Botero's first foreign club was the Mexican side Pumas. In his first season with Pumas, the 2003 Apertura, he scored 3 goals in 17 games. After scoring another 3 in 9 games in the 2004 Clausura, Botero broke out in the 2004 Apertura, registering 11 goals in 19 games.
In 2006, he joined San Lorenzo de Almagro of the Primera División de Argentina and in 2007 he played for Deportivo Táchira of Venezuela. After an unsuccessful stint in both clubs, Botero returned to Bolívar as a free agent in 2008.
He joined Correcaminos UAT for the Clausura 2009 season, marking his return to Mexico.
In January 2010, he was loaned out to Al Arabi Kuwait for $170,000 .
On 14 January 2011, Botero made official a move to club San José, thus returning to play in his country.
International career
Since 1999, Botero was a regular player for the Bolivia national team including participations in the 1999 FIFA Confederations Cup, Copa América 2001 and Copa América 2004. On April 1, 2009 Botero scored a hat-trick for Bolivia in a historic 6–1 victory over Argentina in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier game, Argentina's first loss under new manager, Maradona. On May 15, 2009, he surprisingly announced the end of his era with the national team, putting as an excuse that motivation was not there any more. In his ten years playing for Bolivia, Botero earned a total of 48 caps and scored 20 goals, becoming the highest scorer in the national team's history. He represented his country in 30 FIFA World Cup qualification matches, scoring 16 goals.