Jaime Valdés

Beginnings and move to Italy

Valdés started his career at Santiago-based Palestino. In December 1999, he was signed by then Italian Serie A side Bari along with countryman Pascual de Gregorio. He made his Serie A debut in the next season, on 15 October 2000. He replaced Rachid Neqrouz in the 84th minute when the team was a goal down to Juventus. The matched ended in 2–0. Valdés followed the team down to Serie B after the club's June 2001 relegation and became a first-team regular in the team, replacing Antonio Cassano. In August 2004, he was signed by Serie A side ACF Fiorentina in a co-ownership deal. As part of the deal, Massimiliano Scaglia moved in the opposite direction, also in a co-ownership deal. Valdés played his first league game for La Viola on 19 December 2004, a 2–0 victory over Chievo. He replaced Javier Portillo in the 76th minute, six minutes after Portillo scored the 2nd goal. He only played 5 Serie A matches for Fiorentina in the first half of the season.

Spells at Lecce and Atalanta

In January 2005, Valeri Bojinov was transferred to ACF Fiorentina from Lecce and Fiorentina sold its 50% registration rights to Lecce as part of the deal. Lecce then bought the remain 50% rights from Bari in June 2005. He followed Lecce relegated to Serie B in June 2006. He was a regular starter in 2006–07 season, but in 2007-08 just made 14 starts in 36 Serie B appearances. After Lecce won promotion back to Serie A, he left for fellow Serie A team Atalanta…

Valdés capped for Chile under-20 team at 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. He made his senior debut in the same year, on 24 April 2001 against Uruguay. He replaced Ítalo Díaz in the 57th minute. In the same year, he made an appearance for Chile B in the friendly match against Catalonia on 28 December. He was included in Chile's 30-men provisional 2010 FIFA World Cup squad, but later dropped after he played the warm-up match against Mexico on 16 May 2010. Valdés and Roberto Cereceda were substituted at half time by Jean Beausejour and Gonzalo Jara. He also capped once in 2006, a match that Chile against 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifier Ivory Coast on 30 May 2006. He was replaced by Jorge Francisco Vargas in the 60th minute. He was also called up to the senior Chile squad for a friendly against the United States in January 2015.

Club

Colo-Colo Torneo Clausura: 2014–C, 2015–A, Transición 2017 Copa Chile: 2016 Supercopa de Chile (2): 2017, 2018 Individual Chilean Footballer of the Year: 2014, 2017