Jean Beausejour

Early career

As a 10-year-old, Beausejour attended a public trial with the local senior club, Universidad de Chile, and was one of four boys chosen to go through further selection procedures to join the club's youth system. At 14, he was released. After a trial with city rivals Universidad Católica, he was accepted into their youth system where he continued his football development. He began his professional career at Universidad Católica. In 2002, he debuted after being loaned to Universidad de Concepción where he had an impressive season alongside Jorge Valdivia. In June 2004, he joined Swiss club Servette, reuniting with Valdivia to play in the UEFA Cup. He scored once from 11 appearances in the Swiss Super League before the club went bankrupt in February 2005 and it lost its licence to compete at that level. His goal, Servette's third in a 4–1 win away to Schaffhausen, proved costly to the player who supplied the cross, Paulo Diogo, who leapt onto the perimeter fence in celebration, caught his wedding ring in the metalwork, and when he jumped down, much of his finger was torn away along with the ring. The finger had to be amputated. In July 2005, Beausejour signed a short-term deal with Brazilian club Grêmio, where he helped the team to win the Série B title. He joined KAA Gent of Belgium on 31 January 2006 on an 18-month contract, but made no appearances and returned to Chile after a year where he signed for Cobreloa. In January 2008, Beausejour joined O'Higgins…

Beausejour has played for Chile at under-23 and senior levels. He was capped for Chile at the 2004 South American Pre-Olympic Tournament alongside players such as Jorge Valdivia, Mark González, Claudio Bravo and Rodrigo Millar. However, the team failed to qualify for the Athens Olympics, finishing bottom of the final stage after topping their first-stage group, which included Brazil and eventual qualifiers Paraguay. He made his senior debut in a friendly against Mexico in the United States on 18 February 2004, and made the assist for Reinaldo Navia's goal in a 1–1 draw. He played twice more that year, but did not appear again until 2008. His first international goal came on 10 June 2009 in a 4–0 defeat of Bolivia at the Estadio Nacional in a World Cup qualifier. Marcelo Bielsa named Beausejour in Chile's 23-man squad for the 2010 World Cup finals. He scored the only goal of their first group match against Honduras on 16 June, which was the first match that Chile had won at a World Cup since 1962. He played in all Chile's matches at the tournament until their elimination by Brazil in the round of 16. During the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification process, he and four teammates were dropped from the national team by coach Claudio Borghi before a match against Uruguay in 2011 because they returned to Chile's training camp late and intoxicated after attending the baptism of Valdivia's child. The Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional (ANFP) increased the suspension to ten…

Club

International

As of match played 17 November 2020

International goals Scores and results list Chile's tally first, score column indicates score after each Beausejour goal.

Beausejour was born in Santiago. His father, Jean Coty Beausejour, was an Afro-Haitian graduate student who went on to work for the United Nations, and his mother, Viviana Coliqueo Collipay, is a Chilean of Mapuche ethnicity whose father, Andres, had migrated to the city to find work. Beausejour's parents separated when he was very young, and he was raised by his mother and her parents; he regards his grandfather as his father-figure. The family lived in Villa Carmelitas, in the Estación Central commune of Santiago, where Beausejour was educated at Escuela Profesor Ramón del Río, Colegio Holanda and Liceo Guillermo Feliú Cruz. In 2010, the local council declared him an Hijo Ilustre, 'honoured son', of the community, and six years later a new sports centre was named after him. In the 2000s, he had a brief spell in the career of kinesiology at the University of the Americas, where he studied thanks to a scholarship. Nevertheless, he didn't finish that bachelor of Arts degree. Because of his dark skin, in 2004 the media nicknamed him "Palmatoria" after a black character from Barrabases (a football-themed children's comic); despite reports that he hated the name, he says it did not bother him, and that being black caused him fewer problems than did the indigenous Mapuche heritage with which he closely identifies. Beausejour is married to Karina Ugarte. As of January 2016, the couple had two children, Joaquín and Luciano. Joaquín has played football in the junior ranks of…