Luis Antonio Jiménez

Early career

Born in Santiago, Chile, Jiménez played youth football for Palestino in Chile, a club mostly made up of players of Palestinian descent. He gained Palestinian citizenship in June 2013. He started his Italian footballing career in 2002 at Ternana. During the January 2006 transfer window, Jimenez moved to Serie A side Fiorentina while remaining under joint ownership with his former club, for €3 million. For Fiorentina, he generally played as a right sided winger, striker or occasionally a centre forward. His right foot is his strongest but he can also make good use of his left. He made 19 appearances during the 2005–06 season for Fiorentina, scoring 3 goals in the process. In late June 2006, Ternana purchased back half of the rights to Jiménez from Fiorentina for €3 million. Since Ternana were to play in the Italian Serie C1 in the 2006–07 season, it was highly unlikely that Jimenez would remain with them. However, although a loan deal was reached with Serie A Lazio, with an option to make the deal permanent at the end of the loan, Ternana changed the terms and made extortionate demands, which included Lazio paying the salaries of four of Ternana's players. The deal fell through and Jiménez remained at Ternana. The unhappy player stated that he would not play for Ternana again and asked FIFA to intervene and annul his contract with Ternana because of their unfair treatment.

Lazio

On 15 January 2007, Lazio finally agreed a move for Jiménez with the…

Jiménez represented Chile U17 at the 2001 South American U-17 Championship and Chile U20 at the 2003 South American U-20 Championship. At senior level, he made his international debut on 28 April 2004, in a match against Peru. On 4 June 2005, Jiménez assisted Marcelo Salas' historic 35th goal for the national team, which made Salas Chile's top scorer ever. The goal came in a qualifying match against Bolivia which Chile went on to win 3–1. Four days later, he scored twice against Venezuela in another qualification match. Jiménez became captain of Chile during 2006 and also won the 2005–06 Chile Player of the Year award. However, he saw little national team action under the direction of Marcelo Bielsa. On 19 June 2011, he returned in an international friendly against Estonia and was subsequently included by Claudio Borghi in the squad for the 2011 Copa America. However, he didn't receive any further international call-ups during his time at Al Ahli. In March 2021, after a ten-year absence, he was recalled by Martín Lasarte for a friendly match against Bolivia, in which he scored his third international goal. At 36 years and 282 days of age, Jiménez became Chile's oldest goalscorer.

Scores and results list Chile's goal tally first.

Jiménez married Chilean model María José "Coté" López in 2006. They have triplets (all girls: Rebeca, Isidora and Rafaela, born on 15 June 2010, ) and a son, Jesús, born 30 April 2016. In addition, Jiménez has a son, Diego, who was born before his marriage to María José. In December 2008, Jiménez assaulted Mauricio Pinilla in a Santiago nightclub. His daughter Isidora is a young football player in the Magallanes youth ranks and has been called up to train with the Chile youth squad. The Jiménez family has a close friendship with fellow footballer Carlos Villanueva's family. In addition to the fact that Jiménez played with Villanueva at Al-Ittihad, Jiménez and his wife are the godparents of the Villanueva's son and Villanueva and his wife are the godparents of the Jiménez's children. In May 2025, Jiménez entered the Chilean reality show Mundos Opuestos 3 (Opposite Worlds).