Joel Soto

Santiago Wanderers

His childhood was spent in the Cerro Toro of Valparaíso then was enrolled in Santiago Wanderers at an early age. His debut as a professional was on the 1998 season. During the 1998 season, Santiago Wanderers had a team with many talented players but at that same season his team dropped to the second division of Chilean football. During the 1999 season, like the previous season, he did not have the chance to play since the time the team had a particularly good goal scoring figure in Reinaldo Navia. The following year and back in the first division he began to consider several offers for different teams and began to assert himself. He also played for the B-team in the 2000 Tercera División alongside fellows such as Mauricio Neveu, Jorge Ormeño and Mauricio Rojas. In 2001, the Santiago Wanderers made several changes and Joel became stronger in front of the post holder and with much more experience, he started to become a figure alongside other players like Jaime Riveros, Moisés Villarroel and Silvio Fernandez. During this season he was called to be in part of the roster for the national team sub-20 to compete in the under-20 World Cup but the bitter fact was that he and along with other teammates, was involved in an act of indiscretion, which led to his demotion to be trained with a lesser team. Once he came back with the Santiago Wanderers, he became one of the leader scores which resulted in a world championship place for his team, the first one for…

He represented Chile at under-20 level in the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship and was the team captain of Chile U23 in the 2004 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament. At senior level, he made 5 appearances for Chile in friendly matches.

He is nicknamed Huevo (Egg). He is the uncle of the former professional footballer José Soto, who also played for Santiago Wanderers. In January 2022, he was arrested for drug trafficking in Valparaíso.

Santiago Wanderers

Primera División de Chile: 2001 Individual

Primera B top scorer: 2008