Jose Izquierdo

Jose Izquierdo is a Colombian professional footballer. He was born on 7 July 1992 in Pereira, Colombia. He plays for the Premier League club Brighton & Hove Albion and the Colombia national football team.

His primary position is left winger.

Background

Jose was fond of football from a very young age. His parents wished that he became a tennis player but his tennis coach spotted that football was his natural game and he would be better if he switched his sport.

He was a goalkeeper previously, but then started playing as a winger later.

He had stopped playing football after his brother’s demise in an accident and returned to play after a gap of few years. He joined Deportivo Pereira.

Debut

Izquierdo made his international debut on 7 June 2017 against Spain in Murcia. He played only for the last 2 minutes. The match ended in a 2-2 draw.

He scored his first international goal on 13 June 2017 against Cameroon in only his second game. Colombia won 4-0 as Jose scored the fourth goal.

He has made 4 appearances for his country and has a lone goal to his name.

Club career

He started his club career with Deportivo Izquierdo in 2010. He played with them upto 2013 and made 69 appearances. He has scored 4 goals for them.

In 2013, he moved to Once Caldas. He made 40 appearances for them and scored 12 goals. He had only one season with them before moving out to Club Brugge. This is his most successful club stint so far. He has 34 goals to his name in 84 appearances so far. He won the Belgian Golden Shoe award in 2016. A lot of Brugge’s success was credited to Jose.

He moved to Brighton & Hove Albion in 2017 and he is currently playing for them. He has 5 goals in 28 appearances so far.

Records

He has won the Belgian Cup 2014-15, Belgian First Division 2015-16 and Belgian Super Cup 2016 with Club Brugge.

His individual records include the Belgian Golden Shoe in 2016.