Iván Valenciano

Valenciano was born in Barranquilla. He debuted as a professional player in the Junior from Barranquilla, on 23 October 1988 in a match against Independiente Santa Fe played in Bogotá, in which he scored a goal. Since then, there would be the beginning of a long history of goals that covered two decades – he was the top goal scorer for Junior six times. In 1991, only being 19 years old, he scored 30 goals, winning his first Golden Boot award.

He participated in the Italian Serie A in 1992, playing for Atalanta, where he was unable to score a goal, though he was assigned a goal erroneously. Due to his underperformance, he returned to Barranquilla in the middle of the following year.

In 1993, playing for Junior, he won his first title and was the team's top scorer with 18 goals. He then won his second Golden Boot award in 94–95 season, in which Junior won its fourth domestic title, scoring 24 goals in 30 matches. In the season 95–96, he scored 36 goals, breaking his own record and winning another Golden Boot award, the last of the three he won during his football career in Colombia.

Valenciano was signed for Mexican club Tiburones Rojos de Veracruz. In the 1996–97 season, he made his debut in a match against Potros de Hierro from Atlante, to which he scored a goal on his debut. He then had an injury to his knee during a match against Panzas Verdes from León, leaving him out of the field for about 2 or 3 months. Given the relegation of his team, he was signed by Monarcas Morelia for which he played from 1997 to 1999. He then returned to Colombia.

In Colombia, besides Junior, he played for Deportivo Unicosta, Independiente Medellín, Atlético Bucaramanga, Deportivo Cali, Millonarios, Unión Magdalena, Deportes Quindío and Alianza Petrolera.

On 11 July 2009, a testimonial match was carried out for Iván René Valenciano in the Roberto Meléndez Stadium.[11] For the friendly match, many recognised football players were invited such as the Dutch player Edgar Davids, the Chilean Iván Zamorano, the Uruguayan Paolo Montero, the Argentinian Sergio Goycochea, and the Colombians Carlos Valderrama, Faustino Asprilla, Arnoldo Iguarán, Mauricio Serna, Víctor Hugo Aristizábal, among others. The match ended up with an 8–7 win for the foreign team and Valenciano scoring two goals.[12]

Scores and results list Colombia's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Valenciano goal.

List of international goals scored by Iván Valenciano[7][14]

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1	15 August 1993	Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, Barranquilla, Colombia	Argentina	1–0	2–1	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification
2	29 August 1993	Estadio Metropolitano Roberto Meléndez, Barranquilla, Colombia	Peru	1–0	4–0
3	28 January 1994	Estadio Agustín Tovar, Barinas, Venezuela	Venezuela	2–1	2–1	Friendly
4	6 February 1994	Prince Abdullah Al Faisal Stadium, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia	Saudi Arabia	1–0	1–1	Friendly
5	5 May 1994	Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, United States	El Salvador	3–0	3–0	1994 Miami Cup
6	30 November 1995	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, United States	Mexico	1–1	2–2	Friendly
7	6 March 1996	Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, United States	Honduras	1–1	2–1	Friendly
8				2–1
9	15 December 1996	Estadio Polideportivo de Pueblo Nuevo, San Cristóbal, Venezuela	Venezuela	2–0	2–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification
10	8 September 1999	Miami Orange Bowl, Miami, United States	Trinidad and Tobago	1–0	3–4	Friendly
11				2–3
12				3–3
13	4 June 2000	Estadio Nemesio Camacho, Bogotá, Colombia	Venezuela	3–0	3–0	2002 FIFA World Cup qualification