Rodrigo Millar

Rodrigo Javier Millar Carvajal (born 3 November 1981) is a Chilean former footballer who played as a midfielder. He played for Chile in the 2010 FIFA World Cup. He also holds Mexican citizenship.[2]

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Millar and the second or maternal family name is Carvajal.
Rodrigo Millar
Personal information
Full name Rodrigo Javier Millar Carvajal
Date of birth (1981-11-03) 3 November 1981[1]
Place of birth Arauco, Chile
Height 1.83 m (6 ft 0 in)[1]
Position(s) Midfielder
Youth career
1994–1998 Huachipato
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1999–2006 Huachipato 190 (56)
2007–2012 Colo-Colo 164 (23)
2008 → Once Caldas (loan) 10 (3)
2013–2015 Atlas 77 (12)
2015–2018 → Morelia (loan) 80 (4)
2018–2020 Morelia 57 (2)
2020–2021 Mazatlán 14 (0)
2021 Coquimbo Unido 5 (0)
Total 597 (100)
International career
2001 Chile U20 2 (1)
2002–2016 Chile 37 (3)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Club career

Huachipato

Millar started his career at Huachipato in 1999. He made his Chilean Primera División debut, aged 20, against Santiago Wanderers on 30 April 2000. Millar scored his first goal for Huachipato against Rangers de Talca in a 1–1 draw. In the 2003 season, Millar scored 12 goals in 32 games and caught the eye of several European teams.

On 6 March 2004, it was reported that Millar was invited to train with the German side Hertha BSC. After training with the club, it was revealed that they wanted to sign him due to his good performances for Huachipato and his nomination for the 2004 Copa América in Peru. However, his move to Germany failed to materialise and he remained with Huachipato where his performance improved considerably, scoring 14 goals in 39 games.

In July 2006, after a very good Torneo de Apertura, Millar was nearly transferred to CD Tenerife and was also linked with FC Terek Grozny, but later rejected the offer for personal reasons. Millar then had a poor Torneo de Clausura performance because of a series of injuries, scoring only 3 goals in 8 games.

Colo-Colo

On 14 December 2006, it was reported that Millar had come to an agreement with Colo-Colo. He signed a three-year deal, which was officially announced on 16 December. He joined the club in February 2007, but suffered a training injury that prevented him from playing for three months.

Once he recovered, he made his debut on 20 March 2007 against the Venezuelan side Caracas FC at the Copa Libertadores and scored his club's first goal in a 4–0 win over LDU Quito. In his league debut against O'Higgins, he scored twice, and was voted man of the match.

After a good start to the season, his form declined due to off field problems, and he ended up being relegated to the substitutes bench. At the end of the season, Millar was nearly transferred to the Israeli club Ashdod, but the transfer fell through. He attempted to return to Chile, but was shunned by Colo-Colo's coach Claudio Borghi and shortly after loaned to Once Caldas.

After his loan with Once Caldas had finished, he returned to Colo-Colo in June 2008, despite Fernando Astengo not planning on featuring him in the team,. Millar made his first start against Universidad de Chile in a Copa Gato match that ended in a 2–1 victory at Tierra de Campeones Stadium in Iquique. Despite several starts, he found it difficult to break into the first team, with Astengo preferring to use him as a substitute.. With the arrival of Marcelo Barticciotto as coach, he was given a more permanent position in the first team, providing consistently good performances as a result. On 8 November 2008, Millar scored his first goal in the Barticciotto era against Cobresal in a 1–1 home draw. In the Championship playoffs second leg final, Millar was proclaimed a champion for third time in his career, after he scored the goal of the championship in the 3–1 victory against Palestino, by eluding the goalkeeper Felipe Núñez and playing masterfully.[3]

On 14 February 2009, Millar scored his first goal of the season in an Apertura tournament match that ended in a 2–0 victory over Universidad de Concepción at Estadio Monumental, where he scored the first goal of the game. On 22 April, he scored a goal in a Copa Libertadores match that ended in a 2–1 loss against Sport Recife in Brazil. He also scored the first goal at Colo-Colo's 5–2 win over Cobresal. At the end of season, Millar become the first footballer to contract swine flu on 16 June.[4] He made a full recovery for the start of the Torneo Clausura.

During the 2010 season he performed consistently well with Colo-Colo, and was selected for Chile's FIFA World Cup 2010 team and voted the Chilean Footballer of the Year in the Anfp awards. His club lost the championship, finishing three points behindUniversidad Católica. Millar was approached by Toluca who were impressed by his consistently good performances. However he never moved to Mexico and remained in Chile.

In the 2011 season Millar was promoted to captain, due to the departure of Arturo Sanhueza to Deportes Iquique, but was stripped of the captaincy because of the departure of coach Diego Cagna and the arrival of Américo Gallego.

Atlas

In 2013, he was signed by Club Atlas, he debuted with Atlas in the 0–1 away defeat vs Tigres UANL. He scored his first goal in a 2–1 home victory over Club América. Prior to the start of the 2014 Torneo Apertura, Millar was announced as the new captain of Atlas. In December 2014, he renewed his contract for two years.

Coquimbo Unido

In September 2021, he returned to Chile after being released from Mazatlán[5] and joined Coquimbo Unido in the Primera B de Chile.[6]

Retirement

He retired at the end of the 2021 season.[7]

International career

His performances for Colo-Colo earned Millar a place in the national team in September 2009 for a friendly match against Honduras. He went on to be a part of Chile's squad for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, where he scored Chile's goal in the 1–2 defeat to Spain in the first round. Millar was named in the 2011 Copa América squad but did not play. Jorge Sampaoli named him in the 30-man provisional squad for the 2014 FIFA World Cup.[8] After not being included in the 23-man World Cup squad, Millar returned to play for Chile in friendlies against Mexico and Haiti. During a friendly against Venezuela, Millar scored his first international goal in 4 years in an eventual 5–0 victory.

He was named in the preliminary squad for the 2015 Copa America but was omitted from the final squad.[9]

International goals
DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
5 September 2009Estadio Monumental David Arellano, Santiago, Chile Venezuela2–22–22010 FIFA World Cup qualification
25 June 2010Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, South Africa Spain1–21–22010 FIFA World Cup
14 November 2014Estadio CAP, Talcahuano, Chile Venezuela4–05–0Friendly

Honours

Club
Colo-Colo
Coquimbo Unido

Individual

References
  1. Rodrigo Millar Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine at footballvs.org. Retrieved on 7 December 2015.
  2. "Especial: Crece el número de naturalizados en la Liga MX | Futbol Mexicano | TelevisaDeportes.com". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2015.
  3. "Colo Colo claim Chile's Clausura". Espnstar.com. 21 December 2008. Archived from the original on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  4. "Millar contracts swine flu". Espnstar.com. 16 June 2009. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 26 February 2011.
  5. "Rodrigo Millar encabeza la 'limpia' de Mazatlán FC". Esto. 27 May 2021. Retrieved 19 June 2021.
  6. Retamal, Pablo (2 September 2021). "Rodrigo Millar regresa a Chile para defender a Coquimbo Unido". La Tercera (in Spanish). Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  7. "Futbolistas participaron de la quinta entrega del Fondo de Retiro". sifup.cl (in Spanish). 7 December 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  8. "Sampaoli sorprende convocando a Rodrigo Millar a la selección". Emol.com. 28 April 2014. Retrieved 5 October 2022.
  9. "Sampaoli confirms final Chile squad for Copa America". goal.com. 1 June 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2015.
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