Santiago Arias

Santiago Arias Naranjo, popularly known as Santiago Arias is a Colombian professional football player who was born on 13 January 1992 in Medellin, Colombia.

Arias is a defender and plays mainly as a right back for the Eredivisie club PSV Eindhoven as well as Colombian national team.

Background

Arias started his footballing career by joining Bogotá based Colombian football club La Equidad at an early age. After spending a few years with the youth ranks of the club, he was promoted to the senior squad in 2009. There, he performed well enough to retain his place in the team and later turned himself into a regular player with the help of his splendid game.

In 2011, he moved to Portugal and joined Sporting CP. However, he played for club's B-team most of the time.

Debut

In mid 2013, Sporting confirmed Arias’ transfer to the Dutch club PSV and he made his league debut on 3 August 2013, coming on the field with the starting eleven in a 3-2 victory over ADO Den Haag.

After gaining experience of playing with the U-17 and U-20 squad of Colombia, he received his first international call-up for the 2014 World Cup qualifying matches replacing injured Camilo Zúñiga. Afterwards, he made his international debut against Paraguay and helped his to team win the match by 2-1.

Rise to glory

Arias rose to the glory after being a regular for PSV and becoming backbone of PSV’s defense. His defensive techniques also earned him a well deserved popularity amongst the fans.

His first goal came in a match against FC Twente that led his team to the 3-2 victory. He played almost every game in the 2013-14 Eredivisie, scoring a goal and providing 3 assists.

After appearing occasionally in the Europa League for PSV, he once again represented PSV in the 2014-15 Eredivisie and won the title eventually. In the 2016-17 season, he played 4 Champions League games netting the ball one time. In the same season, he also got a goal and 2 assists at Eredivisie.

Season 2017-18 was arguably the best season till date for Arias. In this season, he scored 3 goals as well as provided 6 assists at the significant occasions. Later, they also lifted the tournament trophy.

In the international football, Arias has represented his country in some big tournaments including 2014 FIFA World Cup and Copa America. With his presence in the team, Colombia also finished 2016 Copa America on third place.

Records

Apart from his defensive techniques, he often benefits his team by scoring goals. In the club football, he has played 230 games and got 11 goals as well as 28 assists. He played his most number of games for PSV Eindhoven, 171 of them. He has played 135 Eredivisie games which is the most by him in any tournaments

In the international football, he has played 38 games for his team.