Humberto Andrés Suazo Pontivo (Spanish pronunciation: [umˈbeɾto ˈswaso]; born 10 May 1981), nicknamed Chupete (Lollipop) or El hombre venido del planeta gol (The man who came from "Planet Goal"), is a Chilean football manager and former footballer who played as a striker. He is the head coach San Luis de Quillota.
Widely regarded as one of the finest Chilean footballers of his generation, Suazo was noted for his prolific goalscoring record, intelligent movement, and clinical finishing ability with both feet. He achieved considerable success at club level, most notably with Colo-Colo in Chile and Monterrey in Mexico.
Across two spells with Colo-Colo, he won four league titles and finished as the top scorer of the 2006 Copa Sudamericana, a performance that earned him the IFFHS World's Best International Goal Scorer award that same year. At Monterrey, Suazo established himself as one of Mexican football's leading forwards and became the club's all-time leading scorer, a record that was later surpassed. During his time with Monterrey, he won two league championships and three CONCACAF Champions League titles, cementing his status as one of the most influential players in the club's history.
At the international level, Suazo earned 60 caps and scored 21 goals. He represented Chile at the Copa América in 2007 and 2011, as well as at the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
At six years old, Suazo's father took him to play with Club Torino in his hometown of San Antonio. His father had made a name for himself playing with the same team.
In December 1995, Suazo tried out for Universidad Católica. In March of the following year, he was part of the club's youth system. However, Suazo's time spent there was troubled. He did not like to practice and at any given chance he would leave the facilities and return to San Antonio. Suazo later admitted he wasted the opportunity the club gave him.
In 2000, Universidad Católica loaned Suazo out to Chilean second division, Ñublense. His professional debut came against Magallanes, the club he would later play for, and he scored his first goal. At the end of the year, he fractured his fibula and was sidelined for seven months. The injury also kept him out of the 2001 FIFA World Youth Championship. In 2000, he won the Milk Cup, an international youth football tournament held annually in Northern Ireland.
At the end of 2001, no longer part of Universidad Católica, Suazo played for Magallanes. He would go on to join his hometown club San Antonio Unido in 2002. In 2003, Suazo turned heads with his new club San Luis Quillota of the Chilean third division, when he scored 40 goals in one season.
The next two seasons Suazo would spend with Audax Italiano. In early 2004, Suazo suffered another major injury which kept him out for a significant amount of time. With Audax, Suazo scored 40 goals before being transferred to Colo-Colo.
Suazo began his career with Colo-Colo just in time for the Copa Libertadores 2006. Even though Colo-Colo exited the tournament early, Suazo showed his ability by scoring a hat-trick against Chivas.
In the 2006 Apertura tournament in Chile, Suazo led all scorers with 14 goals in 33 games on the way to capturing Colo-Colo's 24th national championship.
Colo-Colo, with the help of Suazo's tournament-leading 10 goals in 12 games, reached the finals of Copa Sudamericana 2006. On the way to the finals, he netted a hat-trick against Gimnasia LP. Suazo dazzled fans and scouts alike throughout the tournament, which raised questions about him staying with the team in 2007. Teams such as Santos Laguna of Mexico and Catania of Italy were both rumored to be interested in the player. However, Colo-Colo put those rumors to rest when they bought the rest of Suazo's ownership from his former club, Audax, on 15 December 2006, for one million US dollars. Ten percent of that fee ($100,000) went to Suazo's pocket. The move also assured his services to the club until June 2007.
In the 2006 Clausura tournament final, Colo-Colo played again against Suazo's former team, Audax. Colo-Colo won the first leg 3–0, with Suazo scoring his thirteenth goal of the season, and the second leg 3–2, with Suazo scoring the first two goals .
In the 2007 Apertura tournament, Suazo finished as the leading goal scorer, also scoring in the final match against Palestino. His lone goal, coming in the 79th minute, gave Colo-Colo their 26th tournament win, cementing his place in Colo-Colo history.
After months of speculation over where Suazo would end up after his contract expired in June, Suazo was finally sold for $5 million to Mexican club, Monterrey. The fee paid by the Mexican team is one of the highest for a Chilean player coming out of Chile.
Suazo's performance during his first tournament wasn't what was expected (only three goals in twelve games) and combined with conflicts with teammates and coaches. It led to speculations that Suazo had been sold to Argentine club Independiente. However, the deal fell through once the Argentine club refused to pay $8 million for the transfer. On 4 January, Humberto called for a press conference, and in front of television cameras and news media, he acknowledged the fact that his performance and attitude wasn't positive during his first 6 months with the club, but that from now on, he was determined to change things. He was going to take responsibility for his actions and commit himself to work hard to achieve better results.
On 6 April, Suazo scored four goals against Veracruz, in his team's 7–2 victory. This feat is the most a player from Monterrey has achieved in one game (tied with Milton Carlos). In his second season at Monterrey, he ended up as top goalscorer of the Mexican tournament
with a total of 13 goals in 17 games. Suazo then scored three more goals in the playoffs, one in the quarter-final first leg against