Nelson Antonio Haedo Valdez (born 28 November 1983) commonly known as Nelson Valdez or Nelson Haedo in Spanish speaking countries, is a Paraguayan professional football coach and a former player who played as a striker for clubs in Paraguay, Germany, Spain, Russia, the United Arab Emirates, Greece, the US and for the Paraguay national team between 2000 and 2021. He is the current head coach of Club Libertad.
Valdez started his career with Atlético Tembetary, progressing through their youth system to the first-team squad where he made his debut at the age of 16 in Paraguayan División Intermedia in 2000. He finished his career with the club having scored 11 goals in 22 league appearances. In 2001, he was scouted to Germany's Werder Bremen II, where he scored 15 goals in 30 Regionalliga Nord appearances in his second season before joining the club's first-team. In 2003, Valdez was selected for the Paraguay under-20 national team where he scored one goal in four appearances at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. In his second season with Werder Bremen, he claimed the 2003–04 Bundesliga and 2003–04 DFB-Pokal, having scored five goals in 21 league appearances that season. Valdez debuted in the 2004–05 UEFA Champions League on 14 September 2004 and scored his first two Champions League goals in a 2–0 victory against Valencia in December. During his years at Werder Bremen, Valdez had his appearances limited due to competition from teammates Aílton, Angelos Charisteas and both Miroslav Klose and Ivan Klasnić, who were the Bundesliga's top striking duo at the time.
Valdez left Werder Bremen in August 2006 to join fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund for a fee of €4.7 million on a four-year contract, where he was given the number 9 shirt. Within those four years, he scored 16 goals in 113 Bundesliga appearances and helped Dortmund qualify for the 2010–11 UEFA Europa League. After an impressive performance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup with Paraguay, Valdez joined La Liga side Hércules for €3.5 million on a three-year contract, where he partnered with French striker David Trezeguet. He became the most expensive signing in the club's history and scored a double on his debut in a 2–0 win at the Camp Nou against Barcelona on 11 September. After eight goals in 25 league appearances in the 2010–11 La Liga season, Hércules were relegated to the Segunda División and Valdez was then transferred to Russian Premier League side Rubin Kazan for €4 million. Valdez was later loaned out to Valencia and went on to enjoy stints with Al Jazira and Olympiacos. In July 2014, Valdez returned to the Bundesliga and signed with Eintracht Frankfurt, being reunited with former Werder Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf. Valdez played from 2015 to 2016 with American club Seattle Sounders FC in Major League Soccer, scoring in the playoffs and winning the MLS Cup in his final season.
Valdez has represented Paraguay at the 2006 and 2010 FIFA World Cup tournaments, he also participated at the 2004, 2011 and 2015 Copa América tournaments; in 2011 Paraguay finished runners-up. Valdez has made over 70 national team appearances and scored 13 goals, with one of his goals coming in a 1–0 historic victory against rivals Argentina on 9 September 2009 which secured Paraguay's qualification to the 2010 World Cup and the result being Paraguay's second official victory against Argentina.
Growing up, Valdez dreamed of playing for the Albirroja. Valdez and his family lived in poverty in the deprived district of San Joaquín, one of the poorest parts of Paraguay. Valdez confessed that he had an "excellent childhood" and had the joy of being from a loving family. Not owning a football, his skills were developed by playing with an orange or a pair of socks as his family, which included six siblings, could not afford to buy a ball for him. He first began to play club football when he joined local club 1º de Mayo of the San Joaquín district. Before leaving home, Valdez was to convince his mother to let him play football. His father took his side and Valdez eventually managed to go to Asunción to pursue his dream. Valdez stated that before he left to Asunción to join Atlético Tembetary, he endured depression after the death of his 13 year old cousin who was like a brother, and began consuming cane liquor, a whiskey which was 50 cents per liter, and confessing that he was once almost an alcoholic. "I played football during the day and in the evening was drunk". Later, Valdez' father Antonio spoke with him and looked him in the eyes and then he understood perfectly what he had to do.
Aged 15, Valdez left his home and family to move to Ypané when he joined the Youth Academy of Atlético Tembetary, and eventually made his first-team debut in the Paraguayan División Intermedia in 2000. The second division club were not able to pay him a salary large enough to earn a living and his family were not able to provide funding for him. Valdez confessed the difficulty he faced when leaving his impoverished family and his home to begin playing with the club, for two years he lived under the wooden plank grandstands of the stadium in a stairwell, using a makeshift bed of blankets and cardboard which laid in the stairwell beneath the stand. He never told his parents, who were poor land workers. Valdez stated, "For two years I lived under the grandstands, we were 12 or 13 people and some of them only endured two or three weeks." While living 250 kilometres away from his family, Valdez had no home while playing for Tembetary. He worked night shifts in a sawmill to pay for food and drink. He was a 16-year-old exposed to danger and the Paraguayan climate, boiling hot summers and freezing cold winters, which Valdez described as "hell, frightening and horrible. But if you have nothing, what can they steal? I had nothing to give". Jürgen Born, chairman of the board or management of German Bundesliga club Werder Bremen and who worked for Deutsche Bank in Latin America, stated that he saw a "madman who never stopped running", remembering youth games in Ypané. He bought Valdez a ticket to Germany and got on the phone to Werder Bremen. In December 2001, Valdez flew over to Germany for a trial. Valdez failed at first, not impressing in his trial but the club president's wife, who was a fellow Paraguayan, asked for Valdez to be given another trial. He scored four times in his first trial match and was offered a contract to join Werder Bremen II, the club's Regionalliga Nord team.
Upon joining Werder Bremen in December 2001, Valdez did not know a word of German and knew just enough Spanish due to being much more fluent in Guaraní. Valdez stated that his first months were very hard because of the cold weather and that he did not know how to order food properly. For the first few months, he did not eat anything except chicken and chips because he would see it through the glass at a restaurant.
Valdez played in Werder Bremen's youth teams before quickly winning space in the first-team. In his first season in the Regionalliga Nord, he scored three goals in 12 appearances. In the 2002–03 Regionalliga Nord, he scored 15 goals in 30 league appearances. His performances earned him a call-up to the first-team from manager Thomas Schaaf, where Valdez debuted in the 2002–03 Bundesliga in a 1–0 home loss to Energie Cottbus 22 February 2003, where he was substituted onto the field in the 82nd minute for Christian Schulz. One week later, Valdez gained in second appearance in a 3–0 away loss against Bayer Leverkusen on 1 March, where Valdez was substituted onto the field for Angelos Charisteas in the 72nd minute. His performances also earned him a call-up to the Paraguay under-20 national team for the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship. Valdez made his first appearance of the 2003–04 Bundesliga season in round 4 in a 4–1 home victory against Schalke 04 on 23 August, where he scored after three minutes of coming onto the field. On 29 October, Valdez eventually signed a four-year professional contract with Werder Bremen's first-team.