Sebastián Rozental


Sebastián Rozental Igualt is a retired Chilean professional footballer.
On the club level, Rozental has played for Universidad Católica, Colo-Colo, and Unión Española in his native Chile, Rangers in Scotland, where he became the first player from South America to play for the club, Independiente in Argentina, Grasshoppers in Switzerland, and Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL First Division.

Early and personal life

Rozental was born in Santiago, Chile, and is Jewish.

Club career

Rangers

Rozental became Rangers' first South American player when he signed for £4m on 13 December 1996, the most expensive signing in Chilean history. He arrived at Rangers as a promising young talent, as he had broken into the Chilean national team and was challenging Marcelo Salas and Iván Zamorano for a place in the starting eleven, following a decent scoring record at his club. He made his debut as a substitute in a league match at Motherwell. However injury struck in his second appearance for Rangers versus St Johnstone in the Scottish Cup; he started the game well and scored his first goal for the club, but was then taken off with a knee injury. He made just 3 appearances in 1997-98 and another 3 in 1998-99. He had his first significant run in the team in the second half of the 1999-2000 season, helping Rangers complete a league and cup double. He made 11 appearances and scored 3 goals in the league that season, and scored twice in their cup semi final win over Ayr United. He was however left out of the squad for the final. He made 21 appearances for Rangers, scoring 6 goals.

Late career

He was signed by the Columbus Crew on 13 January 2006. His first goal as a Crew member came on a penalty kick on 15 April against the Chicago Fire. He played 20 games and scored 3 goals total during the 2006 season.
After spending one season with the Columbus Crew, Rozental left for Israel and signed with Maccabi Petah Tikva. After failing to impress in one half season in Petah Tikva, Rozental signed a one-year contract with Maccabi Netanya.

International career

Rozental has been capped for Chile 27 times scoring 2 goals.
He captained the Chilean squad that finished third in the 1993 FIFA U-17 World Championship and then scored 3 goals at the 1995 FIFA World Youth Championship.

Honours

Player

Club

Universidad Católica