Quick Facts
Biography
Sebastián Rozental Igualt (Hebrew: סבסטיאן רוזנטל, born September 1, 1976 in Santiago, Chile) is a retired Chilean professional football (soccer) player.
On the club level, Rozental has played for Universidad Católica (1992–1996 and 2005), Colo-Colo (2001), and Unión Española (2003–04) in his native Chile, Rangers (1997–2000) in Scotland, where he became the first player from South America to play for the club, Independiente (2001) in Argentina, Grasshoppers (2003–04) in Switzerland, and Puerto Rico Islanders in the USL First Division (2005).
Club career
Rangers
Rozental became Rangers' first South American player when he signed for £4m in January 1997. 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 January 13, 2006. His first goal as a Crew member came on a penalty kick on April 15 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
- Copa Interamericana Winner: 1993
- Copa Chile Winner: 1995
- Liga Chilena de Fútbol: Primera División Winner: 2002 (C)
Rangers
- Scottish Premier League Winner: 1999-00
Grasshopper Club Zürich
- Swiss Super League Winner: 2002-03
Individual
- Chilean Footballer of the Year 1996