Fernando Luis Aristeguieta de Luca (born 9 April 1992) is a retired Venezuelan professional footballer was plays for Venezuelan Primera División club Caracas and the Venezuela national team as a striker.
Aristeguieta began his professional career with Caracas in 2009 and stayed at the club until 2013. At age 20, he was the top goalscorer in the Torneo Apertura 2012, scoring 14 goals. In his first season in France, he helped his team Nantes to achieve promotion to Ligue 1 in the 2012–13 season.
He is the only player in history who has scored a hat-trick in the Venezuelan Clásico, which is played between the two most popular teams in the country: Caracas and Deportivo Táchira. He also became the first Venezuelan player in history to score a goal in Ligue 1 of France. He was the first player to score a goal for Mazatlán after its foundation in June 2020.
Aristeguieta has played for the Venezuela national team since 2010.
Early life
School
He studied at the Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. He also managed to represent their school in Recreational Mathematics Olympics five times, in which he was the runner up in 2006. In the summer of 2007 and 2008 he studied English at the Cushing Academy institution, located in the city of Ashburnham, Massachusetts, achieving complete mastery of the language. During these years, he took the decision to leave school in order to fully focus on soccer, causing quarrels with his parents. Aristeguieta wanted to graduate in a school for athletes; however, he decided to finish at his school. He graduated in July 2010.
Sports
At age 7, he joined the Loyola football team, being coached by former Caracas and Venezuela national team player Leopoldo Páez, who Aristeguieta considers his mentor both on and off the pitch. Simultaneously he was practicing tennis, participating in tournaments at regional, national and international levels. In that list, was leader David Souto, who is currently in first place in the ranking of Venezuelan men's professional tennis. However, in the same year of publication, Aristeguieta decided to retire from tennis to specialize in football.
As a soccer player, he represented his school in Caracas Sports School League and the League César Del Vecchio. He also played in several international championships in European cities such as Barcelona, Gothenburg, Regina, Milan, San Sebastián and Dallas. At 15 he left Loyola to join the football team Centro Ítalo Venezolano.
Club career
Caracas
In his first year at the club he managed to win the U-17 National Championship in the 2007-2008 season, being the top goalscorer with 21 goals. Aristeguieta turned down offers from teams like Tenerife, Real Oviedo, and Grêmio to continue his studies.
He debuted in the first division in Venezuela with Caracas in the 2009/2010 season. In his first season, he played 20 games and scored 6 times, scoring his first professional goal on his debut against Trujillanos, in the city of Valera, on 16 August 2009. On 10 March 2010, he had his international tournament debut, coming in at the 77th min. for Rafael Castellín, in the 2010 Copa Libertadores match against Flamengo, which Caracas lost 1-3 at home; that game was the last of Noel Sanvicente coaching the club.
On 30 July 2010 he suffered a ruptured cruciate ligament in his left knee that would keep him sidelined nine months, missing the Copa Sudamericana 2011 and the 2011 South American U-20 Championship.
First division of Venezuela in the season of 2011/2012 was the rebirth of the redhead forward, which few expected after his painful injury. In the first round against Trujillanos FC, he played 26 minutes. He makes his first goal of the season against the Football Club Tucanes Amazon in New Haven when he had entered 67 minutes, from there he was awarded with being a starter. The next match against Llaneros de Guanare Futbol Club he scored two goals. This game was played over two days due to power failure. The next day he repeated the feat at Mineros de Guayana in the Olympic Stadium UCV to score two of the four goals that the Nerazzurri embedded computer, the next 2 days and also scored a run and managed 4 consecutive days scoring. From there, the front began to be recognized and loved by the Reds fans before the game occasionally chanted "Aristeguieta, Aristeguieta". Having already spent a long injury of 9 months, he was still having knee problems since in season 2 occasions received short-term injuries. In the Torneo Clausura 2012, he scored only 4 goals. At this time he was very critical of the low production of plays in attack and the lack of scoring. They had to settle for finishing second in the standings.