Charles Aranguiz is a two-time Copa America winner with Chile who has racked up more than 100 games with Bayer Leverkusen, but what else is there to know about the versatile midfielder?

bundesliga.com takes a closer look…

1) Like mother, like son

Aranguiz was born in Puente Alto in the south of Chile's capital, Santiago in April 1989, and it was perhaps inevitable that he would be drawn to the game from an early age given that his mother, Mariana Sandoval, is a community coach in the area.

Aranguiz made his first steps in the game with Nueva Esperanza, and although he left for Universidad de Chile's youth ranks at the age of 13, his mother stayed on at the club, going on to become the first president of the Puente Alto Amateur Football Association.

Ten senior trophies in his career later and Aranguiz has long since been able to remove Sandoval's need to work, but she has never accepted his generosity in this regard.

"There was a time when my son told me not to work anymore," she explained to Somos Futboleras. "He told me 'I can send you the stars.' I looked at him and said 'do you think I'm here for money?' I work in a sector with high social risk and with people with very few resources and I feel that I give a lot."

Aranguiz donated a mural to his mother's club, Nueva Esperanza, in 2015. - Somos Futboleras

2) A champion in Chile

Although Aranguiz would go on to make nearly 100 appearances with Universidad de Chile, it was actually their great rivals Colo Colo with whom he won his first Primera Division de Chile title in 2009, featuring in 23 matches at the base of their midfield.

Following a 14-game interlude with Quilmes, Aranguiz re-joined first club Universidad in 2011 and enjoyed a glittering three-year spell there. His first year saw them pick up both Apertura and Clausura league titles as well as the Copa Sudamericana; his second another Apertura and his third the Copa Chile.

Aranguiz also added a greater cutting edge to his game, and by the time he left for Internacional in Brazil in 2014, he had scored 20 goals in 95 outings with Los Azules.

Aranguiz (1st r.) picked up five major honours in his second spell with Universidad de Chile. - imago images

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3) A champion with Chile

Aranguiz had been playing in Brazil for a few months before the FIFA World Cup rolled around. If he had been relatively unheard of in the old world before the tournament, that all changed on 18 June 2014, when he scored one and assisted another in a 2-0 Group B win over defending champions Spain in Rio de Janeiro.

Chile were ultimately nudged out of the tournament by Brazil after a penalty shoot-out in the last 16. The hosts would go on to lose 7-1 to eventual champions Germany in the semi-finals, but there was silverware to follow for Aranguiz with La Roja.

Third at the World Cup back in 1962, Chile finally won their first major honour the following summer, beating Lionel Messi's Argentina to the 2015 Copa America title with a penalty shoot-out win in the final in Santiago. They then repeated the trick at the Copa America Centenario in the United States the following year.

"Charles Aranguiz is the most decisive player the Chilean national team has ever had," enthused international teammate and former Hamburg midfielder Marcelo Diaz. "He might not have the reputation of Arturo Vidal or Alexis Sanchez but he does all the hard work. I admire him as a player and as a person."

Aranguiz (No.20) with the help of former Bayern man Arturo Vidal (No.8.) helped shackle Lionel Messi in back-to-back Copa America finals. - Getty Images

4) Jack of all trades, master of some

Leverkusen fended off reported interest from surprise 2016 English Premier League champions Leicester City to sign Aranguiz from Internacional in the summer of 2015. A state champion with the Porto Alegre club, what kind of player were Die Werkself getting? A midfield battler or a goalscorer with a flair for the big occasion?

As it turns out, a bit of both. FIFA's official website described Aranguiz as "a crafty, tigerish midfielder of the highest order, notable for his ability to win and distribute the ball, pick out passes and hit the back of the net." They weren't wrong.

Aranguiz has played left-, right- and central midfield under four different coaches with their own systems most of the way into his fourth full season with Leverkusen. This term, he invariably anchors the midfield as one of the double pivots in Peter Bosz's midfield, whether the Dutchman plays a 4-2-3-1 or, as has been the case more recently, a 3-4-3.

In Kai Havertz, Kevin Volland and Leon Bailey, Bayer aren't short of headline-grabbing players, but Aranguiz pulls the strings, with his 1,264 touches this season averaging out at 80 per game. The Chilean still knows where the back of the net is, though, scoring in the final game before the coronavirus-enforced break to help Leverkusen to a 3-1 first-leg advantage over Rangers in the UEFA Europa League last 16.

"Put it over there, Wendell!" - Aranguiz may not wear the captain's armband at Leverkusen, but he is still a leader. - DFL

5) In good company

Aranguiz is one of nine Chilean players who have strutted their stuff in the Bundesliga. The victorious 2015 Copa America squad also boasted the aforementioned Diaz during his HSV spell as well as Hannover's Miiko Albornoz. The following year, fellow midfielder Vidal was at Bayern Munich while striker Eduardo Vargas - scorer of that other goal against Spain in 2014 - was playing for Hoffenheim.

Waldo Ponce was the first Chilean in Germany, playing five games on loan at Wolfsburg from Universidad de Chile in 2003. Vidal won three consecutive Bundesligas with Bayern, while Junior Fernandes (also Leverkusen), Gonzalo Jara and Nicolas Castillo (both Mainz) complete the set. Vidal may offer fierce competition, but Diaz could be right: perhaps Aranguiz is the best?

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