Tomás Jesús Alarcón Vergara

Tomás Alarcón made his name in Chile as a two-time Sub-17 champion and a Milk Cup winner with O'Higgins, the club whose academy shaped him before he left home in Rancagua for Spain. Cádiz CF signed him in the summer of 2021 on a four-year contract, and a loan spell followed in December 2022 at Real Zaragoza in the Segunda División, where he spent the rest of that season. He returned to Chile in January 2025, joining Colo-Colo as his contract with Cádiz was due to run out that June.

Alarcón's rise through Chilean youth football was steady rather than sudden. He won gold with the under-23 side at the 2018 South American Games in Cochabamba, then went to the Under-20 World Cup in 2019, playing four matches and scoring once. That year also brought his first senior call-up: he debuted for the full national team on 5 September 2019 against Argentina. He went on to play at the Copa América in 2021, appearing in four matches, and featured three times in South American World Cup qualifying for the 2022 tournament. An under-23 pre-Olympic tournament in 2020 added four more caps to his record. In total, he has earned 12 caps for Chile.

An opera-only midfielder by trade, Alarcón operates as a holding midfielder but has also been used centrally and at centre-back, giving his coaches flexibility depending on the shape they choose. He has not collected individual awards during his career, but the trophies came with the collective: the youth titles at O'Higgins and the under-23 gold in Cochabamba mark the earliest signs of a player built for competition rather than for headlines.