Cristian Exequiel Zabala

Cristian Exequiel Zabala arrived at Sarmiento de Junín in January 2026 as a free agent, joining on a contract running to the end of the year, after two years playing his football in Ecuador with Independiente del Valle. There he won the Ecuadorian league title in 2025 and featured in the Copa Libertadores in both 2024 and 2025, alongside the 2024 Copa Sudamericana, making 58 appearances in all competitions and scoring five league goals.

Zabala, born in San Francisco Solano, began his senior career at Quilmes in 2018, making 24 league appearances before a move to Tigre in October 2020 for a fee of around €410,000. His time at Tigre proved the most productive spell of his career to date: he made more than 120 appearances across all competitions, including 105 in the league, and was a regular during the 2021 campaign in which Tigre won the Primera B Nacional and secured promotion to the Primera División, a season in which he played 27 league matches and scored twice. He went on to represent the club in the Copa Sudamericana in 2023 before leaving as a free agent at the start of 2024.

Zabala now takes on a new challenge in Junín, arriving with experience of continental competition and a title won abroad.