Player Profile

Mark Dennis Gonzalez Hoffman was born to Chilean parents in South Africa as his father, Raul, was playing football there at the time. He was named after Mark Tovey and Dennis Wicks, both former teammates of his dad while playing for NSL champions Durban Bush Bucks during the mid-1980s. Mark Dennis revealed a coin was tossed to decide whose name would feature first, with "Mark" being the winner. Mark moved to Chile when he was ten-years-old but failed to get opportunities at top clubs and eventually ended up on the books of Everton! This was, however, a Chilean club called Everton de Viña del Mar. He made his breakthrough at one of Chile's top clubs, Universidad Católica. Gonzalez was spotted by Liverpool's first-team coach Paco Herrera, a former manager of Albacete, where the Chilean prospect was playing. Despite his excellent progress, he couldn't prevent Albacete from being relegated from the Spanish La Liga. A cruciate knee ligament injury in April 2005 threatened the move, but Liverpool's application for his work permit proved a bigger obstacle as Chile was outside the top 70 in the FIFA world rankings. Gonzalez' arrival at Liverpool was delayed by one year, of which he spent six months on loan at Real Sociedad, proving a great success for the Spanish side. Finally he got his permit in the summer of 2006 and his move to Liverpool became a reality.

Gonzalez' career at Anfield got off to a sensational start. He came on as a late substitute for Steven Gerrard in the home leg of the Champions League qualifier against Maccabi Haifa with the score delicately balanced at 1-1. Gonzalez received a pass from Alonso and clipped a precise shot past the goalkeeper and into the far corner of the net to ensure a vital victory on the night. Although he played a part in 36 of Liverpool's first-team matches during his one and only full season at Anfield, the goal against Haifa would prove to be the highlight. The Chilean was clearly out of his depth in the Premier League and in July 2007 Gonzalez signed a contract with Real Betis. He stayed at Betis until the summer of 2009, which coincided with the Seville club's relegation to the Spanish second tier. CSKA Moskva outbid Olympiacos in August 2009 that resulted in Gonzalez signing a five-year deal with the club from the Russian capital. He was a member of the Chile squad that was knocked out by Brazil in the first match of the knock-out stage at the South African World Cup. He played in all three of the group matches against Honduras, Switzerland and Spain and scored the winning goal against the Swiss as Chile finished as runners-up to Spain in Group H.

Gonzalez played in eleven league matches for CSKA Moscow during the 2012/13 season. He also played twice in the Europa League (both legs against AIK Stockholm in August 2012). In 2013/14 the winger made 7 league appearances for the Moscow club plus one in the Champions League (against Viktoria Plzen) before agreeing a loan move in January 2014 back to his first professional club, Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile, a move which became permanent later that year when his contract with CSKA expired. In January 2016 he was on the move again, joining Brazilian side SC Recife. After a season there he returned to Chile with Colo-Colo, making just four appearances between January and April 2017. After being released from there he dropped to the Chilean second division, joining Deportivo Magallanes in February 2018 and after two seasons there he retired from playing in November 2019.