Jesús Medina

Jesús Manuel Medina Maldonado (born 30 April 1997) is a Paraguayan professional footballer who plays for Russian club Spartak Moscow and the Paraguay national team.

Club career
Medina made his senior debut as a 15-year-old for Libertad on 7 July 2012 in a 1–0 win over Club Rubio Ñu.

On 31 December 2017, it was announced that Medina was signing with Major League Soccer (MLS) side New York City FC ahead of their 2018 season. Medina ultimately played over a hundred MLS games. However, after a disappointing 2021 season, New York City opted to decline their contract option on Medina.

On 17 January 2022, he signed a contract with Russian Premier League (RPL) club CSKA Moscow until the end of the 2024–25 season.

In July 2023, there were reports in the press about the imminent transition of Medina to Spartak Moscow. The fee for the transfer, which led to significant media attention due to CSKA and Spartak being rivals, was estimated to be between 7 million and 7.5 million euros. On 10 July 2023, Spartak formally announced the transfer and Medina signed a three-year contract. On 5 August 2023, Medina scored within the first 40 seconds of making his debut after coming on as a substitute in what was eventually a 1-4 win over Rubin Kazan. This was the quickest goal by any player in their debut in RPL history.

Paraguay U17 and U20
Medina was part of the Paraguay U17 squad for the 2013 South American Under-17 Football Championship, scoring four times as the team finished fifth.

He was also named to the Paraguay U20 squad for the 2015 and 2017 South American Youth Football Championships (CONMEBOL U-20 Championship). In the 2015 tournament, he scored a goal in a 4–2 win over Bolivia U20 in the group stage, and in the 2017 tournament he scored twice in a 3–2 group stage loss to Brazil U20.

Paraguay
He was named in the senior team's provisional squad for Copa América Centenario, but was cut from the final squad. On 1 July 2017, Medina made his debut for Paraguay in a friendly match against Mexico, coming in as a substitute in the 85th minute.

Personal life
In February 2019, Medina earned a U.S. green card which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.

Honours
New York City FC
 * MLS Cup: 2021

CSKA Moscow
 * Russian Cup: 2022–23