José Salomón Rondón Giménez was born on 16 September 1989 in Caracas, Venezuela. He came through the youth system of Aragua, where his size, finishing instincts and maturity made him stand out early, and he moved to Europe as a teenager with Las Palmas in Spain. That first European step was not glamorous, but it gave him the technical and tactical schooling that shaped the most important centre-forward in modern Venezuelan football.
His career then grew across several major leagues. At Málaga he became a La Liga regular and helped the club reach Europe, before Rubin Kazan and Zenit Saint Petersburg took him to Russia, where he won domestic honours and Champions League experience. He later became a familiar Premier League striker with West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United, adding spells with Dalian Professional, CSKA Moscow and Everton to a career built on adaptation and goals in very different football cultures.
Rondón joined Pachuca in Mexico in 2024 and quickly became a defining forward for the Tuzos, scoring heavily in Liga MX and continental competition. After a brief loan spell linked to Real Oviedo, he returned to Pachuca for the 2026 cycle and remains the senior attacking reference point there. Even in his mid-thirties, he has retained the penalty-box timing and hold-up strength that made him valuable across Europe and the Americas.
For Venezuela he debuted in 2008 and became the country's all-time leading scorer, captaining La Vinotinto through multiple World Cup qualifying campaigns and Copa América tournaments. Venezuela have historically been the only CONMEBOL nation never to appear at a men's World Cup, but the expanded 2026 tournament and the team's stronger competitive base have made Rondón's final cycle feel like the culmination of a generation. He was also central to Copa América 2024, where Venezuela won their group and reached the quarter-finals before losing to Canada on penalties.
Standing 1.86 m, Rondón is a right-footed centre-forward whose strength, aerial presence and ruthless first-time finishing have long defined him. He is not a sprinter, but he reads crosses early, shields the ball superbly and gives teammates a reliable target under pressure. In Venezuelan terms he is the benchmark number nine, while stylistically his blend of power and penalty-area calm has often invited comparisons with a more mobile Christian Vieri or an older-school Edin Džeko.