Career
His childhood was spent in the Cerro Toro of Valparaíso then was enrolled in Santiago Wanderers at an early age. His debut as a professional was on the 1998 season. During the 1998 season, Santiago Wanderers had a team with many talented players but at that same season his team dropped to the second division of Chilean football.
During the 1999 season, like the previous season, he did not have the chance to play since the time the team had a particularly good goal scoring figure in Reinaldo Navia.
The following year and back in the first division he began to consider several offers for different teams and began to assert himself. In 2001, the Santiago Wanderers made several changes and Joel became stronger in front of the post holder and with much more experience, he started to become a figure alongside other players like Jaime Riveros, Moises Villarroel and Silvio Fernandez.
During this season he was called to be in part of the roster for the national team sub-20 to compete in the under-20 World Cup but the bitter fact was that he and along with other teammates, was involved in an act of indiscretion, which led to his demotion to be trained with a lesser team Once he came back with the Santiago Wanderers, he became one of the leader scores which resulted in a world championship place for his team, the first one for Santiago Wanderers in 33 years.
In the same 2002 season, Soto continued playing for Santiago Wanderers for the national championship and scoring more goals, rumors emerged from people linked to big national football clubs like Club América and Boca Juniors, and even a team from France.
Finally, despite all the rumors about his departure from Santiago Wanderers nothing was finalized in particular because of the problems with the leadership and continuous playing for the love of the club, he even went into a tournament for the first time, he was elected by his peers as team captain. After so many rumors about his transfer finally in mid-2003 is transferred to Mexican soccer to Chiapas earlier in the tournament had been descended. Despite its low yield, their calls to the selection were not integrated and the preparation of the Selection Sub pre-23 to compete in pre-Olympic to be held in Chile.
During the tournament pre Sudamerican Sub-23 in Chile, Soto wished for his return to Chile but this time not played by Santiago Wanderers, he took part in the Chile"s most popular soccer club, Colo-Colorado
To this day, he is playing for Unión Louisiana Calera.