Luis Cubilla

Luis Cubilla
	Cubilla with Uruguay in 1970
Personal information
Full name	Luis Alberto Cubilla Almeida
Date of birth	28 March 1940
Place of birth	Paysandú, Uruguay
Date of death	3 March 2013 (aged 72)
Place of death	Asunción, Paraguay
Position(s)	Winger
Youth career
	Colón de Paysandú
Senior career*
Years	Team
1958–1962	Peñarol
1962–1964	Barcelona
1964–1968	River Plate
1969–1974	Nacional
1975	Santiago Morning
1976	Defensor Sporting
International career
1959–1974	Uruguay
Managerial career
1979–1980	Olimpia Asunción
1980	Newell's Old Boys
1981	Peñarol
1982	Olimpia Asunción
1983	Atlético Nacional
1984	River Plate
1988–1991	Olimpia Asunción
1991–1993	Uruguay
1994	Racing Club
1995–1999	Olimpia Asunción
2003	Talleres
2005	Comunicaciones
2007	Barcelona SC
2009	Colegio Nacional Iquitos
2010	Olimpia Asunción
2012	Tacuary
	*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of September 2022

Luis Alberto Cubilla Almeida (28 March 1940 – 3 March 2013) was a Uruguayan professional footballer and manager. He had a successful playing career winning 16 major titles. He then went on to become one of the most successful managers in South American football with 17 major titles.^[1]^[2]

Early career

Also known as "El Negro", Cubilla was born in Paysandú and started his playing career in the youth team of Colón de Paysandú. In 1957 he joined Peñarol where he was part of the team that won four Uruguayan league championships, two Copa Libertadores and a Copa Intercontinental.

Career highlights

In 1962 he joined FC Barcelona of Spain, where he was part of the team that won the Copa del Rey in 1963. He played 49 games and scored 12 goals with Barça.

Cubilla returned to South America in 1964 to play for River Plate of Argentina. In 1969, he returned to Uruguay joining Nacional where he won 4 more Uruguayan league titles, another Copa Libertadores, a Copa Interamericana and another Copa Intercontinental.

In the last years of his career he played for Santiago Morning of Chile and Defensor Sporting of Uruguay where he helped the club to win their first league championship and break the complete dominance of the league by Peñarol and Nacional.

Between 1959 and 1974 Cubilla played 38 games for the Uruguay national team in which he scored 11 goals.^[3] He played in three World Cups in 1962, 1970 and 1974.

Managerial career

As a coach, Cubilla achieved enormous success with Olimpia Asunción of Paraguay, winning 7 international titles and several national championships. He also coached Nacional, Peñarol, Defensor Sporting, Danubio (all of Uruguay), Atlético Nacional of Colombia, Newell's Old Boys and River Plate of Argentina and Cerro Porteño and Club Libertad, both from Paraguay.

Between 1991 and 1993 Luis Cubilla was the head coach of the Uruguay National Team and worked together with his older brother Pedro Cubilla as his assistant coach and Alejandro Riccino as the physical trainer.^[4]

During 1994 he coached the famous Argentinean club Racing Club de Avellaneda.

In February 2007, Cubilla signed with the Ecuadorian team Barcelona de Guayaquil.

In 2010, he returned once again as a coach for Olimpia Asunción of Paraguay. He died, aged 72, in Asunción.