Teófilo Cubillas

At 75 years old, Teófilo Cubillas has this physical status:

Teófilo Juan Cubillas Arizaga (Spanish pronunciation: [teˈofilo kuˈβiʎas]; born 8 March 1949) is a Peruvian former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He was selected as Peru's greatest ever player in an IFFHS poll, in which he was also included in the world's Top 50. He is considered by many as the maximum reference of Peruvian football and one of the best South American players in history. He was renowned for his technique, shooting ability and free kick ability. He was considered one of the best players in the world of the 1970s and the best in his position of the decade only behind the Dutch Johan Cruyff. Among his main achievements are the FIFA awards for the best young player and the bronze boot in Mexico 1970, as well as the silver boot and member of the ideal team of Argentina 1978, he was also champion and best player of the 1975 Copa América. He is regarded one of the best attacking midfielders in the history of football.

Nicknamed El Nene (The Kid), he was part of the Peru national football team that won the 1975 Copa América. He helped Peru reach the quarter finals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup and again at the 1978 World Cup and was elected the South American Footballer of the Year in 1972. He was characterized as an attacking midfielder gifted with exquisite technique, power, change of pace, dribbling ability and great goalscoring ability. His medium and long-range free kicks were famous for the precision with which he executed them. On the field of play, he also stood out for his sportsmanship: he was never sent off.

He is the midfielder most goalscorer (10 goals) and with the best goal average (0.77) in the history of the Soccer World Cup, one of the 4 top free kick scorers in the history of the Soccer World Cup together with Pelé, Beckham and Rivelino, he was a five-time candidate for "best South American footballer of the year" in (1971, 1972 -winner-, 1975, 1977, and 1978). And together with Batistuta he is the 3rd highest Latin American scorer in World Cup history, after Ronaldo and Pelé.

At the club level, he is the second highest historical scorer for Club Alianza Lima (167 goals). He is also the top scorer for the "Blue and White" club in the history of the Copa Libertadores, the fourth top foreign scorer in the history of FC Porto (66 goals), the top scorer in the history of Fort Lauderdale Strikers (65 goals) and the eighth all-time top scorer in the Peruvian League (167 goals). He was the top scorer in the Copa Libertadores in 1972, scoring 6 goals and is the Peruvian soccer player with the best average goal score in European competitions, scoring 72 goals in 122 games, achieving an average of 0.59 goals per game, and the one that scored the most goals in a season European, scoring 36 goals in 39 games in the season 1975-76 with the FC Porto. He is also the highest-scoring midfielder in the history of FC Porto.

Worldwide, the IFFHS, in 2008, awarded Cubillas 268 goals in 469 official matches in First Division Tournaments, placing him as the seventh midfielder highest scorer of the history of football, surpassing other greats in the world such as Platini (207), Roberto Baggio (205), Gullit (175), Rivaldo (229), Zidane (95) and Maradona (259), in addition to being the second South American midfielder with the most goals in history, only behind Zico. During his long career there are 615 games and 338 goals.

He was chosen by FIFA as the 2nd "Best Young Player" in the history of the World Cup, beating cracks of the stature of Beckenbauer, Flórián Albert, Owen and Enzo Scifo, as well as one of the 100 best players in the history of the World Cup by the same institution in 2018. At the continental level, it was included in the historical ideal eleven of the Copa América according to the official site of the continental competition in 2015.

Moreover, he is one of the only three players to score five or more goals in two different World Cups, the other two being Miroslav Klose and Thomas Müller. Noted for his free kicks, he is considered one of the best free kick specialists of all time.

Cubillas has been awarded South American Footballer of the Year in 1972 - beating Pelé in the votes and is a member of the Maracanã Stadium hall of fame. In 2004 he was named in the list of the 50 Best Players of the 20th Century and one of the best South American footballers 20th century by the IFFHS - that same year he was named to the FIFA 100 list compiled by Pelé. In 2008, the Sports Illustrated magazine included him in the ideal eleven of the last 50 years of South American football along with Pelé, Maradona, Garrincha and others continental soccer legends. In 2019 he was included by the prestigious British magazine FourFourTwo among the 100 best footballers in the history of football, ranking 66. He is also one of the 50 player most voted as Best footballer of the century in all the historical rankings that were made at the end of the 20th century.

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Club career

Nicknamed "Nene" (the babe) for his boyish looks, Cubillas began his career with Alianza Lima at the age of 16 in 1966. Whilst at Alianza he was top scorer in the Peruvian Primera División in 1966 and 1970.

In 1972, he had his most successful season in several years. He was Libertadores Cup top scorer and South American Footballer of the Year.

In the summer of 1973, Cubillas transferred to Swiss football club FC Basel under head coach Helmut Benthaus. The Basler entrepreneur and transport company owner Ruedi Reisdorfer paid the transfer fee of £97,000. After playing in four Cup of the Alps games, Cubillas played his domestic league debut for his new club on 18 August in the away game against Chênois. He scored his first goal for the club in the same game as Basel won 1–0. Cubillas scored two goals for Basel in the 1973–74 European Cup, the first of which in the 1st leg against Fram on 19 September 1973 and the second in the return leg on 20 September. He only remained at the club for six months, which was not long enough for him to show the extent of his talent. In these six months Cubillas played a total of 21 games for Basel scoring a total of eight goals.10 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, two in the Swiss Cup, four in the European Cup, four in the Cup of the Alps and one was a friendly game. He scored three goals in the league, two in the domestic cup, two in the European Cup and the other one was scored in the Cup of the Alps.

Later on, for the second half of the 1973–74 season he joined Portuguese club FC Porto for a fee of £200,000. In 1977, he returned to Alianza Lima.

In 1979, Cubillas joined the NASL, signing for Fort Lauderdale Strikers, where he spent five seasons, scoring 59 league goals, including three goals in seven minutes against the Los Angeles Aztecs in 1981.

Following the December 1987 Alianza Lima air crash Cubillas returned from his Miami home to play for free for Alianza, who lost most of their players in the crash. He also managed the club for a period in 1988.

In May 1988 Cubillas signed with the newly resurrected Fort Lauderdale Strikers of the American Soccer League. The Strikers went to the ASL title game where they fell to the Washington Diplomats. Following the loss to the Diplomats, the Strikers released Cubillas.

In March 1989, he signed with the Miami Sharks but was released on 3 July after scoring only one goal in eight games. As of June 1991 he was playing and coaching at Miramar Illusiones of the Gold Coast Soccer League in Florida.

International career

Cubillas played in three World Cups between 1970 and 1982.

Cubillas helped the Peru national team advance to the quarter-finals of the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. He scored in all of Peru's four matches: once against Bulgaria, twice against Morocco, and once against West Germany, all in the first round. Cubillas then scored another goal in the quarter-final loss against eventual champions Brazil, and he thus finished as the third highest goal scorer in the tournament.

He won the FIFA World Cup Young Player Award, and was third in the Golden Shoe award.

The Peru national team did not qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, but a year later, Cubillas helped Peru win its second South American title, the Copa América 1975. Cubillas scored against Brazil in the semi-final, and then played in the play-off match in the final.

In the 1978 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, Cubillas scored five goals for Peru, finishing co-second highest goal scorer after Mario Kempes. Peru advanced to the second phase of the tournament thanks to goals from Cubillas: he scored two goals in the opening match against Scotland (one of which was an excellent free-kick), and he then scored a hat-trick in the game against Iran, including two penalties.

However, Peru subsequently lost to Brazil, Poland, and Argentina, although Cubillas played in all six Peru matches in the tournament.

Cubillas was also in the Peru national team for 1982 FIFA World Cup. He played in all three group games but did not score any goals.

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