In addition to Argentina and Brazil, Uruguay is also one of the biggest football countries in South America. This country achieved a lot of great things in the world of football. They even twice won the World Cup tournament. Uruguay is also known as a source of talented players in the world who play in the top leagues of Europe. Some examples among them are: Alvaro Recoba, Luis Suarez and Diego Forlan.
On this occasion, I would like to publish an article about the 15 best Uruguayan players of all time. This list is created considering the achievements of the players in their respective clubs, national team as well as their individual ability. Without further ado, here is the ranking:
15. Pedro Cea
Pedro Cea is a retired football player who had major role in helping Uruguay to be the first World Cup champion in 1930. This player scored a goal that helped Uruguay defeat Argentina in the final round with a score of 4-2. After successfully presenting the prestigious title to his country as a footballer, Cea became a manager of Uruguayan national team in 1942. As a manager, he won a Copa America trophy for his country.
14. Diego Lugano
Diego Lugano is a defender who has been playing for Uruguay since 2003. Currently, he serves as a team captain of Uruguay. One of the greatest accomplishments he ever achieved are fourth place in World Cup 2010 and a championship trophy of Copa America in 2011. Throughout his career with the Uruguay national team, Lugano scored nine goals from 91 appearances.
13. Sebastián Abreu
Sebastian Abreu was a tall striker who became a goalscoring machine for Uruguay national team in the period 1996-2012. He is known as a very good target man and an effective poacher. Throughout his career, he played for more than 20 clubs in seven different countries. The striker is nicknamed "El Loco" or "The Crazy Man" because he always shows wild and aggressive playing style. Throughout his career, Abreu scored 26 goals in 70 games for Uruguay.
12. Edinson Cavani
Edinson Cavani is the most expensive player in the history of Uruguay, where he was transferred from Napoli to AS Monaco for a fee of around 64.5 million euros. This striker is indeed very effective and powerful in the penalty box, making him be a very ideal target man. One of the best achievements of Cavani was when he became the top scorer of the Italian League in the 2012-2013 season with 29 goals. Until now, Cavani has scored 20 goals in his 60 appearances for Uruguay national team.
11. Alberto Spencer
Alberto Spencer is a retired footballer who played for two different national teams, Ecuador and Uruguay. This player is known by the nickname "Cabeza Magica" or "The Magic Head" because he scored a lot of goals through headers. Until now, Alberto Spencer still holds the record as the all-time leading scorer in the Copa Libertadores, with a record total of 54 goals he scored in the period 1960 to 1972.
10. Alvaro Recoba
Alvaro Recoba is a former attacking midfielder who scored a lot of goals from free kick situations. This player's best period as a footballer happened when he played for Inter Milan from 1997 to 2008. Along with Inter, Recoba won two Serie A titles and two Coppa Italia trophies. Unfortunately, Recoba was hampered by injuries so he rarely could show his best performance. In Uruguay national team, Recoba scored 11 goals from 69 appearances.
9. Jose Leandro Andrade
Jose Andrade is a retired winger who was nicknamed "The Black Marvel." This player helped his country win two Olympic gold medals and two Copa America trophies. However, his most impressive achievement definitely is the World Cup 1930 championship trophy. The tournament was also the last tournament for Jose Andrade before retiring from the Uruguay national team. Throughout his career, he played in 34 matches and scored one goal for the Uruguay national team.
8. Obdulio Varela
Obdulio Varela is a former central defender and the captain of the team who led Uruguay win the World Cup 1950. Uruguay victory in the tournament is extraordinary, because they are capable of beating hosts Brazil in the final, in front of tens of thousands of supporters of the Brazilian team. Varela played for Uruguay from 1939 to 1954. In addition to the World Cup title, this player also presented a Copa America trophy for his country in 1942.
7. Óscar Míguez
Oscar Miguez is a retired striker who played in two World Cup competitions, in the year 1950 and 1954. This player holds the record as the Uruguay national team's top scorer in the World Cup tournament, with a total of eight goals. One of his most memorable appearance was when he scored a hat trick to bring Uruguay's 8-0 victory against Bolivia in the group stage of the World Cup 1950. In that tournament he also led Uruguay to be the football champion of the world.
6. Héctor Scarone
Hector Scarone is one of the most prolific and most accomplished strikers ever owned by the Uruguayan national team. This player won two Olympic gold medals, four Copa America trophies, and one World Cup 1930 trophy. His career at the club level was also quite impressive, where Scarone won eight Uruguay league titles. Throughout his career from 1917 to 1932, Scarone scored 31 goals from 52 appearances with the Uruguay national team.
5. José Nasazzi
Jose Nasazzi is known as one of the best wingbacks in the world. Played as a right-back, Nasazzi was the team captain who led Uruguay squad win the 1930 World Cup. He is known to have a harsh playing style. In addition to the World Cup trophy, Nasazzi also won two Olympic gold medals and four Copa America trophies. Throughout his career from 1923 to 1937, Nasazzi played 41 times for the Uruguay national team.
4. Juan Alberto Schiaffino
Schiaffino is one of Uruguay's most successful player who had a career as a footballer in foreign countries. Having successfully led his country to be the World Cup 1950 champion, Schiaffino moved to AC Milan and played for the club for six years. His career was very successful at AC Milan, where he won three Serie A titles. As he showed great performance, Schiaffino eventually asked to change his citizenship. He played for the Italian national team for several matches in the period 1954 to 1958.
3. Luis Suarez
Luis Suarez is a very talented striker who never hesitates to play dirty in order to win the match. Many people think he has very similar characteristics and behavior to Diego Maradona, especially when he accidentally touched the ball with his hands to prevent his team from conceding a goal in the World Cup 2010. Currently, Suarez is the Uruguay national team top scorer with 39 goals, and this number could continue to increase, considering that Suarez is still actively playing football. One of the best achievements of Suarez as a player was when he won Copa America tournament in 2011.
2. Enzo Francescoli
Enzo Francescoli is a retired playmaker who inspired Zinedine Zidane, one of the best footballers of all time. Francescoli played from 1980 to 1997 and throughout his career he led Uruguay national team win three Copa America trophies. At club level, Francescoli also successfully played with River Plate and Marseille, where he won five Argentine league titles and one French League title.
1. Diego Forlan
Speaking about individual skills, Diego Forlan is one of the best in Uruguay. After spending a bad career period at Manchester United from 2001 to 2004, Forlan showed his true class. After the dark period, Forlan was able to be Spanish league's top scorer two times and took Uruguay national team into semi-finals round of the World Cup 2010. In the tournament, he also earned the Golden Ball award, an award specially given to the best player. Until now, Forlan has played 107 times and scored 36 goals for the Uruguay national team.
Forlan is known as a striker with good finishing skills. His left-foot often creates beautiful long-range goal. It's a pity that Manchester United couldn't make a good use of him.
