Something else apart from the Euros, happened on Friday.
Call it wonder Friday, as a wonder of a man played his last game on Friday, 11th June 2021, in his 26-year old journey as a professional, kicking the round leather. This is not the wonder though, the wonder is that he played for a massive total of 31 clubs. This attracted the "Guinness army" and without doubt he was labelled.
He is the Uruguayan, Sebastian Abreu, fondly called "El Loco", a striker by trade. By the way, "Loco" is translated "Madman" in English. Well, you can be sure they meant it in a good way because of the energy he brings to the pitch. He started his senior career with an Uruguayan club called Defensor Sporting in 1994 and he ends with another Uruguayan club called Sud America, which he joined March this year. His career however led him across the globe– he played for clubs in Argentina,Chile, El Salvador,Ecuador,Paraguay,Brazil, Mexico, Israel, Greece and Spain, scoring 432 goals in 851 games throughout his record making career. That is 11 different countries in all. It was when he played in Chile in 2017 for the club, Audax Club Sportivo Italiano in Chile’s Primera Division, that he first set the Guinness world record for the most professional clubs played for, 26 clubs, eclipsing the previous mark of 25 clubs set in 2009 by German goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel. However, he continued to extend it till this year it got to 31. Not like that was his focus though– "Honestly I was never trying to break a Guinness World Records title but the record has made me very happy,..”– he told the Guiness official website.
Also in his career he ably turned out for the Uruguayan National team, scoring 26 goals in 70 appearances. He represented Uruguay at 2 World Cups and helped his team to gloriously hoist the Copa America title in 2011. He played against the biggest names in world football including in 1997, against the late Diego Armando Maradona.
Yet it is a partucular World Cup(pic above)that is regarded as his best known moment, one World Cup we can't forget in Africa too. It was our only remaining team at the World Cup gunning for a place in the semi-final,which would have been the first time an African team has gone that far in history. A combination of Uruguan's Liuz Suarez's corruption and Ghana's wastefulness sent the game to penalty shoot-out and it was that man(El Loco) who scored Uruguay's winning penalty in that quarter-final match in the 2010 World Cup, with an audacious 'Panenka' spot-kick. Heart break! Is that why he is called "madman"? [smiles]
He has just retired at the age of 44. His comment after that last match on Friday is just below.
You can feel his competitive edge there. He never wanted to retire as a burden on a team or in a lower division. He is glad that he retires playing at the very apex of the footballing classification in his country– Division 1. He's also a team player as he's glad the team won't miss him much especially as the team had just been promoted to the Division 1 when he signed in March.
Going forward he already has the near future planned out(I think this guy is a genius) he has tried his hands on some coaching– coached Santa Tecla in El Salvador and Uruguay's Boston River– and he plans to go the whole hog into a coaching career. We can wish him the best.
Worthy tributes must thus go to this trojan of the sport of football, exclusive holder of the Guinness Book of World Records for the most professional clubs played for. He leaves us with the parting shot: "Perseverance is everything,set goals for yourself. No one can take your dreams away but you are the only one who can make them happen." Capisce?
Cheers
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