Rodrigo López (footballer, born 1978)

Hernán Rodrigo López Mora (born 21 January 1978), also known as Rodrigo López, is an Uruguayan football manager and former player who played as a forward.

Rodrigo López
López in 2015
Personal information
Full name Hernán Rodrigo López Mora
Date of birth (1978-01-21) 21 January 1978
Place of birth Montevideo, Uruguay
Height 1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Position(s) Centre forward
Youth career
River Plate Montevideo
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1996–1998 River Plate Montevideo 57 (10)
1998 Torino 8 (0)
1998–1999 Kavala 4 (0)
1999–2000 River Plate Montevideo 14 (3)
2000 Colo-Colo 14 (1)
2001 Danubio 22 (4)
2002 Racing Montevideo 17 (10)
2002–2004 Olimpia 51 (12)
2004 Pachuca 11 (1)
2005–2007 Libertad 61 (39)
2007–2008 América 19 (8)
2009–2010 Vélez Sársfield 53 (23)
2010–2011 Estudiantes LP 19 (7)
2011–2012 Banfield 12 (4)
2012–2013 Cerro Porteño 15 (1)
2013 Sportivo Luqueño 18 (17)
2014–2016 Libertad 62 (35)
2016–2017 Guaraní 63 (17)
International career
1996–1997 Uruguay U20
1996–2010 Uruguay 2 (0)
Managerial career
2018 Racing Montevideo
2020 Sportivo Luqueño
2020–2022 Nacional Asunción
2023 Guaraní
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is López and the second or maternal family name is Mora.

López is the second maximum goal scorer of Paraguayan football with 127 goals, behind Santiago Salcedo (152), and ahead of Juan Eduardo Samudio (119) and Fredy Bareiro (112).[1]

Club career

Born in Montevideo, López began his career with River Plate de Montevideo in Uruguay. He had short stints with Torino F.C. of Italy and AO Kavala of Greece in 1998 along with compatriot Pablo Gaglianone. In 2000, he joined Colo-Colo of Chile.

He returned to Uruguay in 2001 to play for Danubio FC and in 2002 he joined Racing Club de Montevideo

Between 2002 and 2004 he enjoyed a successful stint with Olimpia of Paraguay where he was part of the team that won both Copa Libertadores 2002 and Recopa Sudamericana 2003.

In 2004, he joined Mexican side Pachuca CF but after only a few games he returned to Paraguay to play for Libertad where he scored an impressive 39 goals in 71 league games, won the Primera División championship in 2006 and finished as the topscorer.

López returned to Mexican football in 2008 joining Club América where he played alongside a number of other South American players such as Federico Insúa of Argentina and Salvador Cabañas.[2] He had a successful time with América, scoring a famous hat-trick against Tecos in the 2007 Apertura[3] and helping the team to win the 2008 InterLiga.

In 2008, he joined Argentine Vélez Sársfield and had an unsuccessful start with the team, quickly reverted by contributing 11 goals in their championship season of Clausura 2009.[4]

López was bought by Argentine side Estudiantes de La Plata in June 2010 for a fee of around US$750,000.[5] He scored a number of vital goals for the club in his first season helping the club to win the Apertura 2010 tournament. He scored his first hat-trick for Estudiantes with three headers in a 5–1 win against Paraguayan side Guaraní in the group stages of the 2011 Copa Libertadores.[6] In the following game he scored the winning goal against league leaders Racing Club.[7]

In July 2011, he signed a two-year contract with Club Atlético Banfield.

One year later he returned to Paraguayan Football signing for Cerro Porteño. Then he was transferred to Sportivo Luqueño and now he is the main scorer of Libertad, being the topscorer at the 2014 Apertura, scoring 19 goals.

International career

On the youth level, López was runner-up with Uruguay U-20 at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He even played the final against Argentina.

López played a friendly match for Uruguay against China in 1996.[8] Thirteen years later, in 2009, he was called again by coach Oscar Washington Tabárez for a friendly match against Algeria and for the World Cup qualifying games against Peru and Colombia.[8] He was also part of the squad that achieved the qualification by defeating Costa Rica on the playoff. However, he was not part of the Uruguayan squad that played the World Cup.

On 27 July 2010, he was called up to play a friendly match against Angola in Lisboa.

Coaching career

Following the departure of Celso Ayala, López was appointed manager of Paraguayan club Sportivo Luqueño on 3 March 2020.[9] After the club saw the departure of as many as 11 players to transfers and contract dissolutions mid-tournament, López decided to resign from his position on 7 September 2020,[10] but agreed to coach his club for one last match, a come-from-behind 2–1 victory against River Plate on 11 September 2020.[11] During his short tenure as head coach of Sportivo Luqueño, the team achieved 16 points in 12 matches (4W-4D-4L), climbing several positions in the table.

Honours

Club

Olimpia

Libertad

América

Vélez Sársfield

Estudiantes

Individual

See also

References
  1. "Diario HOY | Amparados bajo la bendición de la Cruz". 26 April 2016.
  2. Federico Insúa gambeta vs Tecos
  3. Rodrigo López golazo vs Tecos
  4. 26 Minutos. Retrieved 22 December 2009. (in Spanish)
  5. "Con Rorro y el Torito". Olé (in Spanish). 26 June 2010. Retrieved 27 June 2010.
  6. Rodrigo López vs Guaraní
  7. Hernán Rodrigo López vs Racing, Clausura 2011
  8. "La Celeste (y blanca)" Olé. Retrieved 21 August 2009. (in Spanish)
  9. Hernán Rodrigo López, flamante DT de Luqueño, tigosports.com.py, 3 March 2020
  10. http://www.tigosports.com.py/futbol/hernan-rodrigo-lopez-deja-la-conduccion-tecnica-de-luquenho , tigosports.com.py, 7 September 2020
  11. http://www.tigosports.com.py/copa-de-primera/rodrigo-lopez-y-su-ultima-funcion-como-dt-auriazul-0 , tigosports.com.py, 11 September 2020
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