Teófilo Cubillas

Teófilo Juan Cubillas Arizaga (; born 8 March 1949) is a Peruvian former footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He is considered Peru's greatest ever player and one of the best in the history of South America. In an IFFHS poll he was selected as the best Peruvian player in history and was also included in the world's Top 50 of the 20th century. At the 1970 FIFA World Cup, Pelé acknowledged Cubillas, referring to him as his successor. Cubillas was renowned for his technique, shooting ability and free kick ability.

Beginning at Alianza Lima, he was nicknamed El Nene (The Kid), and was part of the Peru national 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, along with qualifying for the 1982 World Cup. He was elected the South American Footballer of the Year in 1972. At a club level, he is the second all time highest goalscorer of Alianza Lima with 165 and the top goalscorer of the Fort Lauderdale Strikers with 65. For the national team, he is the third all time goalscorer with 26 goals in 81 appearances. He is also the joint 10th all time goalscorer of the FIFA World Cup with 10 goals in 13 matches.

In 2004, Pelé selected Cubillas as one of the FIFA 100, a list of 125 footballing greats. In February 2008, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first Brazilian World Cup victory, he was selected in the All-Star First Team of South America of the past 50 years. Cubillas is one of only six players to score five or more goals in two different World Cups, the others being Miroslav Klose, Thomas Müller, Lionel Messi, Harry Kane and Kylian Mbappé. His free-kick against Scotland in 1978 is renowned as one of the best goals scored at the World Cup.

Club career

Early career

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

Cubillas won the youth tournaments of 1965 and 1966. He made his debut at the age of 17 in the Peruvian Primera División with Alianza Lima. In his first season, he was the tournament's top scorer with 19 goals. In the summer of 1967, Cubillas, aged 18, made his international debut in a friendly match and scored a double in a 6-1 win over Independiente of Argentina.

Directors of Deportivo Municipal and Alianza Lima formed a team in 1971 to play a series of friendly matches with the aim of bringing together Teófilo Cubillas with Hugo Sotil, another great star of the time, known as the Golden Pair, which left historic scorelines such as the victory over Benfica and the 4-1 thrashing of Bayern Munich.

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

Basel 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 Swiss league debut for the 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, where Cubillas played a total of 21 games for Basel scoring a total of 8 goals.

FC Porto, Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Real Madrid took interest in Cubillas. But Basel was not willing to let the footballer go so soon. In December 1973, the Portuguese from Porto announced that they could raise enough money for the transfer, a commercial strategy that would be the last chance for Cubillas. Finally, Basel accepted and Cubillas was able to transfer to Portuguese club FC Porto for a fee of £200,000.

In May 1988 Cubillas returned 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.

Return to Alianza Lima Following the December 1987 Alianza Lima air crash Cubillas returned from Miami 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.

Miami Sharks In March 1989, he signed with the Miami Sharks but was released on 3 July after scoring only one goal in eight games. That same year Cubillas retired at the age of 40. In June 1991 he was playing and coaching at Miramar Illusiones of the Gold Coast Soccer League in Florida.

International career

After standing out notably in local football, he was called up to the Peru national team by head coach Didi for 1968 for the qualifiers for the 1970 FIFA World Cup held in Mexico. At just 18 years old, Cubillas made his official debut against Argentina in the qualifiers in the last round of qualifiers in 1968. In a match that will be difficult to forget for both Peruvians and Argentines, led by Cubillas, Peru started a heroic draw in 2 to 2 that took them to the World Cup and that eliminated the Argentine national team. Cubillas would score his first goal for Peru on 8 May, 1969 in a friendly against Colombia in Bogotá. Cubillas would play in three World Cups between 1970 and 1982 along with one Copa América.

1970 World Cup

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.

1975 Copa America The Peru national team failed qualify for the 1974 FIFA World Cup in West Germany, with Cubillas missing out on the play off match against Chile. A year later however, Cubillas helped Peru win its second Copa América, winning the 1975 Copa América. Peru was placed in a group with Chile and Bolivia. After eliminating Chile and Bolivia in the first round, the country faced Brazil in the semi-finals. Cubillas scored against Brazil to reach the final against Colombia. The first match was played in Bogotá, where Peru lost 1-0. The second match was played in Lima and Peru won 2-0. However, both teams were level on points and had to play in the play-off final. Cubillas played in the play-off match in the final, where partner Hugo Sotil scored to make the game 1-0. and then scored a hat-trick in the game against Iran, including two penalties.

1973–74

1974–75

1975–76

1976–77

85!!48!!13!!10!!10!!7!!108!!65

1977

1979

1980

1981

1982

1983

139!!65!!0!!0!!0!!0!!139!!65 Alianza Lima 1984 Peruvian Primera División

1984

1985

7!!5!!0!!0!!0!!0!!7!!5 Alianza Lima 1987 Peruvian Primera División

Fort Lauderdale Strikers 1988 ASL

488!!280!!15!!12!!31!!22!!534!!314

International Scores and results list Peru's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Cubillas goal.

Honours Basel Swiss Super League: 1972-73

Porto Taça de Portugal: 1976–77 Primeira Liga runner-up: 1974-75

Alianza Lima Peruvian Primera División: 1977, 1978

Fort Lauderdale Sun United Soccer League: 1984, 1985

Peru Copa América: 1975

Individual Peruvian Primera División top scorer: 1966, 1970 Copa America Best Player: 1975 FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 1978 FIFA World Cup All-Star Team: 1978 Eric Batty's World XI: 1978 NASL All-Star teams, all-time: 1980, 1981 NASL Best Midfield: 1981 Fort Lauderdale Strikers top scorer, all time: 1984 World Soccer The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time: 2000 Placar The 100 Players of the Century: 2000 Placar The 100 Players FIFA World Cup: 2000 FIFA 100: 2004 IFFHS' Best Players of the Century for Peru: 2006 South American – Player of the Century Nº 17: 2006 The Best of The Best – Player of the Century Top 50: 2007 CONMEBOL All-Star first team 1958–2008: 2008 3rd top scorer of the Peruvian national team: 26 goals