Fabián Alberto O'Neill Domínguez (14 October 1973 – 25 December 2022) was a Uruguayan professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He began and finished his career at Nacional, where he won the Uruguayan Primera División in his debut season in

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

. He spent most of his career in Italy, mainly with

Cagliari Cagliari (, also , , ; sc, Casteddu ; lat, Caralis) is an Italian municipality and the capital of the island of Sardinia, an autonomous region of Italy. Cagliari's Sardinian name ''Casteddu'' means ''castle''. It has about 155,000 inhabitant ...

and also with

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

and Perugia. He earned 19 caps for Uruguay, starting at the

1993 Copa América The 1993 Copa América was the 36th Copa América, CONMEBOL's football tournament for national teams. It was held in Ecuador between 15 June and 4 July. All 10 CONMEBOL members took part, but for the first time two nations from outside CONMEBOL w ...

and ending at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

. Nicknamed "''El Mago''" ('The Wizard'), O'Neill was described by Zinedine Zidane as the most talented teammate of his career. He lost his fortune to gambling, and suffered from alcoholism during and after his career, retiring at 29 and dying 20 years later.

Early life

O'Neill was the oldest of five children born to Luis Alberto O'Neill and Mercedes Domínguez. He was the great-great-grandson of Michael O'Neill, an Irishman from County Cork who arrived in Uruguay in 1837. Abandoned by his parents, O'Neill was raised by his grandmother, with whom he had to share a bed until the age of 14. He began working at age nine, selling sausages outside a

brothel A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...

, and was already drinking at that age.

Club career

O'Neill began his professional career at Nacional in the Uruguayan Primera División playing in the first team between 1992 and 1995. In his debut season, at the age of 18, his team won the league. In 1996, he moved to Italy to play with Serie A club

, one of several Uruguayans to join the club through agent

Paco Casal Paco Casal (born Francisco Casal) is a Uruguayan entrepreneur. Emerged as a football agent, Casal quickly acquired total relevance in the market of his country. He owns the company Tenfield, and the television channel GolTV. History Born in ...

. The club was relegated to Serie B in 1997, but promoted again in 1998. In 1999, during a game against Salernitana, he performed three nutmegs against the future World Cup winner, Gennaro Gattuso. After Cagliari was relegated again in 2000, O'Neill was transferred to

for a fee of 20 billion lire (€10 million). In January 2002 he moved to Perugia as part of a deal involving the transfer of

Davide Baiocco Davide Baiocco (born 8 May 1975) is an Italian former footballer, who currently plays for Palazzolo as a midfielder. Career From Perugia to Juventus A product of the Perugia youth system, he transferred to Juventus in January 2002 for 7. ...

to Juventus. He terminated his contract in the summer to return to Cagliari, now in Serie B, although he did not take to the field during his brief stay. In 2012, O'Neill admitted to twice having fixed Serie A games in order to win bets. In January 2003, O'Neill returned to Nacional but played only five times. He retired later that year at the age of 29, due to the effects of alcoholism, and returned to his cattle ranch. He later played and managed semiprofessional football in the Uruguayan lower leagues.

International career

O'Neill played 19 times for Uruguay. He played his first match for the national team on 16 June 1993 in a

Copa América The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...

group match won 1–0 against the United States. He came on as a substitute for Adrián Paz with seven minutes remaining, but took no further part in the tournament due to injury. The last of his 19 caps was in May 2002 against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

in Shenyang. He was a member of the Uruguay squad at the

but did not play.

Personal life and death

O'Neill had two daughters and a son, each of whom was born to a different mother. As of December 2021, his son Favio was playing as a defensive midfielder for the under-19 team of Peñarol, Nacional's rivals; as of June 2020, his middle child Martina was a field hockey player. His cousin Jairo (born 2001) also played for Peñarol. In 2013, O'Neill wrote an autobiography, ''Hasta la última gota'' (Until the Last Drop). He had a gallbladder operation in June 2016 and was told to abstain from alcohol for three years, but began drinking a month later. In February 2017, O'Neill said that he lost his fortune of US$14 million on "slow horses, fast women and gambling", but that he did not regret becoming poor. In his autobiography, he said that he once spent US$250,000 on 1,104 cows, having attended a cattle auction while drunk. O'Neill was hospitalised in June 2020 with cirrhosis. He was advised that if he abstained from alcohol for a year, he could have a liver transplant and live to old age. O'Neill died on 25 December 2022, at age 49, in a Montevideo hospital, where he had been in intensive care with bleeding due to chronic liver disease. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered in Paso de los Toros on 28 December.

Career statistics

:''Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each O'Neill goal.''

Honours

Nacional * Uruguayan Primera División:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Oneill, Fabian 1973 births 2022 deaths People from Paso de los Toros Footballers from Tacuarembó Department Uruguayan people of Irish descent Uruguayan men's footballers Cagliari Calcio players Club Nacional de Football players Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 2002 FIFA World Cup players 1993 Copa América players Men's association football midfielders Juventus FC players AC Perugia Calcio players Serie A players Serie B players Uruguayan Primera División players Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Alcohol-related deaths in Uruguay Deaths from liver disease