Gustavo Leonardo Cuéllar Gallegos (born 14 October 1992) is a Colombian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal and the Colombia national team.

Career

Deportivo Cali

Cuéllar began playing for the

Deportivo Cali Asociación Deportivo Cali, best known as Deportivo Cali, is a Colombian sports club based in Cali, most notable for its football team, which currently competes in the Categoría Primera A. Deportivo Cali is one of the most successful footba ...

youth setup and made his professional debut in 2009. He scored his first professional goal in the first match of the

2013 Categoría Primera A season The 2013 Categoría Primera A season (officially known as the 2013 Liga Postobón season for sponsorship reasons) was the 66th season of Colombia's top-flight football league. Millonarios came in as the defending champions having won the title i ...

Apertura tournament against Once Caldas. It was the winning goal of a 2-1 victory. Cuéllar formed a key part of the 2013 squad that finished runners-up in 2013 Torneo Finalización, losing in the finals to

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional association football, football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the countr ...

Junior (loan)

Cuéllar was loaned to Atlético Junior from mid-2014 to mid-2016. Junior were eliminated in the round-robin stage of the 2014 Torneo Finalización. With the arrival of

Alexis Mendoza Alexis Antonio Mendoza Barrina (born November 8, 1961) is a retired Colombian footballer and current manager. He was the assistant manager of Honduras national football team during the 2010 FIFA World Cup and of the Ecuador national football ...

as manager in 2015 Cuéllar established himself as one of the team's best players, participating in nearly 50 matches.

Flamengo

On January 20, 2016

confirmed that Cuéllar would be transferred to

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian giants

Flamengo Clube de Regatas do Flamengo (; English: ''Flamengo Rowing Club''), more commonly referred to as simply Flamengo, is a Brazilian sports club based in Rio de Janeiro, in the neighborhood of Gávea, best known for their professional football t ...

. The transfer fee was reported to be close to R$8 million for 70% of his economic rights. In his first season with the Brazilian club he could not establish himself as a regular starter. Cuéllar played 16

Brazilian Série A Brazilian commonly refers to: * Something of, from or relating to Brazil * Brazilian Portuguese, the dialect of the Portuguese language used mostly in Brazil * Brazilians, the people (citizens) of Brazil, or of Brazilian descent Brazilian may also ...

matches, only four as a starter, and managed to play a total 33 matches throughout the season. During the beginning of the 2017 Brazilian Série A season rumors in the Brazilian media linked Cuéllar with Vitória on a possible loan. Despite the interest from other clubs, Cuéllar started to receive more chances in the first team, including playing as a starter. Flamengo won the 2017 Campeonato Carioca with 6 appearances by Cuéllar. On June 28, 2017 in a

Copa do Brasil The Copa do Brasil ( en, Brazil Cup) is a knockout football competition played by 92 teams, representing all 26 Brazilian states plus the Federal District. It is the Brazilian domestic cup and the Brazilian equivalent of the FA Cup, Taça de ...

match against Santos at Ilha do Urubu, Cuéllar scored his first goal for Flamengo in a 2-0 victory. Only after Flamengo signed compatriot

Reinaldo Rueda Reinaldo Rueda Rivera (born 16 April 1957) is a Colombian Association football, football coach. When he was the coach of the Colombia national under-20 football team, Colombia U-20 team, they finished 3rd at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championsh ...

as head coach did Cuéllar manage to take a starting position in the midfield. He played a total of 51 matches in the season scoring two goals, including 25

matches. On June 8, 2018 Cuéllar extended his contract with Flamengo until June 2022, this new contract raised his release clause from

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists o ...

50m to

70m. Cuéllar continued to be a star player for Flamengo in central midfield, helping to capture the

2019 Campeonato Carioca The 2019 Campeonato Carioca de Futebol was the 116th edition of the top division of football in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The competition is organized by FERJ. The top four teams in the final standings of the tournament not otherwise qualified ...

. He continued to be a transfer target for some European clubs. In August 2019, Cuéllar was be suspended from club activities indefinitely for refusing to travel with the team for the following league match, citing family matters. He was reintegrated into the squad ahead of Flamengo's

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

quarter-final match against

Internacional Sport Club Internacional (), commonly known as Internacional or simply Inter, is a Brazilian professional football club based in Porto Alegre. They play in the Série A, the first division of the Brazilian league, as well as in Campeonato ...

, which would be his final match for the club.

Al-Hilal

On August 30, 2019, Saudi Arabian club Al-Hilal announced the signing of Cuéllar from Flamengo. The fee was reported to be

7.5m.

International career

Gustavo played for Colombia U17 in the

2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the thirteenth tournament of the FIFA U-17 World Cup held in Nigeria from 24 October to 15 November 2009. The tournament was won by Switzerland, beating the host team and holders, Nigeria. The Golden Ball to the Be ...

, he appeared in all seven matches and scored two goals, both against

Gambia The Gambia,, ff, Gammbi, ar, غامبيا officially the Republic of The Gambia, is a country in West Africa. It is the smallest country within mainland AfricaHoare, Ben. (2002) ''The Kingfisher A-Z Encyclopedia'', Kingfisher Publicatio ...

in a 2-2 draw, as the team finished the tournament in fourth place. He also represented Colombia U20 in the

2011 South American U-20 Championship The 2011 South American Youth Championship ( es, Campeonato Sudamericano Sub-20 “Juventud de America” Perú 2011, pt, Campeonato Sul-Americano Sub-20 “Juventude da America” Peru 2011) was a football competition for U-20 national teams in ...

, he had five appearances and the team finished the tournament in the sixth place. On September 8, 2015 Gustavo debuted for

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

as a starter in a 1-1 draw against

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

in Harrison, United States. In May 2018 he was named in

’s preliminary 35 man squad for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. However, he did not make the final cut to 23. On May 30, 2019 Cuéllar was named by manager Carlos Queiroz to the 23-man squad for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 ...

in Brazil. He made one appearance in the group stage, appearing in the starting lineup and scoring the winning goal against

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Colombia score listed first, score column indicates score after each Cuéllar goal.''

Honours

Club

Deportivo Cali * Copa Colombia:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

Junior *Copa Colombia:

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Flamengo *

Campeonato Carioca The Campeonato Carioca (Carioca Championship), officially known as Campeonato Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (Port., Rio de Janeiro State Championship), was started in 1906 and is the annual football championship in the state of Rio de Janeiro, B ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, Al-Hilal * Saudi Professional League: 2019–20,

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, 2021–22 *

King Cup The King Cup (sometimes spelled King's), officially known as The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques' Cup ( ar, كأس خادم الحرمين الشريفين), is the Saudi Arabian football knockout cup competition, run by the Saudi Arabian Foot ...

: 2019–20 *

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Saudi Super Cup The Saudi Super Cup ( ar, كأس السوبر السعودي) is an annual super cup football match organised by the Saudi Arabian Football Federation. Founded in 2013 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2022� ...

Individual

*Campeonato Carioca Team of the Year:

References

External links

*
Instagram
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuellar, Gustavo Living people 1992 births Colombian footballers Colombian expatriate footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Colombia international footballers Colombia under-20 international footballers Categoría Primera A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Saudi Professional League players Deportivo Cali footballers Atlético Junior footballers CR Flamengo footballers Al Hilal SFC players 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players Expatriate footballers in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Saudi Arabia Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Saudi Arabia Association football midfielders Footballers from Barranquilla