Martín Ricardo Ligüera López (born 9 November 1980) is a Uruguayan

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

and former player who played as an

attacking midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

. He is the current coordinator of

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

Club career

Born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, Ligüera made his first division debut in 1997 for Uruguayan power

. However it was his play with Fénix in which he scored 33 goals in 53 first division matches, which started to draw him interest from European clubs. While at Fénix his play helped convert the small Montevideo side into the revelation of the Uruguayan First division. They qualified for the 2003

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

, in which they had a famous 6-1 victory over Mexican side Cruz Azul with Ligüera tallying 3 goals. Ligüera's contract was purchased by

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side

Mallorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest of the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain, and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, seventh largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. The capital of the island, Palma, Majorca, Palma, i ...

. His stay at the club was short-lived due to foreign player restrictions. Ligüera played one game in

for

, against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in Seville, Andalusia, that competes in La Liga, the Spanish football league system, top flight of Spanish football. The club was formed on 25 January ...

, on 21 September 2003. He also scored in the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

, and appeared in three

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

matches for Mallorca, starting in two of those matches. In January 2004, due to the arrival of

Andrija Delibasic Andrija (; sr-cyr, Андрија) is a South Slavic masculine given name. It is cognate to Greek ''Andreas'', or English Andrew. Notable people with the name include: *Andrija, Prince of Hum (fl. 1203–50), medieval nobleman from the Vukanović ...

, he was loaned out to

Grasshopper Club Zürich Grasshopper Club Zurich (GCZ), commonly referred to as Grasshopper Club or simply just GC, is a professional sports club, multisports club based in Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. They are nicknamed the ''Grasshoppers'' or sometimes just ''Hopper ...

in order to free the non-EU seat. After the 2004 campaign, Ligüera returned to Uruguay and

to help lead the club to a league title. His play once began to draw the interest of other South American clubs, resulting in stints with San Luis in Mexico and Peruvian powerhouse

Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, more commonly known as simply Alianza Lima, is a Peru, Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District, Lima, La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. The club was founded under the name of Sport Alianza on February ...

. While at Alianza, Martin helped the club win a Peruvian League title and participated in the

. In 2009, he signed for Olimpia of Paraguay.

International career

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

full international, he also played at the

1999 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship took place in Nigeria between 3 and 24 April 1999. This was the 12th edition of the tournament. Qualification The following 24 teams qualified for the 1999 FIFA World Youth Championship. :1.Teams tha ...

. He has represented his country 15 times and scored seven goals including a hat-trick on 15 August 2003 in a 5–2 victory over

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

Career statistics

International

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Liguera, Martin 1980 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguay men's youth international footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguayan Primera División players Club Nacional de Football players C.A. Cerro players Defensor Sporting players Centro Atlético Fénix players La Liga players RCD Mallorca players Grasshopper Club Zurich players Liga MX players San Luis F.C. players Peruvian Primera División players Club Alianza Lima footballers Paraguayan Primera División players Club Olimpia footballers Chilean Primera División players Unión Española footballers Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Club Athletico Paranaense players Joinville Esporte Clube players Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Peru Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Chile Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Peru Expatriate men's footballers in Paraguay Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Men's association football midfielders Uruguayan football managers Club Nacional de Football managers C.A. Rentistas managers Uruguayan Primera División managers Uruguayan Segunda División managers