Roberto Cabañas González (11 April 1961 – 9 January 2017) was a Paraguayan

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 played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

Career

During his career, Cabañas played for

Cerro Porteño Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Primera División titles and is one of the most popular football clubs in Paraguay. Its presi ...

of Paraguay, Stade Brestois and

Olympique Lyonnais Olympique Lyonnais (), commonly referred to as simply Lyon () or OL, is a men and women's French professional football club based in Lyon in Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes. The men play in France's highest football division, Ligue 1. Founded in 1950, th ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, the

New York Cosmos New York Cosmos may refer to * New York Cosmos (1970–1985), a team in the North American Soccer League (then the top-tier soccer league in the United States and Canada) * New York Cosmos (2010), a team playing since 2020 in the National Independe ...

(winning the 1980 and 1982

NASL championship NASL or Nasl may refer to: * Nasl, Iran (disambiguation) * ''NASL Soccer'', a 1980 early sports videogame * National Association for the Support of Long Term Care, a US national trade association * Nessus Attack Scripting Language * North American ...

and top scorer and NASL MVP in 1983),

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

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 ...

(helping the team in reaching three consecutive

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 ...

finals) and

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

(winning the 1992 Apertura tournament and the 1992

Copa Master de Supercopa The Copa Master de Supercopa was a football competition contested by clubs that had previously won the Supercopa Libertadores. It was organized by CONMEBOL and only played in 1992 and 1995. A third edition was scheduled to be played in 1998 but th ...

). After representing Paraguay at the

1979 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship, the second staging of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Japan from 26 August to 7 September 1979. It was the first FIFA tournament played in Asia. The tournament took place in four cities — K ...

, Cabañas became a key player of the Paraguay national team during the 1980s. Cabañas was not only pivotal in Paraguay's qualification for the Mexico 1986 World Cup, but he also scored the two goals against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

in the pivotal third group match, thus tying the game at 2-2. This allowed Paraguay to qualify second in their group, behind Mexico. After retiring, Cabañas settled in

Cali, Colombia Santiago de Cali (), or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. The city spans with of urban area, making Cali the secon ...

, where he married and had two children. Cabañas died of a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in Asunción in January 2017, Paraguay. He was 55.Murió Roberto Cabañas
Infobae, 9 January 2017

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Cabanas, Roberto 1961 births 2017 deaths People from Ñeembucú Department Paraguayan footballers Paraguayan expatriate footballers Cerro Porteño players América de Cali footballers Stade Brestois 29 players Olympique Lyonnais players Boca Juniors footballers New York Cosmos players Club Libertad footballers Expatriate footballers in Argentina Expatriate footballers in France Expatriate footballers in Ecuador Expatriate footballers in Colombia Expatriate soccer players in the United States Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in France Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Ecuador Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Paraguayan expatriate sportspeople in the United States North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players Paraguayan Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Ligue 1 players Ligue 2 players Categoría Primera A players Ecuadorian Serie A players Paraguay under-20 international footballers Paraguay international footballers Copa América-winning players 1979 Copa América players 1986 FIFA World Cup players 1987 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players América de Cali managers Association football forwards Paraguayan football managers 20th-century Paraguayan people 21st-century Paraguayan people