Teófilo Juan Cubillas Arizaga (; born 8 March 1949) is a Peruvian former

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 an

attacking midfielder A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, 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 #Cent ...

. He was selected as Peru's greatest ever player in an

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

poll, in which he was also included in the world's Top 50. He was renowned for his technique, shooting ability and free kick ability. Nicknamed ''El Nene'' ''(The Kid)'', he 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 The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

and again at the

1978 World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by ...

and was elected the

South American Footballer of the Year The Rey del Fútbol de América ("King of Football of America"), often referred to as the South American Footballer of the Year, is an annual association football award presented to the best footballer in South America over the previous calendar ...

in 1972. In 2004,

Pelé Edson Arantes do Nascimento (; born 23 October 1940), known as Pelé (), is a Brazilian former professional footballer who played as a forward. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and labelled "the greatest" by FIFA, ...

selected Cubillas as one of the

FIFA 100 The FIFA 100 is a list of Brazilian footballer Pelé's choice of the "greatest living footballers". Unveiled on 4 March 2004 at a gala ceremony in London, England, the FIFA 100 marked part of the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the fo ...

, 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 three players to score five or more goals in two different World Cups, the other two being

Miroslav Klose Miroslav Josef Klose (, pl, Mirosław Józef Klose; born 9 June 1978 as Mirosław Marian Klose) is a German professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who is the head coach of Austrian Footb ...

and

Thomas Müller Thomas Müller (; born 13 September 1989) is a German professional footballer who plays for club Bayern Munich and the Germany national team. A versatile player, Müller has been deployed in a variety of attacking roles – as an attacking m ...

Club career

Nicknamed "''Nene''" (the babe) for his boyish looks, Cubillas began his career with

Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, popularly known as Alianza Lima or simply Alianza, is a Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. It is widely known for having one of the most historical and successful football teams i ...

at the age of 16 in 1966. Whilst at Alianza he was top scorer in the

Peruvian Primera División The Peru First Division (; ''First Division'') —known as Liga 1 Betsson for sponsorship reasons and officially as Liga 1 — is the top flight of association football in Peru. It has been referred to as Torneo Descentralizado since 1966, when ...

in 1966 and 1970.Peruvian Championship: Top Scorer
Retrieved on 3 January 2009 In 1972, he had his most successful season in several years. He was Libertadores Cup top scorer and

. In the summer of 1973, Cubillas transferred to

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

football club

FC Basel Fussball Club Basel 1893, widely known as FC Basel, FCB, or just Basel, is a Swiss football club based in Basel, in the Canton of Basel-Stadt. Formed in 1893, the club has been Swiss national champions 20 times, Swiss Cup winners 13 times, and ...

under head coach

Helmut Benthaus Helmut Benthaus (born 5 June 1935) is a German former association football, football player and coach. He spent his best playing days at Westfalia Herne and his best coaching days at FC Basel. Early career Born in Herne, Germany, Herne, 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 Coppa delle Alpi (translated as ''Cup of the Alps'') was a friendly football tournament, first organized by the Italian national league as it started in 1960 and then they were aided by the Swiss League from 1962, for the reason that the majorit ...

games, Cubillas played his domestic league debut for his new 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 Fram may refer to: Ships * ''Fram'' (ship), an arctic exploration vessel from Norway * MS ''Fram'', expedition cruise ship owned by Hurtigruten Group Places and geography * Fram, Paraguay, a town in Itapúa, Paraguay * Fram Formation, a se ...

on 19 September 1973 and the second in the return leg on 20 September. He only remained at the club for six months, which was not long enough for him to show the extent of his talent. In these six months Cubillas played a total of 21 games for Basel scoring a total of eight goals.10 of these games were in the Nationalliga A, two in the

Swiss Cup The Swiss Cup (; ; ; ) is a football cup tournament that has been organised annually since 1925–26 by the Swiss Football Association. Since 1999 the winner earns the chance to qualify for the UEFA Europa League or the UEFA Europa Conference L ...

, four in the European Cup, four in the

and one was a friendly game. He scored three goals in the league, two in the domestic cup, two in the European Cup and the other one was scored in the Cup of the Alps. Later on, for the second half of the 1973–74 season he joined

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

club

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, MHIH, OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional football team playing in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

for a fee of £200,000. In 1977, he returned to Alianza Lima. In 1979, Cubillas joined the NASL, signing for

Fort Lauderdale Strikers Fort Lauderdale Strikers may refer to: *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983), member of North American Soccer League from 1977 to 1983 *Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994), member of American Soccer League from 1988 to 1989 and American Profes ...

, where he spent five seasons, scoring 59 league goals, including three goals in seven minutes against the

Los Angeles Aztecs The Los Angeles Aztecs was an American professional soccer team based in Los Angeles, California that existed from 1974 to 1981. The Aztecs competed in the North American Soccer League (NASL) from 1974 to 1981 as well as the 1975 NASL Indoor tour ...

in 1981. Following the December 1987 Alianza Lima air crash Cubillas returned from his Miami home 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. In May 1988 Cubillas signed with the newly resurrected

of the American Soccer League. The Strikers went to the ASL title game where they fell to the

Washington Diplomats The Washington Diplomats were an American soccer club representing Washington, D.C. Throughout their playing existence, the club played their home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium and indoor home matches at the neighboring D.C. Arm ...

. Following the loss to the Diplomats, the Strikers released Cubillas. In March 1989, he signed with the

Miami Sharks The Miami Sharks were an inaugural franchise of the third incarnation of the American Soccer League in 1988. The team was renamed the Miami Freedom and joined the American Professional Soccer League in 1990 when the ASL merged with the Western Soc ...

but was released on 3 July after scoring only one goal in eight games. As of June 1991 he was playing and coaching at Miramar Illusiones of the Gold Coast Soccer League in Florida.

International career

Cubillas played in three

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

s between 1970 and 1982.Teofilo Cubillas: Legends of the Football World Cup
Retrieved on 19 May 2013

1970 World Cup

Cubillas helped the Peru national team advance to the quarter-finals of the

in Mexico. He scored in all of Peru's four matches: once against

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

, twice against

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, and once against

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

, all in the first round. Cubillas then scored another goal in the quarter-final loss against eventual champions

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 ...

, and he thus finished as the third highest goal scorer in the tournament. He won the FIFA World Cup Young Player Award, and was third in the Golden Shoe award.

1975 Copa America

The Peru national team did not qualify for the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the tenth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the first time that the ...

, but a year later, Cubillas helped Peru win its second South American title, the

Copa América 1975 Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Ass ...

. Cubillas scored against

in the semi-final, and then played in the play-off match in the final.

1978 World Cup

In the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

in Argentina, Cubillas scored five goals for Peru, finishing co-second highest goal scorer after

Mario Kempes Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi (; born 15 July 1954) is an Argentine former professional footballer who played as a striker or attacking midfielder. A prolific goalscorer, he finished as La Liga's top goalscorer twice with Valencia and amassed 11 ...

. Peru advanced to the second phase of the tournament thanks to goals from Cubillas: he scored two goals in the opening match against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

(one of which was an excellent free-kick), and he then scored a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

in the game against

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, including two penalties. However, Peru subsequently lost to Brazil,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

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 ...

, although Cubillas played in all six Peru matches in the tournament.

1982 World Cup

Cubillas was also in the Peru national team for

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

. He played in all three group games but did not score any goals.

Career statistics

Club

International

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

Honours

Porto *

Taça de Portugal The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...

: 1976–77 Alianza Lima *

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

1978 Events January * January 1 – Air India Flight 855, a Boeing 747 passenger jet, crashes off the coast of Bombay, killing 213. * January 5 – Bülent Ecevit, of Republican People's Party, CHP, forms the new government of Turkey (42nd go ...

Fort Lauderdale Sun *

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

: 1984, 1985 Peru *

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 ...

1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 - Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...

Individual *

top scorer: 1966, 1970 * FIFA World Cup Best Young Player: 1970 *

FIFA World Cup Bronze Boot At the end of each FIFA World Cup final tournament, several awards are presented to the players and teams who have distinguished themselves in various aspects of the game. Awards *There are currently five post-tournament awards from the FIFA ...

: 1970 *

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 ...

top scorer:

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

: 1972 *

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

All-Star Team: 1973 * Copa America Best Player: 1975 * FIFA World Cup Silver Boot: 1978 *

FIFA World Cup All-Star Team At the end of each FIFA World Cup final tournament, several awards are presented to the players and teams who have distinguished themselves in various aspects of the game. Awards *There are currently five post-tournament awards from the FIFA ...

: 1978 * NASL All-Star teams, all-time: 1980, 1981 * NASL Best Midfield: 1981 *

top scorer, all time: 1984 *

France Football ''France Football'' is a French weekly magazine containing football news from all over the world. It is considered to be one of the most reputable sports publications in Europe, mostly because of its photographic reports, in-depth and exclusiv ...

top 100 1930–1990: 2000 * World Soccer The 100 Greatest Footballers of All Time: 2000 *

Placar ''Placar'' ( en, Score) is a monthly Brazilian sports magazine. Its first edition was issued by Editora Abril. on March 20, 1970, and since then it has become the most successful sports publication in Brazil, even though it focuses fully on foot ...

The 100 Players of the Century: 2000 *

The 100 Players

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

: 2000 *

: 2004 *

' Best Players of the Century for Peru: 2006 *World – Player of the Century Nº 48: 2006 *South American – Player of the Century Nº 17: 2006 *The Best of The Best – Player of the Century Top 50: 2007 *

All-Star first team 1958–2008: 2008CONMEBOL All-Star first team 1958–2008
Retrieved on 3 January 2009 * Peru national team all-time scoring leader: 2008

References

External links

CubillasInc.com and Nene Cubillas Camp Futbol – Official Website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubillas, Teofilo 1949 births Living people Footballers from Lima FIFA 100 Peru international footballers Club Alianza Lima footballers American Soccer League (1988–89) players FC Basel players FC Porto players Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1988–1994) players Fort Lauderdale Strikers (1977–1983) players Fort Lauderdale Sun players Miami Freedom players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) indoor players North American Soccer League (1968–1984) players United Soccer League (1984–85) players Primeira Liga players Peruvian Primera División players 1970 FIFA World Cup players 1978 FIFA World Cup players 1982 FIFA World Cup players 1975 Copa América players Expatriate footballers in Switzerland Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate footballers in Portugal Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in Portugal Expatriate soccer players in the United States Peruvian expatriate sportspeople in the United States South American Footballer of the Year winners Copa América-winning players Peruvian footballers Association football midfielders Swiss Super League players Peruvian people of African descent