Francisco "Pinula" López Contreras (born 17 September 1934) is a Guatemalan former football player and coach. He played the majority of his playing career at

C.S.D. Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

of Guatemala City and was also a member of the Guatemala national team, playing in two World Cup qualifying campaigns.

Club career

Born in Santa Catarina Pinula, source of his nickname, López played as an

Outside right Forwards (also known as attackers) are outfield positions in an association football team who play the furthest up the pitch and are therefore most responsible for scoring goals as well as assisting them. As with any attacking player, the role ...

and made his domestic league debut with

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

in 1955, and would go on to play 14 seasons at that club, winning four league titles, one domestic cup, and four ''Campeón de Campeones'' (Guatemala Super Cup).Source: http://digital.nuestrodiario.com/Olive/ODE/NuestroDiario/LandingPage/LandingPage.aspx?href=R05ELzIwMDkvMDgvMTQ.&pageno=NTU.&entity=QXIwNTUwMA..&view=ZW50aXR5 In 1956 he helped Comunicaciones win their first ever league title by scoring the championship-winning goal against arch-rivals

CSD Municipal Club Social y Deportivo Municipal, also known as Municipal or ''Los Rojos'' (the Reds), is a Guatemalan football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football, and play their home matches a ...

. Two seasons later he would score again in the decisive match against Xelajú M.C. at the Estadio Mario Camposeco in a 3-0 win that gave the title to Comunicaciones.Source: http://www.camerinocrema.com/portal/modules/wfchannel/index.php?wfc_cid=6 On 18 January 1959 Comunicaciones played a friendly match against

Santos FC Santos Futebol Clube (), commonly known simply as Santos or Santos FC and nicknamed the ''Peixe'' (; "fish"), is a Brazilian sports club based in Vila Belmiro, a '' bairro'' in the city of Santos. It is also the team with the most goals i ...

, with

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 ...

's legend Pelé in its squad, at the

Estadio Mateo Flores The Estadio Nacional Doroteo Guamuch Flores is a multi-use national stadium in Guatemala City, the largest venue in Guatemala. It was built in 1948, to host the Central American and Caribbean Games in 1950, and was renamed after long-distance ru ...

. Santos took a 2-0 lead with goals by Pelé and

Pepe Pepe is a pet form of the Spanish name José (Josep). It is also a surname. * People Mononyms * Pepe (footballer, born 1935), real name José Macia, Brazilian footballer *Pepe (footballer, born 1983), real name Képler Laveran Lima Ferreira ...

, and nine minutes before the match ended, "Pinula" scored the 2-1. Facing Municipal again in the title match of the 1959-60 season, Comunicaciones won 2-1 with the 1-1 equalizer netted by "Pinula". The title allowed Comunicaciones to compete in the first CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1962, with "Pinula" scoring against C.D. Águila in the first round, and helping the team reach the final of the tournament against Guadalajara. He was also part of the Comunicaciones squad that played an exhibition match against

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...

giants Real Madrid on 20 August 1960.http://www.carreteranews.com/ediciones_pdf/edicion63.pdf

National team

"Pinula" was part of the Guatemala national team which entered

World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

for the first time during the 1958 World Cup qualifiers, and continued to represent the team four years later for the 1962 process. During the first stage of the latter, in a 4-4 draw against Costa Rica, "Pinula" scored three goalsSource

/ref> becoming the only Guatemalan player to score 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 ...

against Costa Rica in a World Cup qualification match. In total, he scored five goals in six World Cup qualification matches. He also played at the

1961 CCCF Championship The 1961 CCCF Championship was played in March 1961 in San José, Costa Rica. Costa Rica emerged as champion. It was the final edition of the tournament, as shortly afterward the CCCF was subsumed into CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Ce ...

and at the

1963 CONCACAF Championship The 1963 CONCACAF Championship was the first edition of the CONCACAF Championship, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was held between 23 March to 7 April. Nine teams partici ...

Coaching career

López Contreras has been a coach in the youth divisions of Comunicaciones, as well as of the senior team. He has also managed a number of teams in lower divisions, including Coatepeque, Nueva Santa Rosa, Santa Catarina Pinula, Mixco, Fraijanes, Villa Canales, and Boca del Monte. The municipal stadium of Santa Catarina Pinula, the ''Estadio Pinula Contreras'', was renamed in his honor.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Contreras, Pinula 1934 births Living people People from Guatemala Department Guatemalan men's footballers Guatemala men's international footballers Comunicaciones F.C. players Men's association football forwards