Francisco José Las Heras Risso (born 21 August 1949) is a Chilean 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 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 ...

. He played for Universidad de Chile, Unión Española, Coquimbo Unido and Deportes Aviación, winning titles with the first two, and also played for Mexican club

Tecos Tecos Fútbol Club (often referred to by its nickname "Tecos") is a Mexican professional football club associated with the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara AC. It plays its home games in the '' Estadio 3 de Marzo'' (March 3 Stadium, named fo ...

. Internationally, he represented

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

at the

1975 Copa América The 1975 edition of the Copa América football tournament was played between 17 July and 28 October. For the first time there was no fixed venue, and all matches were played throughout the year in each country. In addition, the tournament changed ...

Life and career

Las Heras, the son of Francisco Las Heras Marrodán who played football for

in the 1940s, attended the Instituto Alonso de Ercilla in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

and studied at the University of Chile. He began his football career in the youth system of the

Primera División Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

club associated with that university, Universidad de Chile, and made his first-team debut at the age of 17, contributing to their 1967 title. He appeared infrequently for the next couple of seasons as the team won another Primera title, in 1969, as well as two Torneo Metropolitanos, but became a regular from 1970 onwards. In 1973, Las Heras signed for Unión Española, with whom he won two Primera titles in three seasons as well as reaching the final of the 1975 Copa Libertadores. Facing the Argentine superstars of Independiente, Unión Española won the first leg 1–0 with a late goal, but lost the second leg 3–1the goal scored by Las Heras with a

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) * Penalty ...

in a controversial match in which the Chilean players blamed weak refereeing for the defeat. In the days before the

away goals rule The away goals rule is a method of tiebreaker, tiebreaking in association football and other sports when teams play each other twice, once at each team's home ground. Under the away goals rule, if the total goals scored by each team are equal, the ...

, a play-off in a neutral country decided the result: Independiente beat Unión Española 2–0 to win their fourth consecutive Copa Libertadores. Las Heras was included in

's squad for the

. He made his debut on 17 July, in the starting eleven for Chile's first group match, a 1–1 draw with

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 Santiago, and started all three remaining group matches. Chile finished second in their group, but only the group winners progressed to the next stage of the competition. Those were his only appearances at senior international level. After his international commitments ended, Las Heras joined

, newly promoted to the

Mexican Primera División The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in al ...

. He played in 26 matches, half in the starting eleven, half as substitute, as they qualified for the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. He made the last of his 30 league appearances on matchday 10 of the following season, before returning to Union Española. He won his third Primera División title with the club in 1977. After two more years, he moved on to another Primera club, Coquimbo Unido, and then spent the 1981 season with Deportes Aviación of the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. After retiring from football, Las Heras worked in the pharmaceutical industry.

Honours

Universidad de Chile * Torneo Metropolitano: 1968, 1969 *

Chilean Primera División The Chilean Primera División (English: First Division) is the top-tier league of the Chilean football league system. It is organized by the ''Asociación Nacional de Fútbol Profesional, ANFP''. The league is known as the Campeonato AFP PlanVital ...

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

1969 This year is notable for Apollo 11's first landing on the moon. Events January * January 4 – The Government of Spain hands over Ifni to Morocco. * January 5 **Ariana Afghan Airlines Flight 701 crashes into a house on its approach to ...

* Copa Francisco Candelori: 1969 Unión Española * Chilean Primera División:

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, U.S. ...

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. ...

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 ...

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 ...

runners-up:

References

External links

Francisco Las Heras
at PartidosdeLaRoja {{DEFAULTSORT:Las Heras, Francisco 1949 births Living people Footballers from Santiago Chilean men's footballers Chile men's international footballers Men's association football midfielders Club Universidad de Chile footballers Unión Española footballers Tecos F.C. footballers Coquimbo Unido footballers C.D. Aviación footballers Chilean Primera División players Liga MX players Primera B de Chile players 1975 Copa América players University of Chile alumni Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico