Gustavo Adrián López Pablo (born 13 April 1973) is an Argentinian former professional footballer who played as a

left winger 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 spent the vast majority of his professional career in Spain, amassing

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

totals of 310 matches and 33 goals during 11 seasons (13 in the country overall), playing for

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

and Celta. He started his career with Independiente. An Argentine international for nine years, López represented the nation at the

2002 World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

and two Copa América tournaments.

Club career

Early years and Zaragoza

Born in

Valentín Alsina, Buenos Aires Valentín Alsina is a city in the Lanús Partido of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. It is located next to Buenos Aires city in the Gran Buenos Aires urban area. History The city was named after Valentín Alsina (1802–1869), two-time Governor ...

, López began his career with local Club Atlético Independiente in 1991. He won four major titles during his spell there, all arriving in his last years. In January 1996, López moved to Spain with

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

for a club record 420 million pesetas, making his

debut on the 7th in a 1–1 home draw against

Rayo Vallecano Rayo Vallecano de Madrid, S.A.D. (), often abbreviated to Rayo (Spanish for "thunderbolt"), is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid, in the neighbourhood of Vallecas. Rayo was founded on 29 May 1924, and currently compete in La Li ...

. He scored five goals in 32 matches in his third full season, helping to the ninth position in the table; during most of his stint in Aragon, he partnered countryman

Kily González Cristian Alberto 'Kily' González Peret (born 4 August 1974) is an Argentine football manager and former professional footballer who played mainly as a left winger, and is currently a head coach. He started his career with Rosario Central whi ...

Celta

López rejoined former Zaragoza manager

Víctor Fernández Víctor Fernández Braulio (born 28 November 1960) is a Spanish football manager. He had three spells with his hometown team Zaragoza, winning the Copa del Rey in 1994 and the Cup Winners' Cup a year later. He also led Tenerife, Celta, Be ...

Celta de Vigo Real Club Celta de Vigo (; ), commonly known as Celta de Vigo or simply Celta, is a Spanish professional football club based in Vigo, Galicia, that competes in La Liga, the top tier of Spanish football. Nicknamed ''Os Celestes'' (The Sky Blues ...

in summer 1999, and quickly became an essential first-team unit. He netted twice in five appearances in the 2000–01 edition of the

Copa del Rey The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

, helping the side to the final against his former club (1–3 loss in

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

), then contributed with 33 games (29 starts, 2.232 minutes of action) in the 2002–03 campaign as the

Galicians Galicians ( gl, galegos, es, gallegos, link=no) are a Celtic-Romance ethnic group from Spain that is closely related to the Portuguese people and has its historic homeland is Galicia, in the north-west of the Iberian Peninsula. Two Romance la ...

finished fourth and qualified for the

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competi ...

for the first time in their history. At the end of 2006–07, after having suffered his second relegation with Celta and having already renewed his contract twice by reducing his wages, 34-year-old López decided to leave the club, amassing official totals of 292 matches and 29 goals. He retired at the end of the following season, also dropping down a level with Cádiz CF in Segunda División, then worked as commentator for

Canal+ Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface flo ...

on their coverage of La Liga and for PRISA regarding the Argentine top level, as well as running training camps for children.

International career

López won 32

caps Caps are flat headgear. Caps or CAPS may also refer to: Science and technology Computing * CESG Assisted Products Service, provided by the U.K. Government Communications Headquarters * Composite Application Platform Suite, by Java Caps, a Ja ...

for

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 ...

and scored four goals, making his debut against

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

in December 1994. He represented the country at the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

and 1999 Copa América tournaments, being an unused squad member at the ill-fated

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

in Japan and

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...

. Additionally, López helped the under-23 side win the silver medal at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, scoring in the 3–1 group stage win over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

Managerial career

On June 15, 2022 López joined

Diego Simeone Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970, nicknamed El Cholo (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder; he has been the manager of Atlético Madrid since December 2011. In his cl ...

's coaching staff in Atlético Madrid.

Honours

Independiente * Argentine Primera División: Clausura 1994 * Supercopa Sudamericana: 1994, 1995 * Recopa Sudamericana: 1995 Celta * UEFA Intertoto Cup:

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

: Runner-up 2000–01 Argentina * Summer Olympic Games: Silver medal 1996

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Gustavo Adrian 1973 births Living people Sportspeople from Lanús Argentine people of Spanish descent Citizens of Spain through descent Argentine emigrants to Spain Argentine footballers Association football wingers Argentine Primera División players Club Atlético Independiente footballers La Liga players Segunda División players Real Zaragoza players RC Celta de Vigo players Cádiz CF players Argentina international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1997 Copa América players 1999 Copa América players Olympic footballers of Argentina Footballers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in football Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Argentina Argentine expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Spain