Rubén Galván (7 April 1952 – 14 March 2018) was an Argentine football 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 ...

for Club Atlético Independiente for most of his career. At international level, he was part of the

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 ...

squad that won the 1978 FIFA World Cup on home soil.

Club career

Galván is one of the most decorated players in the history of Argentine football with four Copa Libertadores, two Nacional Championships and a

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 ...

title to his name. Galván was part of the Independiente team that won four consecutive Copa Libertadores titles between 1972 and 1975. He was also part of the team that won back to back Nacional championships in 1977 and 1978. In 1980, he had a short spell with Estudiantes de La Plata but he retired later that year at age 27.

Personal life

Nicknamed ''el Negro'', Galván had a bout with Hepatitis C that required a

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...

transplant in 2007. He died of cirrhosis in March 2018.

Honours

Independiente * Copa Libertadores: 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975 * Intercontinental Cup:

1973 Events January * January 1 - The United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland and Denmark 1973 enlargement of the European Communities, enter the European Economic Community, which later becomes the European Union. * January 15 – Vietnam War: ...

Primera División Argentina 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, c ...

–

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

: 1977, 1978 Argentina *

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 ...

: 1978

References

External links

* * 1952 births 2018 deaths Argentine footballers Argentina international footballers Association football midfielders Club Atlético Independiente footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers 1978 FIFA World Cup players Copa Libertadores-winning players FIFA World Cup-winning players People from Formosa Province Argentine Primera División players {{Argentina-footy-midfielder-stub