Héctor Daniel "Tito" Villalba (born 26 July 1994) is a professional

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 lea ...

who plays as a winger for

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , , local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, football league in Uruguay organized b ...

team

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

. Born in Argentina, he represents

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

internationally.

Club career

Villalba was born on 26 July 1994 and lived almost to maturity in the Villa 1–11–14. He arrived in San Lorenzo when he was 10, and was chosen after a test in which 500 boys were selected to start a path to professionalism. He confessed to being a fan of San Lorenzo, and went through all the lower levels at the club. On 18 August 2012, he made his debut in the Primera Division Argentina, against

Estudiantes de La Plata ( lit. "La Plata Students"), simply referred to as Estudiantes de La Plata, is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Plata. The club's football team currently competes in the Primera División, where it has spent most of its histo ...

, when he entered in the 37th minute of the second half replacing Luis Aguiar, with Ricardo Caruso Lombardi as team manager. On 22 July 2016, Villaba signed as a young Designated Player with

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

side

Atlanta United Atlanta United FC is an American professional association football, soccer club based in Atlanta. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won o ...

. He joined

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

side

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

on loan on 28 July 2016, but struggled to make many appearances for the club due to injury. On 31 January 2020, Villaba was transferred to

Paraguayan Primera División The División Profesional de la Paraguayan Football Association, Asociación Paraguaya de Fútbol (; "Professional Division of the Paraguayan Football Association"), also known as the Primera División (; "first division"), or due to sponsorship ...

side

Club Libertad Club Libertad is a Paraguayan professional football club based in Asunción that currently plays in the Paraguayan Primera División. The club plays its home games at Estadio Tigo La Huerta; which holds 10,100 people. Founded in 1905, Liber ...

for 4 million USD. On 30 January 2025, Villalba was sold to

side

for approximately 1.8 million USD.

International career

Born in Argentina, Héctor is also eligible to represent the Paraguay national team because his father was born there. On 5 September 2018, he made the one-time switch to Paraguay in hopes of making the squad for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 Ju ...

and the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. On 25 September 2018, Villalba was called up to Paraguay along with fellow club teammate

Miguel Almirón Miguel Ángel Almirón Rejala (born 10 February 1994) is a Paraguayan professional association football, footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or Midfielder#Winger, right winger for Major League Soccer club Atlanta United FC, Atlanta U ...

for a national team camp despite not scheduling any friendlies. He made his competitive debut with Paraguay on 20 November as a substitute in the second half of the friendly match against

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Personal life

Villalba can speak Guarani, an indigenous language spoken in Paraguay. In January 2018, Villalba earned a U.S. green card which qualifies him as a domestic player for MLS roster purposes.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

San Lorenzo *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

: 2013 Inicial *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

Supercopa Argentina The Supercopa Argentina (English: Argentine Super Cup) is an official national association football cup of Argentina organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The annual football match was played for the first time in 2012, being con ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Atlanta United *

MLS Cup MLS Cup is the annual championship game of Major League Soccer (MLS) and the culmination of the MLS Playoffs. The game is held in November or December and pits the winner of the Eastern Conference Final against the winner of the Western Confere ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* Eastern Conference (playoffs):

* U.S. Open Cup:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Campeones Cup The Campeones Cup is an annual North American association football match contested between the winners of the previous MLS Cup from Major League Soccer and the winners of the Campeón de Campeones from Liga MX. The competition was established by ...

Libertad *

: 2021 Apertura, 2022 Apertura, 2023 Apertura, 2023 Clausura *

Copa Paraguay The Copa Paraguay is a knockout football competition in men's domestic Paraguayan football, starting in 2018 and succeeding the defunct Torneo República. The project for its creation was officially presented in December 2017 and approved by the ...

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

Supercopa Paraguay The Supercopa Paraguay (''Paraguay Supercup'') is an annual one-match football official competition in Paraguay organised by the Paraguayan Football Association (APF) which is played by the Primera División champions with the best record in the s ...

Individual *

MLS Goal of the Year The MLS Goal of the Year Award (currently commercially termed "AT&T MLS Goal of the Year") is handed out annually since its inception in 1996 to a player in Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association footbal ...

: 2017

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Villalba, Hector 1994 births Living people Footballers from Buenos Aires Argentine sportspeople of Paraguayan descent Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Paraguayan men's footballers Paraguayan expatriate men's footballers Paraguay men's international footballers Men's association football forwards San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Atlanta United FC players Club Tijuana footballers Club Libertad footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Argentine Primera División players Copa Libertadores–winning players Liga MX players Major League Soccer players Designated Players (MLS) 21st-century Argentine sportsmen 21st-century Paraguayan sportsmen