Nicolás "Nico" Federico López Alonso (born 1 October 1993), also known as "''El Diente''," is a Uruguayan 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 forward 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 ...

club Nacional on loan from Mexican club León.

Club career

Early career

Nicknamed "''El Conejo''" (The Rabbit) or "''El Diente''" (The Tooth), López started his playing career with Montevideo Wanderers, but was originally rejected after he was deemed not to be physically strong enough to play professionally. He successively joined the Nacional youth academy, where he turned into a very prolific striker and, more occasionally, left winger. On 24 April 2011, after being born as part of the first team under head coach Juan Ramón Carrasco, López made his debut at the age of 17 in a league game against

Central Español Central Español Fútbol Club, usually known simply as Central Español is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. History The F.U.F era Together with Peñarol, Central founded FUF (Uruguayan football federation) in 1923 after being expel ...

, promptly scoring also his first senior goal. In August 2011, he was involved in a feud with Nacional, after his father revealed the player was in Italy in order to hold talks with a number of unspecified Serie A sides, leading his Uruguayan club and the national federation to consider potential actions to the

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

against the player. López ended his Nacional career with 3 goals in 6 games in all competitions.

Roma

López was acquired by Roma in the January 2012 transfer window, and then included in the ''Primavera'' under-19 squad for the rest of the season, scoring 15 times in 12 youth games. López was taken into consideration as a first team player by new head coach Zdeněk Zeman, who included him in the senior roster for the pre-season camp and then featured him in a number of friendly games. López made his first team debut on 26 August 2012, replacing captain

Francesco Totti Francesco Totti (; born 27 September 1976) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer who played solely for AS Roma, Roma and the Italy national football team, Italy national team. He was a technically gifted and creati ...

in the final minutes of the first game of the Serie A season, a home match versus

Catania Catania (, , , Sicilian and ) is the second-largest municipality on Sicily, after Palermo, both by area and by population. Despite being the second city of the island, Catania is the center of the most densely populated Sicilian conurbation, wh ...

, and promptly scored an injury time equaliser (the game ended 2–2). He also started the round of 16

cup A cup is an open-top vessel (container) used to hold liquids for drinking, typically with a flattened hemispherical shape, and often with a capacity of about . Cups may be made of pottery (including porcelain), glass, metal, wood, stone, pol ...

match against

Atalanta Atalanta (; ) is a heroine in Greek mythology. There are two versions of the huntress Atalanta: one from Arcadia (region), Arcadia, whose parents were Iasus and Clymene (mythology), Clymene and who is primarily known from the tales of the Caly ...

. Lopez played 7 times, scoring once in his first season in the Roma first team.

Udinese

On 13 July 2013, he joined Udinese with Valerio Verre.

Internacional

On 19 July 2016, Brazilian club Internacional announced that signed with Nico López. Colorado paid €4 million for 50% of Uruguayan footballer's rights.

Tigres UANL

In December 2019, López was transferred to

Tigres UANL Club Tigres de la Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León, abbreviated as Tigres UANL and simply known as Tigres or internationally as Tigres de México, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in the Monterrey metropo ...

, the Mexican club paid a $10 million fee. He was the top goalscorer of the

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 ...

's Apertura 2021 season.

International career

López has represented

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

at Under-20 level, scoring 10 goals in his 16 caps. He played at the

2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2013 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the nineteenth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. It ran from 21 June to 13 July 2013. At the FIFA Executive Meeting in Zürich on 3 March 2011, ...

, earning the Silver Ball award after scoring four goals. On 21 October 2022, López was named in Uruguay's 55-man preliminary squad for 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 ...

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Nacional *

: 2010–11 UANL *

: Clausura 2023 * Campeón de Campeones:

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 ...

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

Individual *

Best XI: Apertura 2021 *

Golden Boot (Shared): Apertura 2021

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Nicolas 1993 births Footballers from Montevideo Living people Men's association football forwards Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Club Nacional de Football players AS Roma players Udinese Calcio players Hellas Verona FC players Granada CF footballers SC Internacional players Tigres UANL footballers Club León footballers Uruguayan Primera División players Serie A players La Liga players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Campeonato Brasileiro Série B players Liga MX players CONCACAF Champions Cup–winning players Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico