Roberto López Ufarte (born 19 April 1958) is a Spanish former professional footballer who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. Nicknamed ''The little devil'', most of his 15-year career was spent at

Real Sociedad Real Sociedad de Fútbol, S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad (; ''Royal Society''), La Real in Spanish, Erreala in Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Basque Country, founded on 7 Septem ...

where he remained 12 seasons, winning four major titles including two La Liga championships. He also represented in the competition

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

and Betis, amassing totals of 418 matches and 112 goals. López Ufarte appeared for Spain at the

1982 World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy, who defeated West Germany 3–1 i ...

Club career

López Ufarte was born in

Fes Fez or Fes (; ar, فاس, fās; zgh, ⴼⵉⵣⴰⵣ, fizaz; french: Fès) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fès-Meknès administrative region. It is the second largest city in Morocco, with a population of 1.11 mi ...

, Morocco. His parents, from Andalusia and Catalonia, moved abroad in search of work, and returned to Irun (

Basque Country Basque Country may refer to: * Basque Country (autonomous community), as used in Spain ( es, País Vasco, link=no), also called , an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain (shown in pink on the map) * French Basque Country o ...

) when their son was eight. After making his early footballing efforts at neighbouring Real Unión he signed for

, making his La Liga debut in the 1975–76 season, playing his first game in the competition on 30 November 1975 in a 2–0 derby away loss against

Athletic Bilbao Athletic Club ( eu, Bilboko Athletic Kluba; es, Athletic Club de Bilbao), commonly known as Athletic Bilbao or just Athletic, is a professional Association football, football club based in the city of Bilbao in the Basque Country (autonomous com ...

aged only 17. From then on he became an essential first-team member, scoring 16 goals in 63 matches in the side's back-to-back league titles. López Ufarte left the ''Txuriurdin'' in 1987, after another solid season: 33 games and ten goals in the league, and the conquest of the Copa del Rey. He scored 129 goals in 474 official appearances during his spell. After one season with

( third place), López Ufarte closed his career at Real Betis at the age of 31, after struggling with

knee In humans and other primates, the knee joins the thigh with the leg and consists of two joints: one between the femur and tibia (tibiofemoral joint), and one between the femur and patella (patellofemoral joint). It is the largest joint in the hu ...

injuries and seeing his team relegate to 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 ...

. He then acted as assistant manager to several coaches at his first professional club, following which he returned to Real Unión as director of football.

International career

López Ufarte won 15 caps for the Spain national team in five years. His debut came on 21 September 1977, scoring in 2–1

friendly Friendly may refer to: Places * Friendly, West Yorkshire, a settlement in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England * Friendly, Maryland, an unincorporated community in the United States * Friendly, Eugene, Oregon, a neighborhood in the United States * ...

win in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. López Ufarte appeared for the nation at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

which was held on home ground, playing his last match in a 1–2 second group-stage loss against West Germany.

International goals

Honours

Real Sociedad * La Liga: 1980–81, 1981–82 * Copa del Rey: 1986–87 *

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España or the ''Spanish Super Cup'' is a super cup tournament in Spanish football. Founded in 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2019–20 by four teams: the winners and runners-up of ...

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

References

External links