Hernán Rodrigo López Mora (born 21 January 1978), also known as Rodrigo López, is an Uruguayan

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

manager and former player who played as a forward. López is the second maximum goal scorer of Paraguayan football with 127 goals, behind Santiago Salcedo (152), and ahead of Juan Eduardo Samudio (119) and

Fredy Bareiro Fredy José Bareiro Gamarra (born 27 March 1982) is a Paraguayan former association football, footballer. Bareiro is one of very few footballers to have participated in back-to-back finals of the Copa Libertadores, playing for Club Olimpia, Oli ...

(112).

Club career

Born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, López began his career with River Plate de Montevideo in Uruguay. He had short stints with

Torino F.C. Torino Football Club (), colloquially referred to as Toro, is an Italian professional football club based in Turin, Piedmont that currently plays in the Serie A, the highest football league of Italy. Founded in 1906 as ''Foot-Ball Club Torin ...

of Italy and

AO Kavala Kavala Football Club (, ) is a Greek professional Association football, football club based in the city of Kavala, Greece. They compete in the Super League Greece 2, the second tier of the Greek football league system. The club's home ground is the ...

of Greece in 1998 along with compatriot Pablo Gaglianone. In 2000, he joined

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

of Chile. He returned to Uruguay in 2001 to play for Danubio FC and in 2002 he joined

Racing Club de Montevideo Racing Club de Montevideo is a professional football club from Montevideo in Uruguay. It currently participates in the Uruguayan Primera División since winning the Torneo Competencia in 2022. Racing CM is known as "La Escuelita" (The Little Sc ...

Between 2002 and 2004 he enjoyed a successful stint with Olimpia of

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 ...

where he was part of the team that won both

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 ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and Recopa Sudamericana 2003. In 2004, he joined Mexican side Pachuca CF but after only a few games he returned to Paraguay to play for Libertad where he scored an impressive 39 goals in 71 league games, won the Primera División championship in 2006 and finished as the topscorer. López returned to Mexican football in 2008 joining

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

where he played alongside a number of other South American players such as Federico Insúa of Argentina and Salvador Cabañas. He had a successful time with América, scoring a famous hat-trick against Tecos in the 2007 Apertura and helping the team to win the 2008

InterLiga InterLiga was an association football competition and the qualification method between eight Mexican clubs to determine two clubs qualified for the Copa Libertadores, it was held from 2004 to 2010. History From 1998 to 2003, the Mexican clubs c ...

. In 2008, he joined

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

Vélez Sársfield and had an unsuccessful start with the team, quickly reverted by contributing 11 goals in their championship season of Clausura 2009. López was bought by Argentine side

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 ...

in June 2010 for a fee of around US$750,000. He scored a number of vital goals for the club in his first season helping the club to win the Apertura 2010 tournament. He scored his first hat-trick for Estudiantes with three headers in a 5–1 win against Paraguayan side Guaraní in the group stages of the

2011 Copa Libertadores The 2011 Copa Libertadores de América (officially the 2011 Copa Santander Libertadores de América for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of the Copa Libertadores de América, South America's premier international club football tournamen ...

. In the following game he scored the winning goal against league leaders Racing Club. In July 2011, he signed a two-year contract with

Club Atlético Banfield Club Atlético Banfield is an Argentine sports club based in the Banfield, Buenos Aires, Banfield city of Greater Buenos Aires. It was founded on 21 January 1896, by the British–origin inhabitants of that city (mostly English people, English, ...

. One year later he returned to Paraguayan Football signing for

Cerro Porteño Club Cerro Porteño is a professional Paraguayan Association football, football club, based in the neighbourhood of Obrero (Asunción), Obrero in Asunción. Founded in 1912, Cerro has won 34 Paraguayan Primera División, Primera División titles ...

. Then he was transferred to

Sportivo Luqueño Club Sportivo Luqueño is a Paraguayan football club, based in the city of Luque on the outskirts of the capital Asunción. It currently plays in the Paraguayan Primera División, the country's top tier of football, where it has won thrice, in 19 ...

and now he is the main scorer of Libertad, being the topscorer at the 2014 Apertura, scoring 19 goals.

International career

On the youth level, López was runner-up with Uruguay U-20 at the

1997 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship, known as the 1997 FIFA/Coca-Cola World Youth Championship for sponsorship purposes, was the 11th staging of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, FIFA World Youth Championship. It was held from 16 June to 5 July 1997 i ...

. He even played the final against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. López played a friendly match for

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 ...

against

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in 1996."La Celeste (y blanca)"
''Olé''. Retrieved 21 August 2009. Thirteen years later, in 2009, he was called again by coach Oscar Washington Tabárez for a friendly match against

Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger ...

and for the World Cup qualifying games against

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. He was also part of the squad that achieved the qualification by defeating

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

on the playoff. However, he was not part of the Uruguayan squad that played the World Cup. On 27 July 2010, he was called up to play a friendly match against

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

Coaching career

Following the departure of Celso Ayala, López was appointed manager of Paraguayan club

on 3 March 2020. After the club saw the departure of as many as 11 players to transfers and contract dissolutions mid-tournament, López decided to resign from his position on 7 September 2020, but agreed to coach his club for one last match, a come-from-behind 2–1 victory against River Plate on 11 September 2020.http://www.tigosports.com.py/copa-de-primera/rodrigo-lopez-y-su-ultima-funcion-como-dt-auriazul-0 , tigosports.com.py, 11 September 2020 During his short tenure as head coach of

, the team achieved 16 points in 12 matches (4W-4D-4L), climbing several positions in the table.

Honours

Club

Olimpia *

(1):

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

(1):

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

Libertad *

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 ...

(2):

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

, 2014 Apertura América *

(1):

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Vélez Sársfield *

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 ...

(1): 2009 Clausura Estudiantes *

(1): 2010 Apertura

Individual

* Second maximum goal scorer of Paraguayan football with 127 goals * Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2006 (27 goals, for Libertad) * Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2013 Clausura (17 goals, for Sportivo Luqueño) * Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2014 Apertura (19 goals, for Libertad)

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Rodrigo 1978 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Men's association football forwards Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguayan football managers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Colo-Colo footballers Danubio F.C. players Club Atlético River Plate (Montevideo) players Racing Club de Montevideo players Club Olimpia footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players Club Libertad footballers Torino FC players C.F. Pachuca players Club América footballers Club Atlético Vélez Sarsfield footballers Estudiantes de La Plata footballers Kavala F.C. players Cerro Porteño players Uruguayan Primera División players Serie B players Super League Greece players Liga MX players Chilean Primera División players Argentine Primera División players Paraguayan Primera División players Peruvian Primera División players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Paraguay Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Chile Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Italy Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate men's footballers in Paraguay Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Greece Racing Club de Montevideo managers Uruguayan Primera División managers Paraguayan Primera División managers Sportivo Luqueño managers Club Nacional managers Club Guaraní managers Expatriate football managers in Paraguay

Club career

International career

Coaching career

Honours

Club

Individual

See also

References

External links