Rubén Hugo Ayala Sanabria (born 8 January 1950 in

Santa Fe, Argentina Santa Fe de la Vera Cruz (; usually called just Santa Fe, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city of the provinces of Argentina, province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe, Argentina. It is situated in north-eastern Argentina, near the junction of t ...

) is a former

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 ...

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 ...

player and manager, who played as a forward.

Playing career

Born in Humboldt, Las Colonias Department,

Santa Fe Province The Invincible Province of Santa Fe (, , lit. "Holy Faith") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 2 ...

, Ayala played club football for

Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro Club Atlético San Lorenzo de Almagro is an Argentine professional sports club based in the Boedo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. It is best known for its football team, which plays in the Primera División, the first tier of the Argentine foot ...

in Argentina where he was part of the team that famously went unbeaten for the whole of the 1972

Nacional championship The Campeonato Nacional was one of the two football tournaments that formed the Primera División season (along with the Metropolitano championship) since 1967. The Nacional championship was played annually until its last edition in 1985. The Nac ...

. In 1973, he left for Atlético de Madrid in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

where he won several titles. In 1979, he moved to

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

to play for Club Jalisco and Atlante F.C. During his playing career he earned 25 caps and scored 11 goals for the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team (), nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' (), represents Argentina in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino ( ...

, and played in the

1974 FIFA World Cup The 1974 FIFA World Cup was the 10th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in West Germany (and West Berlin) between 13 June and 7 July. The tournament marked the ...

(scoring against Haiti). He was nicknamed ''Ratón'' (Mouse) due to his short height.

Managerial career

After retiring as a player Ayala took up coaching in Mexico he has been manager of Cobras de Querétaro (1986–1987), Tampico-Madero (1987–1988), Cobras de Ciudad Juárez (1988–1989), Correcaminos (1992–1994) and C.F. Pachuca (2000–2005). During his time with Pachuca he guided them to two league titles the Invierno 2001 and the Apertura 2003 as an assistant coach.

Honours

San Lorenzo * Primera Division Argentina: 1972 Metropolitano, 1972 Nacional *

Copa Argentina The Copa Argentina (English: ''Argentine Cup''), officially known as the "Copa Argentina AXION energy" due to sponsorship reasons, is an official football cup competition organized by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). The first editions ...

Final Canceled:

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 1970 Tonghai earthquake, Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli ...

Atlético de Madrid *

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

Runner-up: 1973-74 * Copa Intercontinental:

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; ...

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

: 1975-76 *

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

: 1976-77 Atlante F.C. *

CONCACAF Champions Cup 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, a ...

1983 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 TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

* Primera División Runner-up: 1981-82 Individual *

Top Scorer:

(5 goals)

References

External links

La Liga statistics
* * 1950 births Living people Argentine men's footballers Argentine sportspeople of Spanish descent Argentine emigrants to Spain 1974 FIFA World Cup players Argentine Primera División players San Lorenzo de Almagro footballers Liga MX players Atlante F.C. footballers La Liga players Atlético Madrid footballers Argentina men's international footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Men's association football forwards People from Las Colonias Department Argentine football managers C.F. Pachuca managers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Footballers from Santa Fe Province Expatriate men's footballers in Spain 20th-century Argentine sportsmen {{Argentina-footy-forward-1950s-stub