Ruben Sosa Ardaiz (born 25 April 1966) is a Uruguayan former professional

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 ...

forward. He was a member of the Uruguay national team with extended spells at Danubio, Zaragoza, Lazio, Inter Milan and Nacional.

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 ...

, Sosa started his career in

Danubio Danubio Fútbol Club is a Uruguayan association football, football club based in Jardines del Hipódromo, Montevideo that currently plays in the Uruguayan Primera División. Founded in 1945, the club's home stadium is Jardines del Hipódromo Ma ...

at the age of 15, being one of the youngest footballers to play in the Uruguayan First Division. He played for Danubio from 1982 to 1985, when he was transferred to Spain's

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, Spanish league system. Zarag ...

. With this club, Ruben Sosa won the

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 ...

in 1986, scoring in the final against

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly known as FC Barcelona and colloquially as Barça (), is a professional Football club (association football), football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of ...

. After playing for Zaragoza, Ruben Sosa was transferred to Italy's S.S. Lazio, staying for four years before being sold to Internazionale, where he reached his greatest form as a football player. He was Inter's leading goal scorer in the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons, winning the

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

. However, the arrival of

Dennis Bergkamp Dennis Nicolaas Maria Bergkamp (; born 10 May 1969) is a Dutch professional Association football, football coach and former Football player, player who was most recently the Assistant manager of Ajax. Originally a wide midfielder, Bergkamp was ...

in the Summer of 1993, led to splits within the Inter camp, and as a result Sosa left Serie A in the summer of 1995. After years of success in Uruguay, Spain and Italy, Ruben Sosa played for Germany's

Borussia Dortmund Ballspielverein Borussia 09 e. V. Dortmund, often known simply as Borussia Dortmund () or by its initialism BVB (), or just Dortmund by International fans, is a German professional sports club based in Dortmund, North Rhine-Westphalia. It is ...

, winning the Bundesliga title in 1995–96. When he left Borussia Dortmund, he returned to Spain to play for

CD Logroñés Club Deportivo Logroñés, S.A.D. was a Spanish football team based in Logroño, in the autonomous community of La Rioja. Founded in 1940, it last played in '' Regional Preferente de La Rioja''. Due to financial problems, since 2009 the club ha ...

. After a couple of months playing for the team, Ruben Sosa decided to leave in order to make his dream come true: he wanted to play for his favourite team in Uruguay, famous Nacional. At Nacional, Sosa won the Uruguayan League in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

, becoming one of the fans' heroes. In 2002, he left Nacional to play in China's

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

. In 2003, Shanghai won the

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese: 全国足球甲A联赛), commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of th ...

title, but the club was stripped of the title in 2013 for

match fixing In organized sports, match fixing (also known as game fixing, race fixing, throwing, rigging, hippodroming, or more generally sports fixing) is the act of playing or officiating a contest with the intention of achieving a predetermined result, v ...

. In 2004, he returned to Nacional, this time as assistant coach, winning the 2005 league title.

International career

With the Uruguay national team, Sosa won the

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

and

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

, and he played at the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

in Italy; he also managed a runners-up medal at the 1989 Copa América, where he was named the tournament's best player, and later took part at the 1993 Copa América.

Style of play

Nicknamed ''El Principito'' (The Little Prince) by Uruguayan fans, Sosa was a quick, creative, talented, agile, and powerful left-footed forward, with good skills, control, and explosive acceleration. A diminutive footballer with a stocky physique, he was usually deployed as a second striker, although he was also capable of playing as a main striker or even as a winger, as he was capable of both scoring and creating goals. He was known in particular for his spectacular efforts and thunderous free kicks. A complete forward, who could shoot, volley, dribble, pass with precision, and hold up the ball to create chances for teammates, his attributes made him one of the best forwards in Europe during his prime. He is considered by many to be one of the best Uruguayan forwards of the last thirty years, alongside

Luis Suárez Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, Inter Miami. Known for his go ...

, Edinson Cavani,

Diego Forlán Diego Forlán Corazo (born 19 May 1979) is a Uruguayan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former football player who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Regarded as one of the best forwards of his ...

, Enzo Francescoli, Carlos Aguilera,

Álvaro Recoba Álvaro Alexánder Recoba Rivero (; born 17 March 1976; nickname "El Chino"

, Daniel Fonseca and Rubén Paz.

Post-retirement

Nowadays, Ruben Sosa works for Nacional as assistant coach, but he also played for a Second Division team in Uruguay,

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 ...

in 2006.

Career statistics

Honours

Danubio *Liguilla Pre-Libertadores de América: 1983 Real Zaragoza *

: 1985–86 Inter *

: 1993–94 Borussia Dortmund *

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany and the highest level of the German football league system. The Bundesliga comprises 18 teams ...

: 1995–96 Nacional *

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 ...

Uruguay *

Individual *

CONMEBOL CONMEBOL ( ) or CSF (; ; ), is the continental governing body of football in South America and it is one of FIFA's six continental confederations. The oldest continental confederation in the world, its headquarters are located in Luque, Parag ...

Most Valuable Player of the Tournament:

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

*Pirata d'Oro (Internazionale Player Of The Year): 1993 *

Top scorer:

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 ...

Top scorer:

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

References

External links

TD.com profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sosa, Ruben 1966 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Men's association football forwards Uruguayan Primera División players La Liga players Bundesliga players Serie A players Danubio F.C. players Real Zaragoza players CD Logroñés footballers SS Lazio players Inter Milan players Borussia Dortmund players Club Nacional de Football players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Racing Club de Montevideo players Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Germany 1990 FIFA World Cup players 1987 Copa América players 1989 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in China 1995 Copa América players Expatriate men's footballers in China UEFA Europa League–winning players Copa Libertadores top scorers 20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen