Wílliam Ruben Martínez Carreras (January 13, 1928 – December 28, 1997) was a Uruguayan

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 played as a defender. He played 54 times for the

Uruguay national football team The Uruguay national football team (), nicknamed ''La Celeste'' ("The Sky Blue") and ''Los Charrúas'' ("The Charrúa, Charrúas"), have represented Uruguay in international men's Association football, football since their first international m ...

between 1950 and 1965.

Club career

Martínez came through the youth team of local side Sportivo Alba de Victoria and signed on as a youth player for

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

in 1962. After playing for Nacional at various youth levels and for the first team 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 ...

in 1947. In 1948, he joined

Rampla Juniors Rampla Juniors Fútbol Club, commonly known as Rampla Juniors, is a Uruguayan football club based in Montevideo. The team was actively playing the 2021 season by January 2021. In their home stadium, Rampla won the Uruguayan championship in 1927. I ...

, where he spent 7 seasons before joining

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

It was with Peñarol that Martínez enjoyed most of his success at the club level. During his time with the club he captained the team to five consecutive league titles (1958–1962), two

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 ...

(1960, 1961), the

Copa Intercontinental Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

in 1961 and four consecutive editions of the Copa Uruguay (1958–1961). In 1963 Martínez returned to

, in 1967 he joined

Atlético Junior Club Deportivo Popular Junior F.C. S.A. (), commonly known as Junior de Barranquilla, by its old name Atlético Junior or simply as Junior, is a Colombian professional football team based in Barranquilla, capital of the department of Atlantic ...

in Colombia before returning for a third spell with Rampla Juniors. In the last years of his playing career he worked as the

player-manager A player–coach (also playing coach, captain–coach, or player–manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. Player–coaches may be head coaches or assistant coaches, and they may make chang ...

of Fenix and

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 ...

. He retired from football in 1970 at the age of 42.

International career

Martínez was in the

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 ...

squads for three FIFA World Cup tournaments (

1950 Events January * January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed. * January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 ...

1954 Events January * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown–IBM experiment: The first public demonstration of a machine translation system is held in New York, at the head ...

and

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

). He played a total of 54 matches scoring 2 goals. Martínez 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 ...

with Uruguay in

1956 Events January * January 1 – The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Anglo-Egyptian Condominium ends in Sudan after 57 years. * January 8 – Operation Auca: Five U.S. evangelical Christian Missionary, missionaries, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, E ...

, he also played in three other editions of the tournament (

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a Estonian government-in-exile, government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito ...

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

rsssf: Copa América 1955
/ref> and 1959A).

Honours

Nacional *

Primera División Uruguaya Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air Primera Air Scandinavia Aktieselskab, A/S, was a Denmark, Danish airline owned by Primera Travel Group. It provided scheduled and charter passenger services from Northern Europe to mo ...

: 1943, 1946 * Torneo de Honor: 1943, 1946 * Torneo Competencia: 1945 * Copa de Confraternidad Escobar – Gerona: 1945 *

Copa Aldao The Copa Ricardo Aldao ( English: ''Ricardo Aldao Cup''), popularly called Campeonato Rioplatense and Copa Río de La Plata, was an official AFA- AUF football club competition contested annually, albeit irregularly, between the league champions o ...

: 1946 Rampla Juniors * Torneo Competencia: 1950 * Torneo Cuadrangular: 1953 C.A. Peñarol *

: 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962 * Torneo Competencia: 1956, 1957 * Torneo de Honor: 1956 * Cuadrangular Tournament: 1955, 1957, 1959, 1960 * Cuadrangular in Mexico: 1957 *

: 1960, 1961 * Intercontinental Cup: 1961 Uruguay *

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the 4th edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. It was the first Wo ...

: 1950 *

1956 South American Championship South American Championship 1956 was a football tournament held in Uruguay, who won it. Chile were runners-up. Bolivia, Colombia, and Ecuador withdrew from the tournament. Enrique Hormazábal from Chile became top scorer of the tournament with ...

: 1956

Individual

* FIFA World Cup All-Star Team:

* IFFHS Uruguayan Men's Dream Team (Team B)

References

External links

World Cup Champions Squads 1930 – 2002A primeira grande zebra do Mundial
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, William 1928 births 1997 deaths Men's association football defenders Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguay men's international footballers 1950 FIFA World Cup players 1954 FIFA World Cup players 1962 FIFA World Cup players FIFA World Cup–winning players Copa Libertadores–winning players Uruguayan Primera División players Categoría Primera A players Club Nacional de Football players Racing Club de Montevideo players Peñarol players Rampla Juniors players Centro Atlético Fénix players Central Español players Uruguayan football managers Central Español managers Centro Atlético Fénix managers Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Copa América–winning players Atlético Junior footballers Atlético Junior managers Footballers from Montevideo 20th-century Uruguayan sportsmen