Hugo Sánchez

Hugo Sánchez
HugoSanchez.JPG
Personal information
Full name Hugo Sánchez Márquez
Date of birth July 11, 1958 (1958-07-11) (age 52)
Place of birth Mexico City, Mexico
Height 1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position Striker
Club information
Current club no club (Manager)
Youth career
1972–1975 Pumas de UNAM
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1976–1981 Pumas de UNAM 200 (99)
1979–1980 → San Diego Sockers (loan) 32 (26)
1981–1985 Atlético Madrid 111 (54)
1985–1992 Real Madrid 207 (194)
1992–1993 América 29 (11)
1993–1994 Rayo Vallecano 29 (16)
1994–1995 Atlante 31 (13)
1995–1996 FC Linz 20 (6)
1996 Dallas Burn 23 (6)
1997 Club Celaya 12 (2)
Total 694 (833)
National team
1977–1994 Mexico 75 (29)
Teams managed
2000–2005 UNAM Pumas
2006 Club Necaxa
2006–2008 Mexico
2008 Mexico U-23
2009 Almería
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).
This name uses Spanish naming customs; the first or paternal family name is Sánchez and the second or maternal family name is Márquez.

Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born July 11, 1958), popularly nicknamed Pentapichichi, or Hugol, is a Mexican football coach and former striker. He played for four European clubs, including Real Madrid. Sanchez is considered the first highly talented mexican player. He was also a member of the Mexico national team, and participated in three World Cups.

Sánchez played twelve seasons in the Spanish Primera División and is the second highest goalscorer in the history of that league. He also played for the Mexico national team for 17 years and participated in the World Cups of 1978, 1986, and 1994. He won the Pichichi Trophy five times, four of them consecutively, a record second only to Telmo Zarra's six trophies.

As a coach, he won two championships as head coach of the club Pumas de la UNAM and briefly with Club Necaxa, both teams in the Mexican Primera División. He also had a sixteen-month stint with the Mexican national team, but was fired on March 31, 2008.[1]. Hugo Sanchez has signed up to start coaching again, now in Europe, for UD Almería [1] from the Spanish First Division starting December 29, in an attempt to save the team from descending to the 2nd Division by the Summer. He has succeeded in keeping UD Almeria free from relegation from La Liga for the 2009-2010 season.

In 1999, the IFFHS voted him the 26th best footballer of the 20th Century, and the best footballer from the CONCACAF region.[2]

Contents

Early career

As a teenager, Sánchez played for the Mexico national football team in the 1976 Summer Olympics. Having already played in over 80 international games, Sánchez signed as a youth player at the age of 18 for UNAM Pumas, a professional team representing Mexico's National University, where he completed a degree in Dentistry while keeping up his football career. That year, UNAM managed to get its first championship in the Mexican Football League. Two years later, he became top-scorer in the league with 26 goals. In 1979, UNAM agreed to exchange players during the off-seasons with the San Diego Sockers of the North American Soccer League (NASL). The NASL played during the summer and the Mexican League played during the fall, winter and spring. UNAM loaned Sánchez to the Sockers in both 1979 and 1980 where he became a dominant striker for the Sockers, averaging nearly a goal a game.

Sánchez' five seasons with UNAM were the team's golden years. In his last season with the team, Hugo again became the top-scorer in a tie with his teammate Cabinho and UNAM won its second championship and the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Career in Spain and success

After five successful seasons in Mexico, with 99 goals to his name, Sánchez drew the attention of several Spanish sides, and signed with Atlético Madrid in 1981. He turned down an offer to play for Arsenal FC, a prominent English football team. It took him a while to find his feet in La Liga, but by the 1984-85 season he was scoring regularly with a team that won the Copa del Rey, finished in second place in the Spanish League and won the Spanish Super Copa. That year Hugo also won his first Pichichi trophy for being the most prolific scorer in the league.

At the high-point of his career, he signed for Real Madrid in 1985 and played with players such as Camacho, Butragueño, Gordillo, Schuster, Valdano and Míchel. This team won five consecutive league titles (from 1985-86 to 1989-90), the Copa del Rey in 1989, and the UEFA Cup in 1986. During those five years, Sánchez garnered four consecutive Pichichi trophies (the only player in Spain's football history to achieve this without sharing the trophy on any season), scoring 207 goals in 283 games. He scored 27 or more goals in four consecutive seasons between 1986 and 1990, including 38 goals in the 1989-90 season, tying the single-season record set in 1951 by Telmo Zarra and earning the European Golden Boot award to the best scorer in Europe. Overall, he scored 47 goals in 45 European Cup games.

In 1992, Sánchez returned to his native Mexico for a season, before playing for a variety of clubs in Spain, Austria and the USA (he played for the Dallas Burn in the inaugural year of Major League Soccer, becoming one of two people, along with Roy Wegerle, to play outdoor football in both the NASL and MLS). He finished his career playing for Atlético Celaya with Butragueño and Míchel, his old colleagues from Real Madrid.

National team career

In comparison to his "domestic" club success, Sánchez did not have a successful international career with the Mexican national team. He played 60 matches and scored 29 goals for the Mexican national team, but his years as a Mexican international coincided with a difficult period for the nation's football. Mexico did not participate in the World Cup of 1982 and 1990, in which Sánchez would have most likely been part of the Mexican squad. He scored one goal in eight appearances in the three World Cups in which he competed and was never selected for the "Best XI" World Cup squads. Sánchez's brash personality is often cited as the reason he did not play many games at the 1994 World Cup, purportedly as a result of internecine frictions between Hugo and the Mexican Football Federation (FMF).

International goals

Retirement

Sánchez retired from Spanish football on May 29, 1997, playing with Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium—the stadium that witnessed most of his glory throughout his career. His last official game was in the 1998 World Cup preliminaries where he just touched the ball as a symbol of his retirement.

Legacy

His trademark was to perform a celebratory somersault after each goal he scored, honoring his sister, who was a gymnast and participated in the Montreal Olympics.[3] He is also known for acrobatic goals, some involving his trademark windmill kick, a product of his own early training in gymnastics. To date, he has been the most successful Mexican football player by far to have played anywhere, in terms of years played, goalscoring, and achievements.

Career statistics

[4]

Club Season League Cup Continental Total
Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals
Universidad Nacional 1975-76 0 0
1976-77 30 7
1977-78 38 13
1978-79 45 28
San Diego Sockers 1979
Universidad Nacional 1979-80 44 30
San Diego Sockers 1980
Universidad Nacional 1980-81 43 21
Atlético Madrid 1981-82 20 8
1982-83 31 15
1983-84 27 12
1984-85 33 19
Real Madrid 1985-86 33 22
1986-87 41 34
1987-88 36 29
1988-89 35 27
1989-90 35 38
1990-91 19 12
1991-92 8 2
América 1992-93 29 2
Rayo Vallecano 1993-94 29 16
Atlante 1994-95 30 13
1995-96 2 0
SK Voest Linz 1995-96 0 0
Dallas Burn 1996 23 6
Celaya 1996-97 12 2
Career total 643 356

Coach

Club

In the year 2000, UNAM Pumas was having a terrible championship. A new manager was needed, someone who could take the lead of one of the most important clubs in Mexico. The designated manager was Hugo Sánchez, idol and figure for UNAM's followers. So, in March, he signed for a 2 years contract with his most "beloved team". Although the very good campaign made by the team for that tournament, many differences became evident with the president of the club Javier Jiménez Espriú, which resulted in his distitution in August of the same year. "I'll be back when Jimenez Espriu is out. I know I'm right and I know I'll be back," were his words as he left the team.

One year passed and Jimenez Espriu resigned as the club's president. The new president, Luis Regueiro, knew exactly who was going to be the next coach for the team, so in November 2001, Sánchez was again signed as head coach of all UNAM's teams and given all the confidence of the new broad.

His labor was long and well planned, as for two years he forged a very competitive team. In 2003, the results were evident, and the Pumas were one of the best teams in the league, but the championship was still missing. Falling twice in semifinals all was set to the New Age Golden Year, 2004.

Sánchez Pumas won everything they played in 2004: Clausura 2004, Apertura 2004, Champion of Champions 2004 and Santiago Bernabeu's Cup. Also he is the only manager in the history to lead a Mexican team to two championships in a row in the Mexican first division in the new "short tournament" format (South American format).

However, by the end of 2004 things weren't as good as it might seem. The Clausura 2004 tournament was won taking advantage of the competition format, as they only made the minimum points during the league to qualify to the playoffs. For the next tournament Pumas was the worst team of the tournament and in Winter 2005 Pumas was having the worst year of its history. The club needed a change and Sánchez decided to resign in November 2005.

There are many speculations about why he resigned. The most well known was that the future didn't seem too optimistic. He stated "If you think I'm the problem, I leave now that there is time, before the team is in danger of descending".

After this turns of events, Sánchez took some vacations and went to Spain to offer his services. Getafe almost signed him but economic differences got in the way. In 2006, Club Necaxa, another Mexican team, signed him as a head coach, but this was very quickly finished as he was called as Mexican National Team coach.

He was the coach of La Liga's UD Almería, but after accomplishing the goal of avoiding relegation from La Liga, and despite on 2 June 2009 the Almeria chairman Alfonso García announcing the renewal of his contract[5], he was released on 20 December 2009[6].

Mexican national team

After briefly managing Club Necaxa, Sánchez was named head coach of the Mexico national team, with the commitment of leading Mexico through the qualification process for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

During his coaching career especially, Sánchez has been known for his volatile temperament and willingness to speak candidly, often expressing strong emotions and opinions, a trait that engenders equally emotional and strong responses from those he criticizes. He has a long-standing feud between with former Mexican National Coach, Ricardo Lavolpe.

Sánchez's first match as Mexico coach was a 2-0 loss to the United States in Phoenix, Arizona before Mexican fans in February, 2007. Sánchez recorded his first coaching victory against Venezuela (3-1) in front of 67,000 "Tri" fans in San Diego at Qualcomm Stadium. Hugo's first game in Mexico took place against Paraguay in Monterrey, Mexico on March 25, 2007, which Mexico won 2-1. A few days later on March 28, 2007, Mexico defeated Ecuador 4-2 in Oakland, California at McAfee Coliseum.

In June, 2007 Sánchez coached Mexico in the 2007 edition of the Gold Cup, his first official competition. After struggling in the first stages of the tournament, México reached the final June 24, 2007 and lost it against USA (2-1).

On June 27, 2007, in the opening game of the Copa América 2007 held in Venezuela, Sánchez led the Mexican National Team to a stunning 2-0 win over 5-time world champions, Brazil. Hugo Sánchez first major victory of his coaching career. After glancing through the first round of the tournament, Hugo led the team to reach the semi-finals and battle against the Argentine squad, losing with a solid 3-0. Finally Mexico ended 3rd place of the competition by beating Uruguay 3-1.

In August 2007, Sánchez announced that Mexico would permanently, or at least in his time coaching the team, drop their famous green home kit, replacing it with their white away kit, meaning that their new away kit would be red. For this decision, Sánchez was subject of a lot of criticism. The two main arguments against him were that the decision was breaking a long-standing Mexican tradition, yet the strongest critics suggested that he should devote more time to the strategy and training of the Mexican team rather than entertaining himself with superfluous features of the sport.

In March 2008, Sánchez had some very upsetting results , including draws with Australia and Finland , and a loss at home in Querétaro against Ecuador's U-23 team. The bad results continued in the CONCACAF Olympic Qualification, with a tie with Canada and a loss with Guatemala. Finally, his only victory coming against Haiti with a 5-1 score. However due to goal difference Mexico was eliminated from the Pre Olympic qualifying tournament. The elimination was a hard beat against the soccer in his country, particularly to the owners of the Mexican soccer clubs, who had supported him both economically and sportily by providing the resources and allowing the players to be separated from their teams for nearly a month, while the Mexican season was up.

Many analysts claim that Sánchez's first year as the national coach has resulted in a Mexican team with poor soccer variants, null collective game, tactic stiffness, and lack of strategy. A significant proportion of the press agree that this situation has reached a point of no return with the U-23 elimination from the Pre Olympic tournament. Hugo also made the decision to change the jersey color of the Mexican National team from green to white, due to his feelings on green being a color that blends into the grass. On March 31, Hugo Sanchez was fired from the Mexican team via a 16-2 vote from the main leaders of the sixteen First Division Club Owners.

Managerial stats

Last updated December 11, 2007 [2] Mexico national football team#Schedule and Recent Results

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win % GF GA +/-
UNAM1, 2 Mexico 2000 2005 202 89 63 50 44.06% 328 295 +33
Club Necaxa Mexico 2006 2006 7 2 4 1 28.57% 8 11 -3
Mexico3 Mexico 2006 2008 26 13 9 4 50% 45 32 +13
Almeria Spain 2009 17 6 4 7 35.29% 5 6 -1
Career 252 110 80 62 43.65% 386 344 +42

1Includes results from Copa Libertadores 2003
2Includes results from CONCACAF Champions' Cup 2005
3Includes results from 2000 U.S. Cup

Honours as a player

National championships

International cups

Individual honours

Honours as a Coach

Personal life

Sánchez is the son of Héctor Sánchez, who played for Asturias and Atlante. Hugo Sánchez is married to Isabel Martín and has two children, a son and an older daughter from his previous marriage. His son, Hugo Sánchez Portugal was a football player and has played in UNAM Pumas like him.

Sánchez was appointed as the official FIFA/SOS Ambassador for Mexico, joining Wayne Rooney (Ambassador for England), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands), and fifty others in fund raising for the official 2006 FIFA World Cup Charity.[7]

On September 1, 2007 Hugo Sanchez inaugurated a street with his name in Puebla, central Mexico, before a thousand of the locals around there.[8]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Hugo Sanchez fired as coach of Mexico. International Herald Tribune. http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/03/31/sports/SOC-Mexico-Sanchez-Fired.php. Retrieved 2008-03-31 
  2. ↑ Stokkermans, Karel. "IFFHS' Century Elections". RSSSF. http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/iffhs-century.html#cnpoy. Retrieved 2006-12-17. 
  3. ↑ Andaló, Paula. "Hugo Sánchez, con alas en los pies" (in Spanish). Univision. http://www.univision.com/content/content.jhtml?cid=719108. Retrieved 2007-07-04. 
  4. ↑ :: National Football Teams ::.. Player - Hugo Sanchez
  5. ↑ Hugo Sanchez To Stay On As Almeria Coach - Reports
  6. ↑ Almeria trennt sich von Trainer Sanchez
  7. ↑ "Hugo Sánchez to attend 6 villages for 2006 opening in Morelia". SOS Children's Villages. http://www.sos-childrensvillages.org/news-and-media/news/pages/sanchez-calls-on-football-fans-to-support-sos-childrens-villages.aspx. Retrieved 2008-08-06. 
  8. ↑ "Inaugurada en México la calle Hugo Sánchez". El Pais. http://www.elpais.com/articulo/deportes/Inaugurada/Mexico/calle/Hugo/Sanchez/elpepudep/20070901elpepudep_1/Tes. Retrieved 2007-09-01. 

External links

Mexico national football team – Managers

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