Teófilo Cubillas

• 1. Introduction

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  Teófilo Cubillas was born on the 8th of March 1949, in Peru, and by the time he was 20 years old, Pelé himself had declared him his successor. That is not a small thing. Pelé, still active and at the height of his powers after winning the 1970 World Cup, looked at this slim attacking midfielder from Lima and said, in plain terms: do not worry, I already have a successor and it is Teófilo Cubillas. The question worth sitting with is how a player from a country that had never won a World Cup, from a continent overshadowed by Brazil and Argentina, came to earn that kind of recognition. Cubillas would go on to score 10 goals across three World Cups, place in the world's top 50 players of the 20th century in an IFFHS poll, and become the second all-time top scorer for his club Alianza Lima with 165 goals. He was nicknamed El Nene, the kid, which suited his boyish looks. But the nickname hid what he actually was: one of the most complete attacking players South America produced in that era, and Peru's greatest footballer by nearly every measure anyone has applied.

• 2. El Nene Rises

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  Cubillas began at Alianza Lima at the age of 16 in 1966, and in his very first season in the Peruvian Primera División he was already the tournament's top scorer with 19 goals. That kind of debut tends to invite comparisons, but in Cubillas's case it was also a preview. He won youth tournaments in 1965 and 1966, and at 18 he made his international debut in a friendly match, scoring twice in a 6-1 win over Independiente of Argentina. By 1971, directors of Deportivo Municipal and Alianza Lima saw an opportunity and formed a combined team to play friendly matches. The idea was to pair Cubillas with Hugo Sotil, another major Peruvian star of the era, a combination known as the Golden Pair. The results included a victory over Benfica and a 4-1 win over Bayern Munich. In 1972, Cubillas became the top scorer of the Copa Libertadores and was elected South American Footballer of the Year. He was 23.

• 3. Europe and the Price of Talent

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  In the summer of 1973, Cubillas moved to FC Basel in Switzerland under head coach Helmut Benthaus. The transfer fee was £97,000, paid by a Basler entrepreneur and transport company owner named Ruedi Reisdorfer. Cubillas made his Swiss league debut on the 18th of August in an away game against Chênois, and scored his first goal for the club in that same match, a 1-0 win. He scored twice for Basel in the 1973-74 European Cup, first in the first leg against Fram on the 19th of September 1973, and again in the return leg the following day. FC Porto, Sporting CP, FC Barcelona, AC Milan and Real Madrid all took interest in him, but Basel resisted selling so soon. It was Porto's approach in December 1973, backed by a fee of £200,000, that finally convinced Basel to release him. Cubillas arrived at Porto wearing the number 10 shirt and within the club he became, by his own account, the highest-paid player in the country, even ahead of Eusébio. He scored 66 goals in 110 games, won the Taça de Portugal, and is still regarded as the best foreign player to have represented the club.

• 4. Three World Cups

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  Cubillas was called up to the Peru national team by head coach Didi for the 1968 qualifiers for the 1970 World Cup. At 18, playing against Argentina in the final round of qualifying, he helped Peru earn a 2-2 draw that sent Peru through and eliminated Argentina. His first official Peru goal came on the 8th of May 1969 in a friendly against Colombia in Bogotá. At the 1970 World Cup itself, held in Mexico, Cubillas scored in all four of Peru's matches: once against Bulgaria, twice against Morocco, and once against West Germany in the group stage, then again against Brazil in the quarter-final loss. He finished as the third highest scorer in the tournament, won the FIFA World Cup Young Player Award, and was third in the Golden Shoe. Peru failed to qualify for the 1974 World Cup, with Cubillas missing the play-off against Chile. At the 1978 World Cup in Argentina, Cubillas scored five goals, including a hat-trick against Iran and two goals against Scotland. The free kick he scored against Scotland, struck with the outside edge of his boot, is preserved in FIFA's archives as a model of execution. He finished as co-second highest scorer behind Mario Kempes, was awarded the Silver Boot, and was named to the tournament's ideal team. Peru were beaten 6-0 by Argentina in the second round, a result that generated significant controversy among observers who felt no footballing gap of that size existed between the sides. At the 1982 World Cup, Cubillas played all three group games without scoring, and retired from international football at 33 with 26 goals in 81 appearances.

• 5. Copa America and the Finest Hour

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  Peru's 1975 Copa América campaign produced what many regard as Cubillas's finest collective achievement. Peru were placed in a group with Chile and Bolivia, and after advancing past both, faced Brazil in the semi-finals. Cubillas scored against Brazil to send Peru to the final against Colombia. The first leg was played in Bogotá, where Peru lost 1-0. The second leg in Lima ended in a 2-0 win for Peru, levelling the tie on points. A play-off final was required, and it was Hugo Sotil, Cubillas's longtime partner, who scored the only goal. Peru won the continental title for the second time in their history, and Cubillas was named Best Player of the tournament. Among his goals in that competition was one against Brazil in a 3-1 victory played in Belo Horizonte, a result that has been a touchstone of Peruvian football memory ever since.

• 6. America and the Final Years

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  In 1979, Cubillas joined the North American Soccer League, signing for the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. He scored 59 league goals over five seasons, and on one occasion in 1981 scored three goals in seven minutes against the Los Angeles Aztecs. Following the December 1987 Alianza Lima air crash, which cost the club most of their players, Cubillas returned from Miami to play for free for Alianza. He also managed the club for a period in 1988. He returned again to Fort Lauderdale with the newly resurrected Strikers in May 1988, playing in the American Soccer League, where the team reached the final before falling to the Washington Diplomats. In March 1989 he signed with the Miami Sharks, but was released on the 3rd of July after scoring only one goal in eight games. He retired that same year at the age of 40. As late as June 1991, he was still playing and coaching at Miramar Illusiones of the Gold Coast Soccer League in Florida. In 2004, Pelé included Cubillas in the FIFA 100, a list of 125 footballing greats. In February 2008, to mark the 50th anniversary of Brazil's first World Cup victory, he was selected to the All-Star First Team of South America covering the previous 50 years.