Emilio Esteban Saba Fassioli (born 26 March 2001) is a Peruvian

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 plays as a

right back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

for Melgar. He has played over 75 games in the

Peruvian Primera División The Peru First Division (; known simply as ''First Division'', and Liga 1 Te Apuesto for sponsorship reasons), officially known as Liga 1, is the top flight of association football in Peru. It has been referred to as Torneo Descentralizado since ...

for Melgar,

Deportivo Municipal Club Centro Deportivo Municipal, commonly known as Deportivo Municipal, is a Peruvian Association football, football club based in Lima, Peru. They are among Peru's most recognizable clubs and enjoy considerable popularity. The bulk of their succ ...

, UTC Cajamarca, ADT and Carlos A. Mannucci.

Club career

Early career

Born in

Lima Lima ( ; ), founded in 1535 as the Ciudad de los Reyes (, Spanish for "City of Biblical Magi, Kings"), is the capital and largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón River, Chillón, Rímac River, Rímac and Lurín Rive ...

, Saba played for the youth team of Esther Grande. He played on the right side of

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

or on the wing, scoring 28 times in 2017, and occasionally played in age groups one or two years older than his age. In 2018, he also played for

Sport Boys The Sport Boys Association, commonly referred to as the Sport Boys or simply the Boys, is a Peruvian association football club based in the port city of Callao, founded on 28 July 1927. The club currently participate in the Peruvian Primera Divi ...

as part of an agreement between the two clubs, and joined

Alianza Lima Club Alianza Lima, more commonly known as simply Alianza Lima, is a Peru, Peruvian professional sports club based in La Victoria District, Lima, La Victoria District of Lima, Peru. The club was founded under the name of Sport Alianza on February ...

in August. In October 2018, Saba went on trial for two weeks at

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen, Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, Werder are best known for their professional association foo ...

of the German

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 ...

. He trained with players including Peruvian veteran

Claudio Pizarro Claudio Miguel Pizarro Bosio (; born 3 October 1978) is a Peruvian former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Forward (association football)#Striker, striker. He is currently serving as club ambassador for Bayern Muni ...

Melgar

When Esther Grande manager Marco Valencia moved to Melgar in 2019, he signed Saba, who helped the

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

to third place that year. When the Torneo de Promoción y Reserva was suspended in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Saba was added to the first team and made his professional debut in the

on 27 August in a 2–0 home loss to Carlos Stein, playing the last 25 minutes as a substitute for Diego Manicero. In March 2021, Saba was loaned to

. For the following two years he also moved temporarily, respectively to UTC Cajamarca and ADT; with the latter, he played 28 games in 2023 as they qualified for the

Copa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Sudamericana, also known as Copa Sudamericana (; ), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL, the governing body of football in South America, since 2002. It is the second-most prestigious club com ...

for the first time. Saba was linked with a return to Alianza for 2023, but opted to go on loan again, this time to Carlos A. Mannucci.

International career

Saba was included in the Peru under-20 team, but COVID conditions meant that the team played no official matches during his spell. They did play training matches against other age groups of the

Peruvian Football Federation The Peruvian Football Federation ( or ) is the body that governs Association football in Peru. It was founded on August 23, 1922, and affiliated with FIFA in 1924. It is a member of CONMEBOL since 1925, and directly oversees the Peru national fo ...

, and these led to him preferring a right-back position. Saba was called up to the senior team ahead of

2026 FIFA World Cup The 2026 FIFA World Cup, marketed as FIFA World Cup 26, will be the 23rd FIFA World Cup, the Anniversary#Latin-derived numerical names, quadrennial international men's Association football, soccer championship contested by the List of men's n ...

qualifiers against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

and

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

in November 2023. Manager Juan Reynoso excluded players from Alianza or Universitario due to the national finals. In December 2023, Saba was called up for the Peru under-23 team for four friendly matches. He scored a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

in a 4–0 win over

. The following month, he was the

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

at the

2024 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament The 2024 CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament (, ) was the 14th edition of the CONMEBOL Pre-Olympic Tournament, the quadrennial, international, age-restricted football tournament organised by the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) to d ...

in Venezuela, from which his team did not qualify for the Olympic event.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saba, Emilio 2001 births Living people Footballers from Lima Peruvian men's footballers 21st-century Peruvian sportsmen Men's association football defenders Men's association football midfielders Esther Grande footballers Sport Boys footballers Club Alianza Lima footballers FBC Melgar footballers Deportivo Municipal footballers Universidad Técnica de Cajamarca footballers Asociación Deportiva Tarma footballers Carlos A. Mannucci players Peruvian Primera División players Peru men's youth international footballers