Luís Roberto Alves dos Santos Gavranić (born 23 May 1967) is a Mexican former professional

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

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He is best known as Zague, in honor to his

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...

. Zague spent most of his playing career with

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

, where he made over 400 appearances and scored 188 goals in all competitions, making him the club's all-time leading scorer. On the international stage, Zague made 83 appearances and scored 23 goals. He represented Mexico at the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often called the World Cup, is an international association football competition among the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the members of the FIFA, Fédération Internatio ...

in 1994.

Career

Born in Mexico, his father José Alves dos Santos was a Brazilian forward who played for

and his mother was a Croatian housewife. Zague spent his childhood in Brazil (where he was referred to as Zaguinho, Zague with the diminutive suffix "-inho" appended to signify him being his father's son) beginning his youth football career with

Corinthians The First Epistle to the Corinthians () is one of the Pauline epistles, part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The epistle is attributed to Paul the Apostle and a co-author, Sosthenes, and is addressed to the Christian church in C ...

. He returned to Mexico in 1985 and made his debut with the Mexican

a year later. On 2 October 2003, his testimonial game was celebrated at the

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () (officially known as Estadio Banorte for sponsorship reasons) is a football stadium located in Coyoacán, Mexico City. It is the official home of football team Club América, as well as the Mexico national team. The stadium ...

where America would defeat

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 ...

2–0. He was a physically strong and fast striker who was regarded as the best in his prime years for both América and

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. He was

Hugo Sánchez Hugo Sánchez Márquez (born 11 July 1958) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer and Manager (association football), manager, who played as a Forward (association football), forward. A prolific goalscorer known for ...

's offense partner in the Mexican side who finished as runner-up in

Copa América 1993 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 ...

, where he finished up as Mexico's top goalscorer of the tournament. He was part of the

squad for the

1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 2nd edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup, the biennial international men's soccer championship of the North, Central American and Caribbean region organized by CONCACAF. The tournament took place from 10 to 25 July ...

in which Mexico won the trophy and was the tournament top scorer with 11 goals which is still a CONCACAF record. Seven of those goals were scored against

Martinique Martinique ( ; or ; Kalinago language, Kalinago: or ) is an island in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It was previously known as Iguanacaera which translates to iguana island in Carib language, Kariʼn ...

. He scored 23 goals in 83 caps for his country. Since 2018, Zague is an analyst for

TV Azteca Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as so ...

, alongside Luis García and

Jorge Campos Jorge Campos Navarrete (born 15 October 1966) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a goalkeeper and, mostly at club level, striker. A notable player of Mexico in the 1990s and early 2000s, Campos was an eccentric player, ...

Honours

América *

Mexican Primera División Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...

: 1987–88, 1988–89 *

Campeón de Campeones Campeón de Campeones () is an association football competition in Mexico and the domestic super cup between the Liga MX champions of the ''Apertura'' and ''Clausura'' tournaments. It was initially a super cup match between the league and cup cha ...

1988 1988 was a crucial year in the early history of the Internet—it was the year of the first well-known computer virus, the Morris worm, 1988 Internet worm. The first permanent intercontinental Internet link was made between the United State ...

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 ...

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions Cup, formerly known as CONCACAF Champions League (2008–2023), is an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America, a ...

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 ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Copa Interamericana The Copa Interamericana () was an international association football, football competition endorsed by CONCACAF (North, Central America and Caribbean) and CONMEBOL (South America). Established in 1969, it was discontinued in 1998 after CONCACAF ...

* Torneo Triangular Copa Azteca: 1987 * Copa Confraternidad: 1988 * Copa Camel:

* Copa Pachuca: 1995, 1997 Mexico *

FIFA Confederations Cup The FIFA Confederations Cup was an international association football tournament for men's national teams, held every four years by FIFA. It was contested by the holders of each of the six continental championships ( AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBO ...

third place:

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 ...

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 ...

runner-up:

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

North American Nations Cup The North American Nations Cup was an association football competition organized by NAFU as its top regional tournament for men's senior national teams from North America. The tournament was held in 1990 and 1991. Canada, United States and Mexi ...

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

U.S. Cup The U.S. Cup (also known as the USA Cup, United States Cup and the Nike U.S. Cup) was a Association football, soccer competition held annually in the United States from 1992 to 2000, except for the World Cup years of 1994 and 1998. The tourna ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

* Marlboro Cup: 1989 Individual *

Golden Boot:

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

Player of the Year Nomination: 1993 Records *

All Time Leading Goalscorer

Career statistics

International goals

Luis Roberto Alves "Zague" - Goals in International Matches
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References

External links

. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alves, Luis 1967 births Living people Mexican people of Brazilian descent Mexican people of Croatian descent Footballers from Mexico City Men's association football forwards Mexico men's international footballers Club América footballers Atlante F.C. footballers Club Necaxa footballers Liga MX players 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1993 Copa América players 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1995 King Fahd Cup players 1995 Copa América players CONCACAF Gold Cup–winning players Mexican men's footballers CONCACAF Champions Cup–winning players 20th-century Mexican sportsmen