Gabriel Ochoa Uribe (November 20, 1929 – August 8, 2020) was a Colombian

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player and manager. He won four league titles and the

Copa Colombia The Copa Colombia (); officially known as Copa BetPlay Dimayor is an annual football tournament in Colombia. It is contested by the 36 professional clubs affiliated to the División Mayor del Fútbol Profesional Colombiano (DIMAYOR) and is the ...

with

Millonarios Millonarios Fútbol Club, known simply as Millonarios, is a Colombian professional football club based in Bogotá, that competes in the Categoría Primera A, top flight of football in Colombia. It is one of the most successful and iconic clubs i ...

as a player and fourteen league titles as a manager, making him the most successful Colombian coach of all time.

Playing career

Ochoa Uribe started his playing career at the age of 17 in 1946, his first club was

América de Cali América de Cali S. A., best known as América de Cali or América, is a Colombian professional football club based in Cali. It competes in the Categoría Primera A, the top-flight league of Colombian football. The team plays its home games at ...

. In 1959 he joined

where he won four league titles playing alongside the great

Alfredo di Stéfano Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (; 4 July 1926 – 7 July 2014) was an Argentine professional footballer and coach who played as a forward, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Nicknamed "Saeta Rubia" ("Blond A ...

. In April 1955 he moved for one year to

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

in Brazil not only to play for America FC but also to further his studies in sports medicine.''Embarcou o Goleiro Uchoa'' (sic), Imprensa Popular, Rio de Janeiro, 17 April 1955, p. 7. With America FC he became under coach

Martim Francisco Martim Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada (21 February 1928 – 22 June 1982) was a Brazilian association football coach. He is widely credited with the invention of the 4–2–4 formation when guiding his first club, the Villa Nova AC of Nova Lim ...

runner up in the Championship of Rio de Janeiro. Thereafter he returned to Bogotá where he played again for Los Millonarios until 1958 when he took over as coach of the club.

Managerial career

In his first two spells as manager of Millonarios, Ochoa Uribe led them to four league titles. He also had a short spell coaching the Colombia national team. In 1966 he coached Santa Fe, leading them to the Colombian championship and making them the first Colombian team ever to reach the semi-finals of

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 ...

. He returned to Millonarios between 1970 and 1977, where he won his tenth league title with the club as player and coach with the 1972 league championship. In 1979, he became manager of

and led them to seven league championships; they were runners-up in the

three times consecutively (1985, 1986, 1987). He retired in 1991.

Honours

As player

Millonarios * Colombian league championship (4):

1949 Events January * January 1 – A United Nations-sponsored ceasefire brings an end to the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947. The war results in a stalemate and the division of Kashmir, which still continues as of 2025 * January 2 – Luis ...

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the Uni ...

1952 Events January–February * January 26 – Cairo Fire, Black Saturday in Kingdom of Egypt, Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses. * February 6 ** Princess Elizabeth, ...

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 ...

(1): 1953

As manager

Millonarios * Colombian league championship (6):

1959 Events January * January 1 – Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 – Soviet lunar probe Luna 1 is the first human-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reaches the ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

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 ...

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cove ...

1964 Events January * January 1 – The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland is dissolved. * January 5 – In the first meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches since the fifteenth century, Pope Paul VI and Patria ...

, 1972 Santa Fe * Colombian league championship (1):

1966 Events January * January 1 – In a coup, Colonel Jean-Bédel Bokassa takes over as military ruler of the Central African Republic, ousting President David Dacko. * January 3 – 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état: President Maurice Yaméogo i ...

América de Cali * Colombian league championship (7): 1979, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990

References

External links

América profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ochoa Uribe, Gabriel 1929 births 2020 deaths Colombian men's footballers Men's association football goalkeepers América de Cali footballers Millonarios F.C. players America Football Club (Rio de Janeiro) players Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Colombian football managers Colombia national football team managers Millonarios F.C. managers Independiente Santa Fe managers América de Cali managers Colombian expatriate men's footballers Footballers from Antioquia Department Categoría Primera A players Categoría Primera A managers 20th-century Colombian sportsmen