Hugo Eduardo Rubio Montecinos (born 5 July 1960) is a former Chilean football forward. Rubio's nickname is "Pájaro," which in Spanish is "bird." He was known for his speed and finishing. He played in

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, Spain, Italy, and

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Today he is an agent for Pass Ball Sports Management and represents many young Chilean talents such as Luis Jiménez and Matías Fernández.

Club career

At the age of 16, Rubio joined amateur club Club Internacional Atlético Comercio. The club is from

Talca Talca () is a city and commune in Chile located about south of Santiago, and is the capital of both Talca Province and Maule Region (7th Region of Chile). As of the 2012 census, the city had a population of 201,142. The city is an important ...

and was founded by Rubio's grandfather Aurelio Mortecinos Carrasco. The club paid him $100 per goal he scored. In 1978, he joined the youth system of

Rangers de Talca Club Social de Deportes Rangers is a Chilean football (soccer), football club based in the city of Talca. The club was founded November 2, 1902 and plays in the Chilean Primera División B, second level of the Chilean football system. Their home g ...

. He also spent time on loan with San Javier, another youth squad. In 1979, Rubio had an offer to sign with Chilean club

San Luis Quillota San Luis de Quillota is a Chilean professional football club based in Quillota, that competes in the Primera B. The club's home stadium is the Estadio Bicentenario Lucio Fariña. Managers Interim coaches appear in italics. * Frank Powell (1929 ...

, an established team. However, he decided to stay with Rangers since he was studying at the time at Universidad Católica de Talca (1978–1981). His first two professional goals came on 6 August 1979 in the '63 and '80 minutes. In 1981, he helped Rangers gain promotion to Chilean First Division. He became very popular among the Rangers supporters during his time with the club. His good form piqued the interest of Chilean club

Cobreloa Club de Deportes Cobreloa S.A.D.P. (), commonly referred to as Cobreloa, is a professional Chilean football league system, Chilean football club based in Calama, Chile, Calama, Región de Antofagasta, Chile. They compete in the Primera B de Ch ...

, who would be playing in the

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 ...

. Cobreloa signed Rubio in 1982 and went on to place as runner-up in 1982

. In 1982, he won the Chilean national title. He stayed with the club until 1985. During his time with Cobreloa he made a name for himself in all of Chile. Rubio's good form led him to be loaned to Spanish club

CD Málaga Club Deportivo Málaga was a Spanish football club based in Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It played twenty seasons in La Liga, before being dissolved in 1992. History Origins The first football club in Málaga was establ ...

, where he would score seven goals in the season of 1985–1986. He was then sold to Chilean club

Colo-Colo Colo-Colo (), officially Club Social y Deportivo Colo-Colo, is a Chilean professional football club based in Macul, Santiago. Founded in 1925 by David Arellano, it competes in the Chilean Primera División, from which the club has never been ...

. He immediately showed his good football once again. In 1988, he was sold for, at the time, a record amount to Italian side

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

. The profits Colo-Colo received for Rubio helped finish the construction of their current stadium,

Estadio Monumental David Arellano The Estadio Monumental is a association football, football stadium in Macul, south-east of the centre of the Chilean capital Santiago. It serves as the home ground of Colo-Colo, and on occasions also for other clubs and the national football team ...

. He scored two goals in five games played in the

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

. He played in 20

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

games before devastatingly injuring himself against

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

, which kept him out of football for five months. In 1989, he was loaned to

FC St. Gallen Fussballclub St. Gallen 1879, commonly known as St. Gallen, is a Swiss professional football club based in the city of St. Gallen, Canton of St. Gallen. It is the oldest football club in continental Europe after Kjøbenhavns Boldklub. The tea ...

, where fellow Chilean Ivan Zamorano played. He would stay in Switzerland until 1991. Rubio returned to Chile to play for

, where he would win the

Recopa Sudamericana The CONMEBOL Recopa Sudamericana (), also known as Recopa Sudamericana or CONMEBOL Recopa, and simply as Recopa (, ; "Winners' Cup"), is an annual international club Association football, football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1988. It ...

and

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 ...

in 1991. His second stay would last until 1994 when he moved to

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional football club based in the Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile currently participating in the Primera División de Chile. History Foundation, Amateur Era and First seasons ...

. He scored seven goals in the lone season he played for Unión. His third stop with Colo-Colo would lead to his retirement in 1997.

International career

His international career began in 1983 and lasted until 1991. His two biggest accomplishments with ''La Roja'' were the second place in the 1987

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 ...

in Argentina and the third place in 1991 Copa América in Chile. He played 36 games and scored 12 goals for ''La Roja.''

Personal life

Rubio is the son of Ildefonso Rubio,Ildefonso Rubio
at CeroaCero a historical goalkeeper of

. His sons,

Eduardo Eduardo is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the male name Edward. Another version is Duarte. It may refer to: Association football * Dudu (footballer, born 1992) (Eduardo Pereira Rodrigues), Brazilian footballer * Eduardo (footballer, born 1 ...

Matias Matías is the Portuguese version of Matthias. Matías is very popular in Latin America especially in Argentina. In German-speaking Europe it is most often written as Matthias. It appears in this form in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Alterna ...

and

Diego Diego is a Spanish masculine given name. The Portuguese equivalent is Diogo. The etymology of Diego is disputed, with two major origin hypotheses: ''Tiago'' and ''Didacus''. The name also has several patronymic derivations, listed below. ...

are or were professional footballers. Eduardo and Diego have been internationals with

, while Matías was a Chile international at under-20 level.

Honours

Club

;Cobreloa *

(1): Runner-up

1982 Events January * January 1 – In Malaysia and Singapore, clocks are adjusted to the same time zone, UTC+8 (GMT+8.00). * January 13 – Air Florida Flight 90 crashes shortly after takeoff into the 14th Street Bridge in Washington, D.C. ...

Primera División de Chile Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

(2):

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

;Colo-Colo *

(4):

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

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 ...

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 ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

(1):

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 ...

(1):

Copa Chile The Copa Chile (''Chile Cup'') is an annual cup competition for Chilean football teams. Due to time constraints and club pressure, the trophy was cancelled in 2000, but returned in 2008. Its precursor was the Campeonato de Apertura (''Opening Ch ...

(1):

References

External links

Pass Ball Sports Management
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rubio, Hugo 1960 births Living people Footballers from Talca Chilean men's footballers Chilean expatriate men's footballers Chile men's international footballers 1987 Copa América players 1991 Copa América players Rangers de Talca footballers C.D. Cobreloa footballers CD Málaga footballers Colo-Colo footballers Bologna FC 1909 players FC St. Gallen players Unión Española footballers Chilean Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Segunda División players Serie A players Swiss Super League players Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Spain Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Italy Chilean expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Switzerland Men's association football forwards 20th-century Chilean sportsmen