Lucas René Olaza Catrofe (born 21 July 1994) is a Uruguayan 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 plays as a

left-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

Russian Premier League The Russian Premier League (RPL; , ''Rossiyskaya premyer-liga''; РПЛ), also written as Russian Premier Liga, is a professional association football league in Russia and the highest level of the Russian football league system. It was establis ...

club

Krasnodar Krasnodar, formerly Yekaterinodar (until 1920), is the largest city and the administrative centre of Krasnodar Krai, Russia. The city stands on the Kuban River in southern Russia, with a population of 1,154,885 residents, and up to 1.263 millio ...

and the Uruguay national team.

Club career

Olaza was born in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

. After graduating from River Plate's youth system, he made his professional debut on 19 February 2012, in a 3–2 away loss against Nacional. On 7 January 2014, Olaza joined Série A side Atlético Paranaense, in a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long loan deal. He made his Série A debut on 20 April, playing the last 23 minutes in a 1–0 home win against Grêmio. On 29 July 2015, Olaza moved to

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

side Celta de Vigo, initially assigned to the reserves in

Segunda División B Segunda División B (English: second division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish ...

. After his loan ended, he returned to his home country and joined Danubio. On 27 July 2017, Olaza agreed to a three-year deal with

Talleres de Córdoba Club Atlético Talleres (; ), mostly known simply as Talleres ( in Rioplatense Spanish, Rioplatense accent and or in Cordobés Spanish, Cordobés accent; ), is an Football in Argentina, Argentine professional sports club based in the city of C ...

, as the club bought 70% of his federative rights. On 1 August of the following year, he moved to fellow

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

side

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

, helping the side reach the 2018 Copa Libertadores Finals. On 31 January 2019, Olaza returned to Celta, now being assigned to the main squad after agreeing to a six-month loan. He made his debut for Celta on 30 March 2019, starting in a 3–2 win against Villarreal, where he provided the assist for the second goal. He remained an integral part of the starting XI from this point, eventually helping the team to escape relegation on the final matchday. Following his decent performances, his loan was extended to another year on 2 July 2019. On 1 February 2021, Olaza joined

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

on loan until the end of the season. The move was made permanent in the summer of 2021, as he signed a contract until June 2025. On 31 January 2022, Olaza returned to the top tier after agreeing to a loan deal with

Elche Elche (, ; , , , ; officially: ''/'' ) is a city and Municipalities of Spain, municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2024's data, Elche has a population of 234,800 inhabitants,

, with a buyout clause. On 6 August 2023, Olaza signed a contract with

club

for two years, with a conditional option for a third year.

International career

On 21 October 2022, Olaza was named in Uruguay's 55-man preliminary squad for the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

. In June 2023, he received his first call-up to the senior team for friendly matches against

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

. He made his debut on 14 June 2023 in a 4–1 win against Nicaragua. In June 2024, Olaza was named in Uruguay's 26-man squad for the 2024 Copa América.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Krasnodar *

: 2024–25 Uruguay U20 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

runner-up:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

Uruguay *

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 ...

third place:

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

References

External links

Profile
at the Uruguayan Football Association website {{DEFAULTSORT:Olaza, Lucas 1994 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Men's association football defenders Uruguayan men's footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguay men's international footballers Uruguayan Primera División players Campeonato Brasileiro Série A players Segunda División B players Argentine Primera División players La Liga players Russian Premier League players Club Atlético River Plate (Montevideo) players Club Athletico Paranaense players RC Celta Fortuna players Danubio F.C. players Talleres de Córdoba footballers Boca Juniors footballers RC Celta de Vigo players Real Valladolid players Elche CF players FC Krasnodar players Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Brazil Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Russia Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Russia 2024 Copa América players