Saralegi, Mario

Soccer Player

Saralegi was born into a large family, his parents had five children ^[1] .

Mario Saralegi is a pupil of Peñarol, who made his debut in 1977. Together with “aurinegros” until 1984, he won the Uruguayan championship four times, and in 1982 his team won the Libertadores Cup and the Intercontinental Cup ^[1] .

In the 1984/85 season, he played for the Spanish Elche, but could not help the team avoid a flight to Segunda . The next season he spent in his native “Peñarole”, becoming the champion of Uruguay for the fifth time ^[1] .

In 1986 he moved to the Argentine River Plate. Mario Saralegi became part of the team that won the Libertadores Cup and the Intercontinental Cup for the first time in its history, and for the Uruguayan it was the second time in his career. During the winning campaign, Saralegi took part in five matches, four of which came on as a substitute. In the final games against “ America, Cali ” did not participate ^[2] .

After the 1987/88 season at Estudiantes, Saralegi returned to Peñarol again, where he played until 1990. Then he played in Ecuador , where as part of the Guayaquil “Barcelona” in 1991 became the champion of the country. In 1990, he helped the team for the first time in the history of Ecuadorian football reach the final of the Libertadores Cup, where Barcelona lost to the Paraguayan Olympia ^[3] .

He returned to Peñarol for the last time as a player in 1993, and then won his sixth Uruguayan title. He completed his football career in 1994 at Rumple Juniors . That season, Mario Saralegi, for the first time since 1981, performed in the same club with another childhood Ruben Paz ^[4] .

In 1977, as part of the youth team of Uruguay, he won the championship of South America in his age category. This gave the team a ticket to the first ever World Cup , which took place in the same year in Tunisia . Uruguayans took fourth place in the tournament . Mario Saralegi made his debut at the youth world Cup only in the semifinals in the game against the USSR national team , in which the Soviet players were stronger in the penalty shootout (3: 4) ^[5] . Saralegi also played in the game for third place with Brazil (0: 4) ^[6] .

For the main team of Uruguay, Mario Saralegi made his debut on May 31, 1979 in a friendly match against Brazil (1: 5). The last time he played for the national team on June 13, 1986 in Nesaualcoyotle - this was the third game of the group stage of the World Cup against the national team of Scotland (0: 0) ^[7] . In 1983, as part of the national team, he became the winner of the America's Cup. In the winning campaign, Mario took part in four matches. In the return semifinal game at the 75th minute, he replaced Carlos Aguilera , but 10 minutes later he received a red card (together with the Peruvian Jaime Duarte ). In the final games against Brazil did not participate ^[8] . Saralegi also played at the 1979 America's Cup and 1986 World Cup. In total for “Celeste” he spent 29 matches and scored two goals ^[7] .

Coaching career

In 1996, Saralegi began a coaching career. His first team was the Artigas team. For a decade, Saralegi had a difficult time adjusting to an unsportsmanlike life, at the turn of the decade he divorced his wife, he had depression and alcohol problems . In 2001, Mario began to study as a psychologist, since his mother always wanted all five of her children to have a higher education diploma. Mario's mother died in 2005, after this event, Mario began to visit a psychologist and gradually coped with his problems. As of 2016, Saralegi did not yet have a diploma, but in an interview he said that he would fulfill the wish of the deceased mother ^[1] .

Since 2005, Saralegi began to coordinate the work of the youth teams of Peñaroli. The following year, he headed the club’s third team, and then coached the main team for a short time. In 2006-2007 he coached Uruguay Montevideo and Progreso, and in 2008 he again headed Peñarol, with whom he won the first stage of the national championship - Apertura. From 2010 to 2016, he worked with a number of teams in Uruguay and Ecuador, but did not achieve serious success ^[1] .

As a player

•   Champion of Uruguay (6): 1978 , 1979 , 1981 , 1982 , 1985 , 1993
•   Champion of Ecuador (1): 1991
•   Ligilla Winner (4): 1977 , 1978 , 1980 , 1985
• Libertadores Cup Winner (2): 1982 , 1986
• Finalist of the Libertadores Cup (2): 1983 , 1990
• Intercontinental Cup Winner (2): 1982 , 1986
• South American Youth Champion (1): 1977
• America's Cup Winner (1): 1983

As a trainer

•   Uruguay Vice Champion (1): 2008/09

• National Football Teams profile
• Player profile on Transfermarkt
• Profile at bdfa.com.ar (Spanish)