At 44, Sebastian Abreu decided to end a career which saw the “Loco” wear the jerseys of 31 different clubs, a world record sworn in the Guinness Book.
“I have weird, beautiful sensations,” admitted the Uruguayan striker after his last match ending 26 years of career. He entered in the 75th minute, while his South America team already lost 5-0 against Liverpool, in Montevideo, on behalf of the 5th day of the opening tournament of the Uruguayan championship.
He wore a captain’s armband bearing the dates of June 4, 1995 and June 11, 2021, in reference to his beginnings in professional football, with the Uruguayan club Defensor Racing, and therefore his final appearance on the field after 26 years of career in more than ten countries.
Abreu will stop playing but he has already planned to continue his coaching career, which began as a player-coach in El Salvador, with Santa Tecla, and in Uruguay, with Boston River.
The 31 clubs whose jersey Abreu wore, duly registered by the Guinness Book of Records (he had broken this record in 2018 with his 26th club), are mostly South American, starting with the Defensor Sporting, the Nacional, the Central Español, Boston River and South America, in Uruguay.
There are also three Argentine clubs – San Lorenzo, River Plate and Rosario Central – and six Brazilian clubs – the Gremio de Porto Alegre, Botafogo (of which he remains an idol), Figueirense, Bangu, Rio Branco and the Athletic Club – but also two Spanish clubs, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Sociedad.
The travels of Abreu the globetrotter also took him to Mexico: he played for the Tecos de Guadalajara, Cruz Azul, América, the Dorados de Sinaola (the club briefly coached by Diego Maradona, and where he played with Pep Guardiola), San Luis, Monterrey and even the Monterrey Tigers, the new club of Frenchman Florian Thauvin.
Finally, for good measure and to complete his footballing culture, Abreu defended the colors of Beitar Jerusalem (Israel), Aris Salonika (Greece), Aucas (Ecuador), Sol de América (Paraguay), Santa Tecla (Salvador), and in Chile from Deportes Puerto Montt, Audax Italiano and Deportes Magallanes.
This career is all the more exceptional as he has sometimes made several trips to the same club, including five at Nacional, his Uruguayan club at heart.
Abreu also won the Copa América in 2011, in Argentina, with the national team (70 caps, 26 goals), where he faced stiff competition with Diego Forlan, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez.
He also participated in the epic of Celeste who reached the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup, notably scoring the winning goal in the quarter-finals against Ghana (1-1 ap, 4-2 tab) , a panenka.
Abreu was used to taking penalties from a stung ball, the kind of daring move that soon earned him his nickname “Loco”. Also due to his humor, and his quirks – he always wore his favorite number, 13, and requires the same number for his seat on the plane or his hotel room. Number 13 and 31 clubs.
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