Hugo Sotil, Peru footballer: Profile, Career, News & Videos

Hugo Sotil was a Peruvian professional footballer. Nicknamed El Cholo, he played as a striker or midfielder. Together with Teófilo Cubillas and Héctor Chumpitaz, he was one of Peru's most recognized football players of the 1970s. He also was a popular player in Peru, and a biopic on his life was released in that decade.

He was a member of the Peru national team that won the 1975 Copa América and reached the quarterfinals in Mexico 1970 and Argentina 1978.

Sotil made his professional debut in 1967, standing out with Deportivo Municipal and became one of the most popular players in Peru. In 1973 he gained international fame by signing for FC Barcelona forming a historic attacking duo with the Dutch star Johan Cruyff winning the Spanish Primera División in his first season after 14 years of drought for the Catalan club. He became the first Latin American player to wear the \"10\" for FC Barcelona. Carrying the number 10 on his back in addition to getting two league runners-up and one in the Copa del Rey after four seasons with the Barça shirt. In 1977 he returned to Peru and became two-time national champion with Alianza Lima in 1977 and 1978.

In 1973 he joined the starting team of the America national team that faced the Europe team of Johan Cruyff, Eusébio and Giacinto Facchetti. The match ended 4–4, and Sotil scored the third goal for his team, then in a penalty shootout the American team won 7–6. That night he played alongside other South American figures such as Rivellino, Fernando Morena, Miguel Brindisi, Víctor Espárrago, Teófilo Cubillas and others.

He was international with the Peruvian team, with which he played two editions of the FIFA World Cup: those of 1970 and 1978, where he reached the quarterfinals in both World Cups. On a continental level, he won the Copa América in 1975, where he scored the only goal of the final match against Colombia, giving the Inca team the title of Champions of America.

Sotil has been one of the most popular athletes in his country, to the point that in 1972, he starred in a film directed by Bernardo Batievsky (his great admirer) entitled Cholo.