Hernán Rodrigo López

Born in Montevideo, López began his career with River Plate de Montevideo in Uruguay. He had short stints with Torino F.C. of Italy and Kavala of Greece in 1998 along with compatriot Pablo Gaglianone. In 2000, he joined Colo-Colo of Chile. He returned to Uruguay in 2001 to play for Danubio FC and in 2002 he joined Racing Club de Montevideo Between 2002 and 2004 he enjoyed a successful stint with Olimpia of Paraguay where he was part of the team that won both Copa Libertadores 2002 and Recopa Sudamericana 2003. In 2004, he joined Mexican side Pachuca CF but after only a few games he returned to Paraguay to play for Libertad where he scored an impressive 39 goals in 71 league games, won the Primera División championship in 2006 and finished as the topscorer. López returned to Mexican football in 2008 joining Club América where he played alongside a number of other South American players such as Federico Insúa of Argentina and Salvador Cabañas. He had a successful time with América, scoring a famous hat-trick against Tecos in the 2007 Apertura and helping the team to win the 2008 InterLiga. In 2008, he joined Argentine Vélez Sársfield and had an unsuccessful start with the team, quickly reverted by contributing 11 goals in their championship season of Clausura 2009. López was bought by Argentine side Estudiantes de La Plata in June 2010 for a fee of around US$750,000. He scored a number of vital goals for the club in his first season helping the club to win the Apertura 2010…

On the youth level, López was runner-up with Uruguay U-20 at the 1997 FIFA World Youth Championship. He even played the final against Argentina. López played a friendly match for Uruguay against China in 1996. Thirteen years later, in 2009, he was called again by coach Oscar Washington Tabárez for a friendly match against Algeria and for the World Cup qualifying games against Peru and Colombia. He was also part of the squad that achieved the qualification by defeating Costa Rica on the playoff. However, he was not part of the Uruguayan squad that played the World Cup. On 27 July 2010, he was called up to play a friendly match against Angola in Lisbon.

Following the departure of Celso Ayala, López was appointed manager of Paraguayan club Sportivo Luqueño on 3 March 2020. After the club saw the departure of as many as 11 players to transfers and contract dissolutions mid-tournament, López decided to resign from his position on 7 September 2020, but agreed to coach his club for one last match, a come-from-behind 2–1 victory against River Plate on 11 September 2020. During his short tenure as head coach of Sportivo Luqueño, the team achieved 16 points in 12 matches (4W-4D-4L), climbing several positions in the table.

Club

Olimpia

Copa Libertadores (1): 2002 Recopa Sudamericana (1): 2003 Libertad

Paraguayan Primera División (2): 2006, 2014 Apertura América

InterLiga (1): 2008 Vélez Sársfield

Argentine Primera División (1): 2009 Clausura Estudiantes

Argentine Primera División (1): 2010 Apertura

Individual

Second maximum goal scorer of Paraguayan football with 127 goals Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2006 (27 goals, for Libertad) Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2013 Clausura (17 goals, for Sportivo Luqueño) Paraguayan Primera División top scorer: 2014 Apertura (19 goals, for Libertad)