 Eguren withUruguay in 2013 | |||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Sebastián Eguren Ledesma | ||||||||||||||||
| Date of birth | (1981-01-08)8 January 1981 (age 44)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Montevideo, Uruguay[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.86 m (6 ft 1 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||
| Position | Midfielder | ||||||||||||||||
| Senior career* | |||||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | ||||||||||||||
| 1999–2002 | Montevideo Wanderers | 36 | (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 2002–2003 | Danubio | 27 | (6) | ||||||||||||||
| 2003–2004 | Nacional | 39 | (5) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005 | Montevideo Wanderers | 23 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2005–2006 | Rosenborg | 23 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2006–2008 | Hammarby IF | 36 | (13) | ||||||||||||||
| 2008 | →Villarreal (loan) | 15 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2008–2010 | Villarreal | 46 | (1) | ||||||||||||||
| 2010 | AIK | 7 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2010–2012 | Sporting Gijón | 49 | (3) | ||||||||||||||
| 2012–2013 | Libertad | 26 | (4) | ||||||||||||||
| 2013–2014 | Palmeiras | 17 | (2) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015 | Colón | 8 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| 2015–2016 | Nacional | 11 | (0) | ||||||||||||||
| Total | 363 | (43) | |||||||||||||||
| International career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2001–2013 | Uruguay | 54 | (7) | ||||||||||||||
| Managerial career | |||||||||||||||||
| 2016–2017 | Nacional (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2018–2019 | Al Ahly (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2020–2021 | Atenas de San Carlos | ||||||||||||||||
| 2021–2022 | Chile (assistant) | ||||||||||||||||
| 2022 | Montevideo City Torque | ||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||||||||||||||||
Sebastián Eguren Ledesma (born 8 January 1981) is a Uruguayanfootballmanager and former player who played mainly as adefensive midfielder.
Eguren started his career withMontevideo Wanderers in 1999, and went on to play professionally in Norway, Sweden, Spain, Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina before retiring in 2016. He earned 57caps forUruguay between 2001 and 2013, representing his country at the2010 World Cup and twoCopa América tournaments, winning the2011 edition.
From 2016 he worked as a coach, mainly as an assistant toMartín Lasarte.
Born inMontevideo, Eguren started his career in native country, playing forMontevideo Wanderers FC (twice) andClub Nacional de Football. With the latter, after the0–0Copa Libertadores game againstClub Deportivo El Nacional on 12 February 2004, he tested positive forcocaine, being suspended from football for six months. He blamed thecoca tea, widely drunk in theAndean countries as a medicine which alleviates the effects of altitude, and got the shortest suspension for this kind of cases (this specific match was played at 2,800 meters above sea level, inQuito).[2]
Eguren arrived atHammarby IF from Norwegian clubRosenborg BK, on loan during the later part of the 2006 season and, on 5 December 2006, signed a three-year contract with the Swedish side.
On 30 January 2008, Eguren joinedVillarreal CF ofLa Liga, on loan until the end ofthe campaign.[3] Almost immediately cast into the starting XI, he partneredMarcos Senna in centre midfield as theYellow Submarine obtained its best position ever in the top flight by finishing second; in May the Spaniards decided to make the move permanent, and the player penned a three-year deal.[4]
During2008–09, more of the same: Eguren was, alongside Senna, an everpresent fixture, and the Uruguayan scored his first goal for the club in a 3–3 home draw againstGetafe CF (with theMadrid side leading 3–0 at the half-hour mark).[5] He played 32 league matches in his first full season.
In late January 2010, as he had lost his defensive midfielder position to youth graduateBruno, Eguren was loaned toS.S. Lazio.[6] However, the move was cancelled days later, after the player did not pass his medical.[7]
Anxious for playing time in order to secure a spot on the national squad for the2010 FIFA World Cup, Eguren signed with reigning Swedish championsAIK Fotboll on 19 February 2010. According to theirdirector of football Björn Wesström, the agreement was technically not a loan deal as the player had no contractual obligations with Villarreal until 1 July 2010 – however, he was due to return to Spain since he still had 12 months left of his contract.[8] In early March, it was decided by the club to put the player under police protection, after he was harassed while training by fans of former side Hammarby, a fierce rival to AIK;[9] he usually operated as adefensive midfielder previously, but managerMikael Stahre preferred using him in anattacking midfielder ordeep-lying forward role.
In late July 2010, Eguren returned to Spain but not to Villarreal, signing a three-year contract with fellow league teamSporting de Gijón.[10] He contributed with 19 games and two goals inhis second year, but theAsturians suffered relegation.
In July 2013, Eguren signed a one-and-a-half-year deal with Brazil'sSociedade Esportiva Palmeiras.[11] He confessed that his changing of club happened because he did not have enough playing time at his previous teamClub Libertad in Paraguay, where he played second-fiddle toPablo Guiñazú.[12] He scored twice in 12Campeonato Brasileiro Série B games as the team fromSão Paulowon the title, including the equaliser on 23 November as they defeatedCeará Sporting Club 4–1 to lift the trophy.[13]
Having played rarely inSérie A for Palmeiras in2014, Eguren returned to Montevideo Wanderers on a one-year contract the following 27 January.[14] Days later, he was loaned for two years toClub Atlético Colón of theArgentine Primera División.[15] On 25 July, he went back to another former club in his hometown, Nacional.[16]
Eguren made his debut forUruguay during the2001 Copa América,entering the pitch in the 63rd minute of a 1–0 win againstBolivia, and added a further two appearances in the competition.[17] On 28 May 2008, after a five-year absence, he scored his first goal for theCharrúas, netting in a 2–2 friendly withNorway inOslo.[18]
On 6 September 2008, Eguren scored his first competitive international goal, headingDiego Forlán'scorner kick for the only goal away toColombia in2010 FIFA World Cupqualification;[19] he added his only other of the campaign just over a year later, to conclude a 3–1 win in the reverse fixture.[20] He was selected for the finals in South Africa, playing once for the semi-finalists (three minutes in the group stage 0–0 draw againstFrance).[21]
Always as a substitute, Eguren was used regularly in the2011 Copa América as his nation won its 15th continental tournament.[22] ManagerÓscar Tabárez also took him to the2013 FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, where he was part of a completely changed team that beatTahiti 8–0 in the group stage en route to finishing fourth.[23]
Shortly after retiring as a player, Eguren received his first coaching job in June 2016 when he was hired as assistant toMartín Lasarte at Nacional.[24] He followed him toAl Ahly SC, where they won theEgyptian Premier League in2018–19.[25]
In September 2020, Eguren was hired atAtenas de San Carlos in his country'ssecond division, having previously been thesporting director.[26] He left the following February, to work beside Lasarte again on theChile national team.[27]
Lasarte and Eguren quit the Chile national team in April 2022, havingfailed to qualify for theWorld Cup in Qatar; the assistant put the blame on the advanced age of the team's star players and the failure to develop replacements for them.[28] Days later, he was hired in his first top-flight job as a manager, with 12th-placedMontevideo City Torque.[29]
On his Torque debut on 6 May 2022, Eguren recorded a 2–2 draw atClub Sportivo Cerrito.[30] He resigned from theCity Football Group-owned team on 20 September, having won four and lost half of 20 league matches.[31]
During most of his career in Europe, Eguren did not count as a foreign player, due to the fact he was married to a Swedish woman.[7]
Besides his musical preferences, ranging fromBob Dylan toPink Floyd, and his literary ones (he is a fan of compatriotsMario Benedetti andEduardo Galeano), Eguren spoke openly about politics, admiringpresidentJosé Mujica, with whom he shared views in favour of legalisingcannabis andabortion.[12][32]
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 28 May 2008 | Ullevaal,Oslo, Norway |  Norway | 2–1 | 2–2 | Friendly | |
| 2 | 20 August 2008 | Sapporo Dome,Sapporo, Japan |  Japan | 1–0 | 3–1 | Friendly | |
| 3 | 6 September 2008 | El Campín,Bogotá, Colombia |  Colombia | 1–0 | 1–0 | 2010 World Cup qualification | |
| 4 | 11 February 2009 | 11 June,Tripoli, Libya |  Libya | 1–0 | 3–2 | Friendly | |
| 5 | 9 September 2009 | Centenario,Montevideo, Uruguay | Colombia | 3–1 | 3–1 | 2010 World Cup qualification | |
| 6 | 8 October 2010 | Gelora Bung Karno,Jakarta, Indonesia |  Indonesia | 4–1 | 7–1 | Friendly | |
| 7 | 10 June 2012 | Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay |  Peru | 4–2 | 4–2 | 2014 World Cup qualification |
AIK
Palmeiras
Uruguay
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
Uruguay squads | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
