Luís Roberto Alves

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Alves dos Santos and the second or maternal family name is Gavranić.

Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos Gavranić (born 23 May 1967) is a Mexican former professional footballer who played as a forward. He is best known as Zague, in honor to his father.

Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos

Alves dos Santos in 2017
Personal information
Full name	Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos Gavranić
Date of birth	(1967-05-23) 23 May 1967 (age 58)
Place of birth	Mexico City, Mexico
Height	1.93 m (6 ft 4 in)
Position	Forward
Youth career
1983–1985	Corinthians[1]
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1985–1996	América	373	(157)
1996–1997	Atlante	30	(17)
1997–1998	América	35	(5)
1998–1999	Atlante	42	(7)
2000–2003	Necaxa	104	(23)
Total		584	(209)
International career
1988–2001	Mexico	83	(23)
Medal record Representing  Mexico Runner-up Copa América 1993
* Club domestic league appearances and goals

Zague spent most of his playing career with Club América, where he made over 400 appearances and scored 188 goals in all competitions, making him the club's all-time leading scorer.

On the international stage, Zague made 83 appearances and scored 23 goals. He represented Mexico at the FIFA World Cup in 1994.

Career

Born in Mexico, his father José Alves dos Santos was a Brazilian forward who played for Club América and his mother was a Croatian housewife. Zague spent his childhood in Brazil (where he was referred to as Zaguinho, Zague with the diminutive suffix "-inho" appended to signify him being his father's son) beginning his youth football career with Corinthians.^[2] He returned to Mexico in 1985 and made his debut with the Mexican Club América a year later.

On 2 October 2003, his testimonial game was celebrated at the Estadio Azteca where America would defeat FC Barcelona 2–0.^[3]

He was a physically strong and fast striker who was regarded as the best in his prime years for both América and Mexico. He was Hugo Sánchez's offense partner in the Mexican side who finished as runner-up in Copa América 1993, where he finished up as Mexico's top goalscorer of the tournament.

He was part of the Mexico squad for the 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup in which Mexico won the trophy and was the tournament top scorer with 11 goals which is still a CONCACAF record. Seven of those goals were scored against Martinique in a single game.

He scored 23 goals in 83 caps for his country.

Since 2018, Zague is an analyst for TV Azteca, alongside Luis García and Jorge Campos.^[4]

Career statistics

International

Appearances and goals by national team and year^[5]

National team	Year	Apps	Goals
Mexico	1988	3	2
	1989	1	1
	1990	4	1
	1991	9	3
	1992	9	2
	1993	21	14
	1994	6	0
	1995	9	0
	1996	4	3
	1997	14	3
	2001	4	1
Total		84	30

Scores and results list Mexico's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Zague goal.

List of international goals scored by Zague

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition	Ref.
1	29 March 1988	Estadio Azulgrana, Mexico City, Mexico	El Salvador	2–0	8–0	Friendly	[6]
2				4–0
3	14 February 1989	Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla, Mexico	Poland	1–0	3–1	Friendly	[7]
4	17 January 1990	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, United States	Argentina	2–0	2–0	Friendly	[8]
5	14 March 1991	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, United States	Canada	1–0	3–0	Friendly	[9]
6				2–0
7	28 June 1991	Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, United States	Jamaica	2–0	4–1	1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup	[10]
8	8 November 1992	Arnos Vale Stadium, Arnos Vale, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	1–0	4–0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification	[11]
9	6 December 1992	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	6–0	11–0	1994 FIFA World Cup qualification	[12]
10	10 June 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Paraguay	3–0	3–1	Friendly	[13]
11	16 June 1993	Estadio 9 de Mayo, Machala, Ecuador	Colombia	1–1	1–2	1993 Copa América	[14]
12	27 June 1993	Estadio Olímpico Atahualpa, Quito, Ecuador	Peru	2–0	4–2	1993 Copa América	[15]
13	11 July 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Martinique	1–0	9–0	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup	[16]
14				2–0
15				3–0
16				5–0
17				6–0
18				7–0
19				8–0
20	18 July 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Canada	4–0	8–0	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup	[17]
21				5–0
22	22 July 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Jamaica	5–1	6–1	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup	[18]
23	25 July 1993	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	United States	3–0	4–0	1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup	[19]
24	16 October 1996	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Jamaica	1–0	2–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	[20]
25	31 October 1996	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	3–0	5–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	[21]
26	6 November 1996	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Honduras	3–0	3–1	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	[22]
27	19 January 1997	Rose Bowl, Pasadena, United States	United States	1–0	2–0	Friendly	[23]
28	2 March 1997	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	Canada	4–0	4–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	[24]
29	5 October 1997	Estadio Azteca, Mexico City, Mexico	El Salvador	4–0	5–0	1998 FIFA World Cup qualification	[25]
30	31 October 2001	Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla, Mexico	El Salvador	3–0	4–1	Friendly	[26]

Honours

América

• Mexican Primera División: 1987–88, 1988–89
• Campeón de Campeones: 1988, 1989
• CONCACAF Champions' Cup: 1987, 1990, 1992

Mexico

• CONCACAF Gold Cup: 1993

Individual

• CONCACAF Gold Cup Golden Boot: 1993

Records

• Club América All Time Leading Goalscorer