Héctor Chumpitaz

Héctor Chumpitaz
Personal information
Full name Héctor Eduardo Chumpitaz González
Date of birth (1943-04-12) April 12, 1943
Place of birth Cañete, Peru
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s) Centre back
Youth career
Universitario
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1964–1965 Deportivo Municipal 32 (5)
1966–1975 Universitario 245 (46)
1975–1977 Atlas 60 (6)
1977–1984 Sporting Cristal 128 (8)
Total 465 (65)
International career
1965–1981 Peru 105 (3)
Managerial career
1985 Unión Huaral
1985–1986 Sporting Cristal
1991 AELU
Medal record
Men's football
Representing  Peru
Copa América
Winner1975
1979
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Héctor Eduardo Chumpitaz Gonzáles (Latin American Spanish: [ˈeɣtoɾ ˈtʃumpitas]; born 12 April 1943, in Cañete) is a former footballer from Peru. He was voted one of the greatest defenders of all time, among the 30 best defenders in football history, and included within the 100 best players in the history of the World Cup by FIFA in 2018. He is also a member of the Historic Ideal Team of Copa América by CONMEBOL. In addition, he is the seventh highest-scoring South American defender in football history, with 65 official goals.

Considered by FIFA as one of the best South American defenders of all time, Chumpitaz is also one of the greatest exponents in the history of Peruvian football. He spent most of his career at Universitario de Deportes and Sporting Cristal. He currently has a football school named as him, where he is dedicated to training minors.

Chumpitaz was regarded one of the best defenders in the world during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and is widely considered one of the four best South American defenders of all time along with Elías Figueroa, José Nasazzi, and Daniel Passarella. With great defensive skills, excellent reading of the game, possession and distribution of the ball and an imposing leader role, he became one of the most legendary figures of Universitario de Deportes, a club with which he won five titles in the Peruvian League and was a finalist in the Copa Libertadores in 1972.

In addition to having won three other national titles with Sporting Cristal, Chumpitaz is remembered for having been captain of the American team that played a friendly match against the stars of Europe, among them were Giacinto Facchetti, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, Johan Cruyff —who was the captain of Europe, among other figures. It was there that he was given the nickname "El Capitán de America" ("America's Captain").

At the national team level, for almost fifteen years Chumpitaz was the captain and great defensive bulwark of the Peru national football team that won the Copa América 1975 and reached the quarterfinals in the FIFA World Cup of Mexico 1970 and Argentina 1978.

Chumpitaz is considered one of the greatest South American defenders of all-time and was named to the list of best World Cup players of all time by Terra.com in 2006. He was elected the 35th best South American footballer of the 20th century in a poll by the IFFHS in 2000.