This article is part of the Guardian’s World Cup 2014 Experts’ Network, a co-operation between 32 of the best media organisations from the countries who have qualified for the finals in Brazil. theguardian.com is running previews from four countries each day in the run-up to the tournament kicking off on 12 June.
Egidio Arévalo Ríos doesn’t have the poster potential of Luis Suárez, the talent of Diego Forlán, nor the star power of Edinson Cavani. But he embodies to perfection the values of the Uruguayan footballer: humility, low profile, garra (fighting spirit) and commitment.
Nicknamed El Cacha [it means the handle of a knife], the 32-year-old plays in central midfield and is crucial to the Uruguayan team when it comes to winning back the ball, and also safely distributing it. He has just been signed by the Mexican club Tigres after a brief, six-month loan spell at Monarcas of Morelia, also in Mexico.
Born in the coastal city of Paysandú he started out playing in the youth ranks of that city’s Bella Vista club, eventually making the first team.
“They paid per match won, not monthly as in Montevideo [the capital], but I’ve got good memories of that time in Paysandú,” he recalled in an interview with the Uruguayan newspaper El Observador.
As he was not making much money, he combined his sporting adventures with doing odd jobs as a painter and bricklayer, together with his father. He studied carpentry, although his mother, Martha, had to chase him to attend the classes.
When he got into the first team, in 1999, and earned his first wages he helped his family pay off overdue household bills. Paysandú Bella Vista were playing at the time in the top flight of the Uruguayan championship and after scoring in a match against Defensor Sporting, which Bella Vista won 4-1, he started to catch the attention of bigger teams.
He was signed by another club called Bella Vista, the team who bear the same name but are from Montevideo and who had won their solitary Uruguayan championship in 1990. He signed for them in 2002 and although Ríos continued to improve as a player, his club suffered relegation in 2004. It was not until April 2006 that Tabárez called him up for the first time to train with the Uruguayan national team.
For his first training session with La Celeste he had an unusual experience. As his salary was not enough to buy a car, El Cacha arrived by bus. “I got up early – the same as usual – to get the kids up, I made some mate [South American tea], went to the bus stop and two buses went past without stopping because they were full. The following day I got up earlier because I didn’t want to experience those nerves again,” he said at the time.
Peñarol was his next stop in 2006, and the jump to a big club improved his game even more. Coached by Gregorio Pérez, he was the key man in a team that lifted the aurinegros (gold and blacks) out of a dark period and carried them to the final of the Clausura where Danubio beat them on penalties.
El Cacha scored eight goals that season, two of them in the clásico of the 2006 Apertura against Nacional. Around that time he became aware of the scale of his profile in Uruguay. Children would call out to him, neighbours who were supporters of Peñarol thanked him and cars honked him in the street.
“I’m not on email. I’m not into computers, or books,” he said in an interview after that unforgettable match. The journalist had offered to send him photos of the story by electronic mail.
At that time he still hadn’t learned to drive, and his team-mate Nelson Oliveira or even the youth-team player Maximiliano Bajter would take him.
In 2007 he moved abroad, signing for the Mexican side Monterrey where he did not start regularly. He had to go back to battling for Danubio for half a year to be able to go abroad again, back in Mexico with San Luis.
Unable to show his qualities abroad, Arévalo returned to Peñarol in 2010 where he won the 2009-10 Uruguayan championship, before travelling to the World Cup in South Africa, where his notable performances for the national team were overshadowed by the praise heaped on Forlán for his goals or Luis Suárez.
It was a little unbelievable that Arévalo should have to remain playing in the local Uruguayan league after his performances in South Africa. He was only able to leave in 2011. Football led him then to Tijuana in Mexico, Palermo in Italy, Chicago Fire in the US, Morelia back in Mexico and now Tigres.
But the place where it is clear that El Cacha performs at his best is with Uruguay, as in the 2011 Copa América, where he again started all the games, won the cup and provided an assist for Forlán in the final. These days, however, as a seasoned campaigner with more than 50 caps to his name, Arévalo Ríos at least turns up to train with La Celeste in his own car.
Pablo Benítez writes for El Observador in Uruguay