Luis Roberto Alves dos Santos GavraniÃÂ (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.
Zague spent most of his playing career with Club América, where he holds the distinction of being 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.
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. 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 2âÂÂ0.
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 GarcÃÂa and Jorge Campos.
América
Mexico
Individual
Records