World Player of the Week: Alvaro Recoba - Nacional

Join Goal.com in saluting another player worthy of global recognition, this time the 35-year-old Uruguayan forward who secured the championship in his homeland

Alvaro Recoba - Nacional de Montevideo
90minutos.com.uy
Welcome to Goal.com's regular feature: Goal.com World Player of the Week. Each week our worldwide team of editors will put forward a selected candidate, as chosen by Goal.com International, who deserves recognition for achieving something special that matchday. It won't necessarily be the best player in the world - at least not usually - but whoever we nominate will have accomplished something amazing. It might be for a particularly awesome performance or for something praiseworthy off the pitch - either way, the person in question deserves special attention...

Goal.com World Player of the Week #133: Alvaro Recoba
Club: Nacional
Country: Uruguay
Age:
35
Role:
Forward
Achievement:
Won the Uruguayan Apertura championship

Alvaro Recoba is regarded as one of the finest players South America has ever produced, but had failed to win the championship in his homeland Uruguay during his illustrious career.

But this weekend the 35-year-old veteran did just that, and in style too. The former Uruguay international scored a beautiful goal to lead Nacional to a 1-0 victory over Liverpool and win the Apertura championship.

It was a fitting finale to Recoba’s return to the club he left 14 years ago and saw the Tricolors reclaim the title.

Congratulations to Alvaro Recoba
, Goal.com's 133rd World Player of the Week!
 

Honourable Mentions

Mauricio Isla - Udinese

Udinese recorded a slender victory over Inter in Serie A at the weekend, and the scorer of the only goal was a certain Mauricio Isla. The Chilean defended stoutly, got the better of Ricardo Alvarez and Cristian Chivu and found the net on 73 minutes to hand the Zebrette a 1-0 win.

Eninho - Jeonbuk Motors

Jeonbuk Motors won the K-League title this weekend 4-2 on aggregate, with 2-1 wins in each leg. Brazilian midfielder Eninho scored both goals midweek, before his spot kick in the second leg pulled his side back in control of the tie to make it 1-1 on the day after Seol Ki-Hyeon had put Ulsan ahead early in the half. The crafty Brazilian was integral to their title success this term, with his creativity and quality up front.

Franck Ribery - Bayern Munich

Bayern Munich returned to winning ways in the Bundesliga at the weekend when they got the better of Werder Bremen 4-1, and at the heart of that triumph was Ribery. The France international scored two goals and won a penalty, and was a constant threat going forward for the Bavarian giants at the Allianz Arena.

Sagar Thapa - Nepal

Sagar Thapa scored a 95th minute goal from a free kick, a la Ronaldinho from the 2002 World Cup finals, which saw Nepal beat Bangladesh 1-0 on Sunday after 18 long years. The captain has also been inspirational at the back as the Gorkhalis haven't let in a single goal in their two matches in the SAFF Championship.

Yakubu - Blackburn Rovers

Yakubu scored all four goals for Blackburn Rovers in their 4-2 victory over Swansea City at Ewood Park in the Premier League to give his side hope of surviving relegation this season.

Leave your notes of congratulations for Alvaro Recoba below, or discuss who else deserves a place in the spotlight this week...



 
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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 2-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
19:32 BST
We're getting plenty of people saying it was boring. PLENTY. But Spain scored seven goals in eight games at the World Cup and I didn't hear too many of their fans complaining. Or as Fran Stinchcombe points out on Twitter: "If we had lost but played free flowing attacking football would these people still have moaned?"
19:24 BST
No, no, no. I'll have none of that Emile Heskey shouting anymore! Hello, it's me, it's me, it's that D-O-Y-L-E. Yes, I'm Joe Doyle, and I'll be here for all the reaction to that England game. First things first, how did everyone see that game? Good performance? A touch boring? Let me know on Twitter.
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