CARLOS ALBERTO "PATO" AGUILERA
Playing style
Tiny little striker with great movement and anticipation, very aggressive in his pursuit of the ball. He would always be first to it, he always wanted it more, and had the burst of pace to leave defenders dead on their tracks.
That's one key reason his big man-little man partnership with Skuhravy worked so well: he was always first to the second (loose) ball. You can see that clearly in the clip below.
He was basically similar to Romario in all that. What he wouldn't do is bamboozle defences with his dribbling, turns and flicks like the pocket-sized Brazilian did.
Later in his career he developed into more of a support striker as he lost pace, with some signs of that already while at Torino.
Career
One of my favourite young talents in the 80s. Only just turned 19, he scored against Brazil away from home to win us the 1983 Copa América.
At the peak of my fandom, he made me a closet Nacional fan. You know, like all these reds drooling over KDB. I berated our NT manager throughout the '86 World Cup for not giving him a single minute, as the entire country did.
But there was a worrying pattern emerging ever since his move to Pablo Escobar's Independiente Medellín in 1985: he mixed up with the wrong people and ended up moving to another country soon enough. In four years he played in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and then back to Uruguay, finally at Peñarol and top scorer of the Libertadores, before finally moving to Genoa in 1989.
The week before the 1990 WC started he was already in trouble: arrested as a person of interest in the investigations of a prostitution ring. He was released but the case see-sawed for another three years.
In the meantime, he formed that tremendous partnership which jointly scored 30 goals in 90-91 delivering Genoa's best ever Serie A finish: 4th and UEFA Cup qualification.
While the UEFA Cup is out of scope, you gotta love seeing this: the first time an Italian side won at Anfield. Aguilera got both goals. Just watch Souness' "I'll be sacked in the morning" mug
As the court case continued, he moved to Torino where his big man was [unpicked]cocking[unpicked] with whom he won the Coppa Italia.
Then suddenly things looked really bad with his case (never clarified if fully involved,or "aware and said nothing", or at risk of getting whacked as a witness). He moved back to Peñarol halfway through 93-94, where he would go on to win 5 league titles. Clearly a cut above everyone around him as the exodus to Europe intensified... but he just couldn't be in Italy (or Bolivia, always picked up knocks before games there, *ehem*extradition treaty*ehem*).
Funny enough, years later a retired Tomas Skuhravy was in trouble over activities related to passport forgeries.
Maybe they took "partners in crime" far too seriously.
