Alberto Spencer

Alberto Spencer is undoubtedly the best player in the history of the Copa Libertadores, of which he is the top scorer in history. He is also the best Ecuadorian player in history.

663

Games

451

Goals

Trophies

1953/59 Everest (EQU) 90 games, 101 goals

1960/70 CA Peñarol (URU) 519 games, 326 games

(Uruguayan Championship: 432 games, 268 goals)

(Copa Libertadores: 70 games, 48 goals)

(Intercontinental Cup: 7 games, 6 goals)

(Intercontinental Champions Super Cup: 10 games, 4 goals)

1971/72 Barcelona SC (EQU) 37 games, 19 goals

(Ecuadorian Championship: 20 games, 13 goals)

(Copa Libertadores: 17 games, 6 goals)

With the National Team :

Ecuador: 11 caps, 4 goals

(Friendly matches: 3 caps)

(Copa America: 4 caps, 1 goal)

(World Cup qualifiers: 4 caps, 3 goals)

1st cap: December 6, 1959 against Uruguay (0-4)

Last cap: June 21, 1972 against Iran (1-1)

Uruguay: 6 caps, 1 goal

Alberto Pedro Spencer Herrera

Born December 6, 1937 in Ancon (EQU)

Died November 3, 2006 in Cleveland (USA)

Ecuadorian, striker, 1m80

Nickname: Cabeza Magica (Magic Head)

Ecuador's superstar

Alberto Spencer was born in the city of Ancón, Ecuador, on December 6, 1937. He joined the professional group of the club Everest, a club from Ecuador in 1953 and made his debut in 1955 at the age of 17. Immediately he established himself as the new starting striker of the team.

On December 6, 1959, he played for the first time with the Ecuadorian national team in a 4-0 defeat. In 1960, when he was only 22 years old, he left his country to join the magnificent CA Peñarol team after scoring 101 goals in 90 games for his first club.

The debut of Mister Copa Libertadores

In 1960, he participated with his team in the first edition of the Copa Libertadores, which was called at the time the Copa de Campeones de América. During the first match in the history of the competition, between Peñarol and the Bolivian club Jorge Wiltermann, the Uruguayan club won 7-1 and Spencer scored 4 goals! During this first edition, he won the prize for top scorer in the competition with 7 goals scored. The Uruguayan club had notably eliminated the San Lorenzo team of superstar José Sanfilippo with 2 goals from Spencer. The club won the final and became the first champion club of South America.

While the team crushed the competition in the championship, he reached the Copa Libertadores again in 1961 where the Ecuadorian striker scored 3 goals. In the first leg of the final, Spencer scored a goal, a goal that would be important because Penarol won the final 2-1 on aggregate and won his second Copa Libertadores.

The best player in the history of the Copa Libertadores

In the 1962 edition of the Copa Libertadores, Alberto Spencer had another exceptional season, finishing top scorer in the competition with 6 goals. He scored 2 goals in the first leg semi-final and 1 goal in the return leg against Nacional Montevideo. In the final, he faced the great Santos of Pelé. First leg, Santos won but 1 goal from Spencer, second leg, Spencer scored twice, unfortunately the aggregate score was 4-4, a play-off match took place, Santos won 3-0.

The 1963 edition was not a successful one for Spencer, even though he achieved an exceptional performance by beating the first player to score 5 goals in a Copa Libertadores match. Spencer's victim? Everest's club, yes, the striker's former club. In 2 matches against Everest, Peñarol scored 14 goals for 1 conceded, 9-1 in Uruguay, 5-0 in Ecuador. But Spencer and his club were eliminated in the semi-final by the Argentinian club Club Atlético Boca Juniors.

In 1966, Alberto Spencer reached the Copa Libertadores final again, against River Plate. The Uruguayans won 2-0 in the first leg, and in the return leg the Argentinians won 3-2 (1 goal by Spencer), which allowed them to have a play-off match. In the regular match the score was 2-2, but Spencer who scored twice and Rocha who also scored gave Peñarol the third Copa Libertadores.

End of career and return to Ecuador

In 1967, 1968, 1969 and 1970, he would not win the Copa Libertadores again, but his goals continued to be recurrent and of great value. For example, in 1968, one of his goals on the hour mark earned Peñarol a new classic triumph. Or in 1970, he contributed with two goals to the biggest victory in the history of the Cup: an 11-2 victory against Valencia of Venezuela.

He left the Uruguayan club in 1970 after 268 goals in 432 games. In 1971, he returned to his homeland, to the club Barcelona SC where he scored 6 more goals in two Copa Libertadores seasons. The Ecuadorian legend would not have scored in only 2 editions that he played, in 1964 and 1965. He is still to this day the top scorer of the competition with 54 goals, ahead of players like Pedro Virgilio, Daniel Onega, Gabriel Barbosa and Julio César "Cascarilla" Morales. In 1972, at the age of 35, he retired as an absolute legend of South American football.