Federico Viñas #21

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“I’m Federico Viñas, it’s possible they confused me with Matías Viña,” the striker said when he was called up by Uruguay for the first time – he couldn’t quite believe it. Playing international football is a far cry from the Casabó neighbourhood in Montevideo where Viñas earned a living delivering meat produce. One day he went to try out for the amateur team Mar de Fondo. From there he went to Juventud in Las Piedras. The striker, nicknamed ‘El Tanque’ (the tank), arrived 15kg overweight but made his first-team debut a year later in Uruguay’s second tier. Interest from América in Mexico was almost as unexpected as the international call-up that followed a few years later. Has spent the last two seasons on loan at Real Oviedo, winning promotion to La Liga in the first.

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