Editing Hugo Sánchez (section)

==Club career==
===UNAM===
As a teenager, Sánchez played for the Mexico national team at the [[Football at the Summer Olympics|1976 Summer Olympics]]. Having already played in over 80 international matches, Sánchez signed as a youth player at the age of 18 for [[Club Universidad Nacional|Pumas de la UNAM]], a professional team representing Mexico's [[UNAM|national university]], where he completed a degree in [[Dentistry]] while playing for the first team.<ref name="Simolo">{{cite web |last=Simolo |first=Gemma |date=7 December 2013 |title=Hugo Sánchez – 'Niño de Oro' |url=http://www.insidespanishfootball.com/89331/hugo-sanchez-nino-de-oro/ |publisher=Inside Spanish Football |access-date=7 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131208143825/http://www.insidespanishfootball.com/89331/hugo-sanchez-nino-de-oro/ |archive-date=8 December 2013 }}</ref> Later that year, UNAM managed to win its first championship in the Primera División. Two years later, he became the league's top-scorer with 26 goals.

In 1979, UNAM agreed to exchange players during the off-season with the [[San Diego Sockers (1978–96)|San Diego Sockers]] of the [[North American Soccer League (1968–1984)|North American Soccer League]]. He played in the NASL during the summer and in the Mexican league during the fall, winter and spring. UNAM loaned Sánchez to the Sockers in 1979 and 1980 where he became a prolific striker for the Sockers, averaging nearly a goal a game.<ref>{{cite web |title=Against the Tide: The Story of Hugo Sanchez and Soccer in San Diego |url=http://www.soccernation.com/against-the-tide-the-story-of-hugo-sanchez-and-soccer-in-san-diego/ |website=SoccerNation.com |date=18 December 2015 |access-date=12 January 2016}}</ref>

Sánchez's five seasons with UNAM were during the team's golden years. In 1980–81, his last season with the club, Sánchez and UNAM won its second league championship, a [[CONCACAF Champions Cup]] and a [[Copa Interamericana]]. During his five years with UNAM, Sánchez scored 104 goals in 200 appearances.

With Hugo's exemplary performances in the [[Toulon Tournament|Toulon tournament]] and 1975 Cannes Youth Tournament, he earned his nickname '''''Niño de Oro''''' which translates to Golden boy.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Lewis |first=Rhett |date=2021-09-07 |title=Hugo Sánchez: Few Center Forwards Can Match His Records |url=https://historyofsoccer.info/hugo-sanchez |access-date=2022-10-31 |website=History Of Soccer |language=en-us}}</ref>

===Atlético Madrid===
After five successful seasons in Mexico, Sánchez drew the attention of several European sides, including that of English club [[Arsenal F.C.|Arsenal]],<ref name="Simolo" /> though eventually signing with Spanish side [[Atlético Madrid]] in 1981. It took him a while to find his feet in [[La Liga]], only managing twenty league appearances and scoring eight goals in his first season, but by the 1984–1985 season he was scoring regularly with a team that won the [[Copa del Rey]], finished second in the league and won the [[Spanish Super Copa]]. That year, Sánchez won his first [[Pichichi trophy]] for being the most prolific scorer in the league, scoring 26 goals.

===Real Madrid===
[[File:Hugo Sánchez 1988 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Sánchez in 1988]]
On 15 July 1985, Sánchez signed for [[La Liga]] club [[Real Madrid C.F.|Real Madrid]].<ref name="30años">{{cite web |title=Hugo Sánchez, a 30 años de firmar con el Real Madrid |url=http://www.espn.com.mx/news/nota/_/id/2422177/hugo-sanchez-a-30-anos-de-firmar-con-el-real-madrid |website=ESPN Deportes |date=15 July 2015 |language=es |access-date=15 July 2015}}</ref> It was reported that due to Atlético Madrid's reluctance to anger their fan base with a direct deal with Real, Sánchez was transferred to UNAM back in his home country on 4 July before being signed by Real Madrid, with the contract signing taking place in a bank in Mexico City.<ref name="30años" /> He was flown back to Spain and presented to 50,000 fans at the [[Santiago Bernabéu Stadium]] on 19 July.<ref>{{cite web |last=McTear |first=Euan |title=The seven years that saw Emilio Butragueño and Hugo Sánchez score 43% of Real Madrid's goals |url=https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/08/29/the-seven-years-that-saw-emilio-butragueno-and-hugo-sanchez-score-43-of-real-madrids-goals/ |website=These Football Times |date=28 August 2018 |access-date=29 August 2018}}</ref>

He played alongside the famed group of players known as the ''[[Quinta del Buitre|La Quinta del Buitre]]'' ("Vulture's Cohort"), which consisted of [[Emilio Butragueño]], [[Manuel Sanchis Hontiyuelo|Manuel Sanchís]], [[Rafael Martín Vázquez|Martín Vázquez]], [[Míchel (footballer, born 1963)|Míchel]], and [[Miguel Pardeza]].<ref name="RM" /> With ''Los Blancos'', Sánchez won five consecutive league titles from 1985 to 1990, a Copa del Rey title in 1989 and the [[UEFA Europa League|UEFA Cup]] in 1986. During those five years, Sánchez won four-consecutive Pichichi trophies, becoming one of two players in Spanish football history to achieve this without sharing the trophy with any other player in any season (the other being [[Lionel Messi]] with 5 consecutive Pichichi awards between 2017 and 2021), and one of four players to win five [[Pichichi Trophy|Pichichis]] (the others being [[Alfredo Di Stéfano]], [[Quini]] and Messi (who has won 8), scoring 208 goals in 283 games in all competitions. He scored 27 or more goals in four consecutive seasons between 1986 and 1990, including 38 goals in the 1989–90 season, tying the single-season record set in 1951 by [[Telmo Zarra]] and earning the [[European Golden Shoe|European Golden Boot]] award for the best scorer in Europe. Remarkably, all 38 of these goals were scored with only a single touch.<ref name="The Hugo Sánchez record that'll never be broken">{{cite news |url=http://www.marca.com/en/2015/10/31/en/football/real_madrid/1446329086.html |title=The Hugo Sánchez record that'll never be broken |newspaper=Marca |date=31 October 2015 |access-date=16 February 2016}}</ref> His 38-goal tally stood as a league record until [[Cristiano Ronaldo]] surpassed it after scoring 40 goals in the [[2010–11 La Liga|2010–11 season]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Hugo Sanchez's incredible Real Madrid record remains unbeaten |url=http://www.marca.com/en/football/real-madrid/2018/04/03/5ac386ff268e3eff1d8b4571.html |newspaper=Marca |access-date=3 April 2018}}</ref> In European Cup competitions, Sánchez scored 47 goals in 45 matches.

===Later career===
In 1992, Sánchez returned to his native Mexico for a season and there he won the [[1992 CONCACAF Champions' Cup]] with [[Club América]] before playing for a variety of clubs in Spain, Austria and the United States. He played for [[FC Dallas|Dallas Burn]] in the inaugural year of [[Major League Soccer]], becoming one of two footballers, along with [[Roy Wegerle]], to play outdoor football in both the [[North American Soccer League (1968–84)|NASL]] and [[Major League Soccer|MLS]]. He finished his career playing for [[Atlético Celaya]], along with [[Emilio Butragueño|Butragueño]] and [[Míchel (footballer, born 1963)|Míchel]], his old colleagues from Real Madrid.

===Retirement===
Sánchez retired from Spanish football on 29 May 1997, playing with Real Madrid at the [[Santiago Bernabéu Stadium]]. His last official game was during the [[1998 FIFA World Cup qualification (CONCACAF)|1998 World Cup qualifiers]], where he touched the ball as a symbol of his retirement.