Juan Carlos Oblitas

Juan Carlos Oblitas Saba (16 February 1951 in Mollendo, Arequipa) is a retired Peruvian footballer, who is a football manager, who is nicknamed El Ciego ("The Blind One"). Oblitas was an extraordinary outside left wing forward at the national team level for Peru back in the 1970s and 1980s.

Biography
Juan Carlos Oblitas, el Ciego, was born in Mollendo, Arequipa on 16 February 1951. He is married to Virginia Villamarin and has three children (Gisella, Juan Fernando, and Vanessa). He has six grandchildren. His son Juan Fernando has three daughters: Paula, Ariana and Andrea.

As a player, he was a participant at the 1978 and 1982 FIFA World Cups. He obtained 64 international caps with Peru, and won the Copa América 1975. He played at the club level for Universitario and Sporting Cristal in Peru, as well as Elche in Spain, Veracruz in Mexico and R.F.C. Sérésien in Belgium.

As a manager, he won the Primera División Peruana national title with Universitario (1987) and Sporting Cristal (1994, 1995), as well as the Campeonato Ecuatoriano de Fútbol with Liga Deportiva Universitaria de Quito (2005). In the period 1996-99 he coached the Peru national football team, missing the 1998 World Cup finals on goal difference.

After Manuel Burga resigned following a long period of criticism, the new FPF leadership of Edwin Oviedo appointed him as technical director for the national team. There, in January 2017, he helped the new FPF leadership to design the "Minors Plan" project, with the aim to improve the youth football of Peru which has been weaker than most of other CONMEBOL nations, in order to rebuild and reform football development in Peru for the future. He also aimed to make Peru one of major youth football power in South America, hoping to achieve more frequent qualification to the FIFA U-17 and FIFA U-20 World Cups. He also helped designing the Centennial Plan 2022, with its goal is to achieve more World Cup qualification successes, and making the Peruvian youth league one of South America's strongest, as well as the construction of new FPF Academy, the Center of National Teams. ->