20/04/2026
Guillermo Stábile (17 January 1905 – 26 December 1966) was an Argentine professional football player and manager who played as a centre forward. At club level, Stábile won two national championships with Huracán and played in Italy and France. He was the top scorer of the 1930 FIFA World Cup, the inaugural iteration of the tournament. As manager, he led Argentina to victory at six South American Championships and Racing Club to three league titles.
Stábile was born in Parque Patricios, Buenos Aires. He began his career with local club Sportivo Metán and from 1920, with Huracán. In 1924, he progressed to the first team which played in Argentina's top league, which then still had amateur status. He started out on the right wing but soon evolved into a centre forward. Stábile won many competitions with Huracán, most notably the championships of 1925 and 1928 and the regional trophy Copa Dr. Carlos Ibarguren in 1925.
Genoa
After capturing the world's attention with his impressive feats in the First World Cup, he was signed by Genoa. He instantly became a fan favourite, scoring a hat-trick on his debut against rivals Bologna. He stayed with the Genoan club for five years, playing 41 games and scoring 16 goals.
Napoli
During the 1935–36 season, he moved to Napoli with Antonio Vojak transferring the other way to Genoa. This was during the era when Attila Sallustro another South American legend played for Napoli. The club finished 8th in the league with Stábile that played in twenty games.
Red Star Paris
As a last act of his playing career, Stábile moved to Red Star Paris in Paris, the club founded by Jules Rimet, who took the initiative to the FIFA World Cup, first played in 1930. He stayed with the club until 1939 with the last honour of his playing career being helping the club achieve promotion, from Division 2 back into Division 1. He also served as player-manager for the club.
Stábile made his debut for the Argentina national team at the age of 25, in his team's second match in the first ever FIFA World Cup held in 1930 in Uruguay. He did not play in Argentina's first match of the competition against France.[1]
His debut came in the following game against Mexico, because the first choice striker Roberto Cherro couldn't play due to an anxiety attack. The game finished 6–3 to Argentina, with Stábile scoring a hat-trick on his debut. This was long thought to be the first World Cup hat-trick, until 76 years later on 10 November 2006 world football's governing body FIFA declared that Bert Patenaude had scored the first hat-trick two days prior to Stábile.[2]
The final game of the group stages saw Argentina facing South American rivals Chile. They won the game 3–1 with Stábile scoring twice, meaning that Argentina had qualified for the semi-finals, against the United States. The South Americans breezed through, with a 6–1 victory; Stábile added two more goals to his account and securing Argentina a place in the finals.
On 30 July 1930, the first ever World Cup final took place, between Argentina and Uruguay. At half time Argentina led 2–1, Stábile having scored the second goal. However, they went on to lose 4–2.
Despite losing the final, Stábile made history, becoming the top scorer in the first ever FIFA World Cup, with his tally of 8 goals in 4 games. It turned out that he would never play for Argentina again, and thus he scored in every game he played for his country, with an average of two goals per match.
