Alberto Blanco

Luis Alberto Blanco Saavedra (born 8 January 1978) is a retired Panamanian football midfielder.

Club career

Nicknamed Satú, he started his career at hometown club San Francisco, then moved to Europe to play in the UEFA Champions League with Moldovan champions Sheriff Tiraspol where he played alongside compatriots Ubaldo Guardia and Roberto Brown. He then had a short stint at Russian outfit Alania Vladikavkaz before moving to the Middle East where he played for UAE side Al Ain and Al-Nasr in Saudi Arabia.

After spells at Plaza Amador and San Francisco, he moved abroad again when signing for Colombians Atlético Junior in February 2008. In 2009 he joined compatriot Alberto Zapata at Israeli team Maccabi Netanya, but left them in summer 2009.

On his return to Panama, he again played for San Francisco and Chorillo and joined Tauro in January 2011. He retired at second division side Atlético Nacional in 2013.

International career

Blanco made his debut for Panama in an October 1999 friendly match against Trinidad and Tobago and has earned a total of 60 caps, scoring 3 goals. He represented his country in 18 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and was a member of the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup team, who finished second in the tournament and he also played at the 2007 and 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cups.

Alberto Blanco (poet)

Alberto Blanco is considered one of Mexico's most important poets. Born in Mexico City on February 18, 1951, he spent his childhood and adolescence in that city, and he studied chemistry at the Universidad Iberoamericana and philosophy at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. For two years, he pursued a Master’s Degree in Asian Studies, specializing in China, at El Colegio de México.¹ Blanco was first published in a journal in 1970. He was co-editor and designer of the poetry journal El Zaguan (1975–1977), and a grant recipient of the Centro Mexicano de Escritores (Mexican Center of Writers, 1977), el Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (the National Institute of Fine Arts, 1980), and the Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (National Fund for Culture and Arts, 1990). In 1991 he received a grant from the Fulbright Program as a poet-in-residence at the University of California, Irvine; and, in 1992, he was awarded a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. He was admitted into the Sistema Nacional de Creadores (National System of Creative Artists) in 1994, for which he has also been a juror. In 2001 he received the Octavio Paz Grant for Poetry, and in 2008, he was awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation. He remains a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores.