Washington Sebastián Abreu Gallo (Spanish pronunciation: [seβasˈtjan aˈβɾew]; born 17 October 1976), nicknamed El Loco (The Madman), is a Uruguayan football manager and former footballer who played as a striker. He is the head coach of Mexican club Tijuana.
Over the course of a 26-year professional career, Abreu represented a record 32 clubs across 11 countries, playing 700 league matches and scoring 338 goals. He won honours with San Lorenzo and River Plate in Argentina, Nacional in Uruguay, Botafogo in Brazil, and Santa Tecla in El Salvador. He was also the top scorer in four seasons separate seasons in the Mexican league.
On the international stage, Abreu made 70 appearances for the Uruguay national team, scoring 26 times. He represented Uruguay at the FIFA World Cup in 2002 and 2010, and at the Copa América in 1997, 2007 and 2011, becoming a champion in the latter.
Born in Minas, Lavalleja Department, Abreu played in numerous clubs throughout America (Uruguay, Argentina, Mexico and Brazil). He also had an unsuccessful stint with Spain's Deportivo de La Coruña, which loaned him several times for the duration of his contract.
In his sole season in La Liga, which started in January 1998, having been signed from San Lorenzo, Abreu scored for the Galicians in a 3–1 home defeat of Barcelona on 25 January.
River Plate and Beitar Jerusalem
After having joined Mexico's Tigres UANL in 2007, Abreu was able to rescind his contract with them in order to join River Plate – the Mexican Football Federation stalled on recognising the transfer because of an imposed moratorium between the clubs. He became the only foreigner to score in the Clásico Regiomontano (Tigres vs. Monterrey, which he represented the previous year) against each team.
In the middle of 2008, after exhausting negotiations, Abreu signed a deal with Israeli League champions Beitar Jerusalem. He appeared in the qualifying rounds of the UEFA Champions League, but his team was quickly eliminated. Additionally, he could not play in the domestic front due to lack of payment.
Abreu re-signed with River Plate in September 2008 after terminating his link with Beitar, with a deal lasting until June 2009. Due to being a late addition, he was not able to play for the side in the Primera División, only featuring in the Copa Sudamericana. The next year, he was eligible for both the domestic and Copa Libertadores fronts.
In early January 2009, Abreu returned to Spain after a ten-year absence, being loaned by River to Segunda División side Real Sociedad, which had lost habitual first choice Iñigo Díaz de Cerio for the season due to a serious leg injury.
On 14 March 2009, he scored a hat-trick in a 3–1 away win against league leaders Xerez. His team, however, ultimately failed in returning to the top flight.
On 13 June 2009, Aris in Greece signed Abreu from River Plate. However, in January of the following year, the 33-year-old changed club and country again, agreeing on a two-year contract with Brazil's Botafogo.
Abreu scored the second goal in the 2–1 victory over Flamengo on 18 April 2010, which gave the team the Campeonato Carioca title. In July, he had his link extended until 31 December 2012 with a release clause of US$11.3 million, with the player declaring he had previously held talks with Universidad de Chile and Trabzonspor of Turkey.
On 6 February 2011, Abreu was involved in a dramatic match against Fluminense: his team won a penalty kick as they were losing 2–1, and he shot it in Panenka-style, with Diego Cavalieri saving the shot by simply standing still. Another penalty was awarded just five minutes later, and he shot it in the same fashion, this time into the right-hand corner of the goal, as the goalkeeper dived the other way; a few minutes later, Botafogo scored again and won the game.
Abreu was loaned to fellow Série A side Figueirense on 5 July 2012. However, as the season went on to end in relegation, his contract was ended via Twitter on 24 November, one day before the last game against Grêmio.
From January 2013 to December 2015, Abreu was under contract to Nacional, also being loaned to Rosario Central and Aucas during this timeframe. On 28 December 2015, Paraguayan newspaper D10 reported that he had met in Uruguay with Sol de América chairman Miguel Figueredo. He had already received a more lucrative offer from Mexico, but declined in order to be closer to his country, and was officially confirmed on 6 January 2016.
On 12 November 2016, 40-year-old Abreu joined Brazil's Bangu from Santa Tecla, with the deal being made effective the following January. After ten appearances in the Rio de Janeiro State League, he left.
On 4 April 2017, Abreu signed with Montevideo-based team Central Español of the Uruguayan Segunda División. In late December of the same year, he joined Chilean Primera División's Audax Italiano from Puerto Montt, in the same country but one level below; this transfer broke a world record, as it marked him as the first player to have played for 26 professional clubs.