Lucas Vila
Argentine field hockey player
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lucas Martín Vila (born 23 August 1986) is an Argentine former field hockey player who played as a forward.
Buenos Aires, Argentina
He made his debut for the national squad in 2005, after having played the Junior World Cup in Rotterdam, Netherlands. He played a total of 274 times for the Argentina national team until 2023. His older brothers Matías and Rodrigo were also field hockey players for Argentina.
International career
At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Vila competed for Argentina in the men's tournament.[1] Lucas won the bronze medal at the 2014 Men's Hockey World Cup and three medals at the Pan American Games. He was part of the Argentinian squad, which won the gold medal at the 2016 Summer Olympics. In 2018 he was selected for the 2018 World Cup which means he has played in four consecutive World Cups.[2] He scored 1 goal in four matches in that tournament.[3] In July 2019, he was selected in the Argentina squad for the 2019 Pan American Games.[4] They won the gold medal by defeating Canada 5–2 in the final.[5] In December 2019, he was nominated for the FIH Player of the Year Award.[6] After the 2023 Men's FIH Hockey World Cup he retired from the national team.[7]
Club career
Vila started his career in Argentina at Banco Provincia. In the 2005–06 season he played for Harvestehude in the German Bundesliga.[8] In 2007 he moved to the Netherlands to play for TMHC Tilburg, which he left in 2010 to play for HGC.[9] He missed a big part of his first season at HGC because of a knee injury.[10] After two seasons with HGC he went to Belgium to play for Royal Orée before coming back to the Netherlands after one year to play for HC Den Bosch.[11] After one season with Den Bosch he went to Spain to play for Club de Campo. He left the club from Madrid also after one season to play for Real Club de Polo. With Real Club de Polo, he played in the Euro Hockey League.[12] In 2017 Vila transferred to his current club Mannheimer HC in Germany.[13] After three seasons in Mannheim he made a move to Leuven.[14] On 20 August 2021, it was announced he would leave Belgium to play for Spanish second division side Benalmádena.[15][16]
Honours
Club
- HGC
- Real Club de Polo
- Copa del Rey: 2015–16, 2016–17
International
- Argentina
- Summer Olympics: 2016
- Pan American Games: 2011, 2015, 2019
- Pan American Cup: 2013, 2017
- Champions Challenge: 2007
- South American Games: 2022
- South American Championship: 2013
- Argentina U21
Individual
- South American Championship leading goalscorer: 2013
- Junior World Cup Best player: 2005
