- In 2019, at just 18 years old and struggling for opportunities at Lanús, the Palmeiras centre-forward joined Colegiales de Tres Arroyos for what would become an 18-month spell. There, he won the league title and finished as top scorer. “Going there was the best decision of my life,” he admitted.
- “He's a wonderful person. He won everyone's affection. He came here to improve, and he enjoyed the league because it's competitive and physically demanding. It gave him the experience of dealing with physical challenges and tough encounters,” says Marcelo Morán, president of the Tres Arroyos club.
José Manuel Alberto ‘Flaco’ López has already played in a CONMEBOL Libertadores final. In 2025, his Palmeiras side suffered a 1-0 defeat to Flamengo. That season, he also finished as the competition's joint-top scorer with seven goals, alongside Racing's Adrián ‘Maravilla’ Martínez. Earlier in his career, he had also been part of the Lanús squad that finished runners-up in the 2020 CONMEBOL Sudamericana, losing 3-0 to Defensa y Justicia in the final, although he neither made an appearance nor was named among the substitutes.
In 2026, having represented Argentina at the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico and Canada, ‘Flaco’ López will have another chance to claim continental glory on 28 November, when Palmeiras face Estudiantes de La Plata at the Estadio Centenario in the CONMEBOL Libertadores 2026 final. After all, the striker, who was born in San Lorenzo, in Argentina's Corrientes province, knows all about suffering setbacks, picking himself up and fighting his way back.
Back in 2019, with opportunities at Lanús proving elusive and his departure from the club seemingly imminent — having already been rejected by Independiente at the age of 16 — López, then just 18, decided to join Colegiales de Tres Arroyos in the Tres Arroyos Regional League.
It was at ‘El Escolar’, as the club is affectionately known, that ‘Flaco’ truly came of age as a footballer. Based in Tres Arroyos, a city in Buenos Aires province located 478 kilometres from the Argentine capital, Colegiales offered him the opportunity to develop his game, despite arriving on loan from Lanús to compete in a non-professional league. He went on to win the league title, finish as its leading goalscorer and help the club secure promotion to the Torneo Regional Federal Amateur, the fourth tier of Argentine football.
López spent 18 months at Colegiales alongside Enzo Silcan and Lucas Melgarejo, two other youngsters on loan from Lanús, until the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought the competition to a halt.
Looking back, ‘Flaco’ described the move as “the best decision of my life”, explaining that “what makes you happy as a footballer is playing, feeling good and feeling important”.
“I thought,” he admitted, “that it was going to be my last chance to achieve my dream.”
López arrived in Tres Arroyos in 2019 after Colegiales' then-president, Pablo Garate, approached his Lanús counterpart, Nicolás Russo, about taking some youth players on loan. The two knew each other through politics (Garate is now the mayor of Tres Arroyos). Russo subsequently asked the club's academy coaches to identify three youngsters who were struggling for opportunities and might even be released.
“He's from Corrientes, a wonderful person and a really good kid, ‘Flaco’. He won the affection of everyone here. He came to improve, and he enjoyed the Tres Arroyos League because it's competitive and physically demanding. His time here gave him valuable experience of dealing with physical contact and tough challenges. He was the best player of the year. I never imagined he'd end up at Palmeiras or playing for Argentina. Everything happened so quickly, but he had all the qualities,” Marcelo Morán, the current president of Colegiales de Tres Arroyos, tells CONMEBOL Libertadores.
Morán adds: “Players here earn a wage similar to that of an ordinary employee, and since he had his afternoons free, I took him to work at my furniture shop. He would turn up for training covered in sawdust. When the coach at the time saw him, he asked me: ‘What have you done to Flaco? He's turned up with his eyelashes covered in dust!’ I replied: ‘He's been sanding furniture, working.’ And the coach told me: ‘Don't make him work anymore.’”
López has returned to Tres Arroyos on several occasions to visit the friends he made during his time at Colegiales.
The son of a housewife and a fisherman whose work kept him away from home for long periods, José Manuel Alberto López played for La Academia, El Progreso and Club Saladas as a child, all in his native Corrientes province. He initially played as a defender. At the age of ten, he joined Independiente's youth academy and moved to La Plata to live with an aunt. However, in 2017, while playing at U-17 level, he was released after a back injury had sidelined him for almost the entire year.
Lanús was his next destination. By then, he had moved into midfield and occasionally played as a winger. At 18, while part of the club's U-20 set-up, he left to join Colegiales de Tres Arroyos. At the end of the Regional Tournament, he had opportunities to move to clubs in the Primera Nacional, Argentina's second division, but ultimately returned to Lanús.
He made his first-team debut on 3 January 2021 and never looked back, scoring 22 goals in 59 appearances and forming a strike partnership with José ‘Pepe’ Sand, a fellow native of Corrientes.
In June 2022, he signed for Abel Ferreira's Palmeiras, who had won back-to-back CONMEBOL Libertadores titles. He spent most of his first season on the bench and initially struggled to establish himself at ‘O Verdão’. Other clubs, including River Plate, expressed an interest in signing him.
Then came his breakthrough in 2024. He has now registered 81 goals and 29 assists in 240 appearances for Palmeiras and, with his 26th birthday approaching on 6 December, is preparing to play in his second consecutive CONMEBOL Libertadores final, determined to finally get his hands on the coveted trophy and claim ‘Eternal Glory’.
Yet nothing will ever erase the memories of those 18 months at Colegiales and in Argentina's fourth tier, when he also worked sanding wood. In an article by journalist Fernando Bajo published by TyC Sports, Silcan — a fellow Lanús youngster who shared a house with López during their time at Colegiales and now plays as a left-back for Almagro — recalled that ‘Flaco’ was the cook in the house rented by the club, even preparing pasta using powdered milk.
López later returned to Tres Arroyos, by then an established professional footballer, to attend the high school graduation ceremony of Tomás Blas, who was a Colegiales youth player at the time and now plays as a midfielder for local side Villa del Parque.
“He was just one of us, and that's what I value most about him,” said Blas, who also recalled a conversation among friends about where they imagined themselves in the future. When it was his turn, ‘Flaco’ López answered without hesitation: “Making a living from football.”
