Factbox - Former Sunderland manager Gus Poyet

LONDON (Reuters) - Factbox on Gus Poyet who was sacked as manager of Premier League strugglers Sunderland on Monday: EARLY DAYS Born in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo on Nov. 15, 1968. His late father was Olympic basketball player Washington Poyet and Gus' brother Marcelo also played that sport professionally. PLAYING CAREER Poyet made a name for himself as a goalscoring midfielder with River Plate in Argentina before moving to Real Zaragoza in 1990. Spent seven years at the Spanish club, winning the King's Cup in 1994 and the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1995. Poyet played 26 times for Uruguay, scoring three goals and winning the Copa America in 1995. PLAYING CAREER IN ENGLAND He joined Chelsea on a free transfer in June 1997 and although he suffered cruciate knee ligament damage soon after, he recovered to play in the European Cup Winners' Cup final triumph over VfB Stuttgart that season. Also helped Chelsea win the FA Cup in 2000 as well as the UEFA Super Cup in 1998. At the end of the 2000-01 season he moved across London to Tottenham Hotspur in a 2.2 million pounds ($3.25 million) deal. Scored with the last kick of the game in November 2001 to earn Spurs a 1-1 draw with Arsenal when former captain Sol Campbell returned to White Hart Lane for the first time following his controversial move to the Gunners a few months earlier. COACHING CAREER Began coaching as an assistant to former Chelsea team mate Dennis Wise at Swindon Town before the pair moved to Leeds United. After a year at Leeds he returned to Spurs as assistant to Spaniard Juande Ramos and together they plotted the 2008 League Cup final victory over Chelsea. After leaving Spurs he became a manager for the first time at Brighton and Hove Albion where he won promotion from League One to the Championship at the first attempt. Left Brighton after his side lost to Crystal Palace in the Championship playoff semi-finals in 2013 before being appointed Sunderland manager. His major achievements at Sunderland were to avoid relegation from the Premier League and take them to the League Cup final in 2014. A poor run of results this season, culminating in Saturday's 4-0 home defeat by Aston Villa, cost him his job at the Stadium of Light. (Reporting by Mike Collett, editing by Tony Jimenez)