Luis de la Fuente

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Luis de la Fuente (disambiguation) .

Luis "Pirata" de la Fuente y Quesada (born January 17, 1914 in Veracruz , † May 28, 1972 ibid) was a Mexican national football player . Together with Hugo Sánchez, he is considered the best Mexican player of all time and was voted the second best player of the 20th century in the CONCACAF field by the IFFHS .

The “pirate” has a particularly large number of fans in the Mexican port city of Veracruz, where he was born and where he spent the last eleven years of his active career with CD Veracruz . In his honor, the football stadium in Veracruz was renamed Estadio Luis de la Fuente in 1981 .

Style of play

Fuente was an exceptionally talented and technically skilled offensive player, who often acted in the central midfield and from there he successfully engaged in the attack. His dribbles were feared by the defenders.

He also bribed with assists through passes in depth, which resulted in scoring opportunities with his teammates. His constant goal danger resulted mainly from his strength to both head balls from every imaginable position with full force, as well as to shoot with both feet at the goal.

Career

Luis Fuente was born on January 17, 1914 to a Mexican mother and a Spanish father in the Mexican port city of Veracruz. At the local Club España he learned to play football at a young age. He spent part of his youth in his father's homeland, where he attended school in Santander and Extremadura . When he was back in Mexico and just visited the Colegio Alfonso XIII in Mexico City , he was invited to a trial training by the Club Aurrerá located there (see also under Primera Fuerza ). When the school director wanted to forbid him from participating, Luis ran away and played for several years in the ranks of Club Aurrerá .

Around the turn of the year from 1933 to 1934 he moved to the large Real Club España , for which he only worked for a short time. Because Fuente, now a national player, made such a great impression in the qualifying games for the 1934 World Cup in Italy (where the last and decisive qualifying game against the USA was played in Rome and Mexico was defeated) that the Spanish club Racing Santander immediately won over him made a lucrative offer. In Spain , however, he was soon plagued by homesickness, so that Fuente returned to Mexico in 1935 and tried again with his previous Real Club España . But those responsible for the proud Spanish club didn't like Fuentes “Gypsy Life” and refused to accept him. Ultimately, Fuente landed at Club América , where he played so successfully that España could not have brought him back because he had become “priceless”.

In 1939 Fuente left Mexico again and went first to Paraguay to Atlético Corrales and then to Argentina to Vélez Sársfield . However, he soon returned to Mexico and played for Marte , with whom he won the championship in 1942/43. Incidentally, it was the last championship before the introduction of the professional league in which the Wandervogel Fuente only played for one club. Because shortly before the start of the professional league, he signed a contract with his home club CD Veracruz , for which he worked for eleven years until the end of his active career. His farewell game took place on June 13, 1954 in the stadium of the sports city - today's Estadio Azul of the first division club Cruz Azul - in Mexico City. Luis Fuente was almost 40½ years old at the time.

He died of a heart attack on May 28, 1972 and was buried a few days later in his hometown of Veracruz.

successes

• Masters of Mexico: 1943 (with Marte on an amateur basis), 1946 and 1950 (with Veracruz in the professional league)
• Cup winners of Mexico: 1948 (with Veracruz)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Central and North America - Player of the Century at RSSSF (English)

Web links

• Biography with pictures (spanish)

literature

Carlos Calderon Cardoso: Por amor a la camiseta , Editorial Clio, México 1998, p. 34 ff