04/29/2024
Venezuelan soccer legend Luis Mendozamember of the first national team in World Cup qualifiers, He died at the age of 78, the local federation reported this Monday.
‘Mendocita’ paved the hard path of this sport in a Venezuela without football tradition. He was part of the first team that played in a World Cup qualifier, in England-1966, and in the Copa América, then called the South American Championship, in Uruguay-1967.
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There were a total of two qualifiers and two continental tournaments. In 23 games with the vinotinto shirt, he scored four goals.
The Venezuelan Football Federation (FVF) published an obituary on the X network in honor of the “legend of our National Team.”
“Luis Alfredo Mendoza, our first irreverent of Venezuelan football, the number 1 of our football legends, has left us.”who taught the greatness of playing for Venezuela,” wrote former coach Richard Páez, who came to coincide with him during his playing days.
Mendoza is considered the first ‘crack’ of Venezuelan footballwhen the country did not have national players and the Venezuelan league teams were made up mostly of foreigners.
“It was difficult to put together a selection. It was our first participation in this type of event. Few players participated in the local tournament”said Mendoza in the book “80 shots of Vinotinto” by Eliécer Pérez. “Only two or three Venezuelans once played during Lent.”
The legend was only displaced by Juan Arango and his generationwhich began the work to remove the title of “Cinderella” from the team.
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Venezuela is still the only country in South America that has not qualified for a soccer World Cup. In the current qualifier for Canada-United States-Mexico-2026, it is in fourth place with 12 dates remaining.
