Sergio Méndez

Sergio (El Tabudo) Méndez

Personal information
Full name	Sergio de Jesús Méndez Bolanos
Date of birth	14 February 1942
Place of birth	Santa Elena, El Salvador
Date of death	18 December 1978 (aged 36)
Place of death	El Salvador
Height	1.83 m (6ft-0in)
Playing position	Midfielder
Number	7
Youth career
	El Vencedor, Santa Elena
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps^†	(Gls)^†
1964-1970	C.D.Águila	141	(83)
1971-1976	C.D.Atlético Marte	58	(31)
National team
1965-1974	El Salvador	27	(14)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. † Appearances (goals)

Sergio de Jesús Méndez Bolanos (born 14 February 1942 – died December 18,1978) was a football player from El Salvador who represented his country at the 1970 FIFA World Cup in Mexico.

Club career

Méndez came from a family of footballers, his younger brother and some first cousins were also professional soccer players for CD Luis Angel Firpo and Alianza FC. Nicknamed (El Tabudo) because of the town where he was born, Méndez played for Atlético Marte,^[1] C.D. Suchitepequez (Guatemala) and C.D.Águila where he was one of the top scorers during his years in the team. Méndez was a very good friend of Brasilian defender Zózimo Alves Calazães, both met while playing for CD Aguila. Calazães said during an interview in 1968 for La Prensa Grafica, he'd never seen a midfielder-striker with the qualities of Méndez.

The speed, the aerial skills and his style of playing were incomparable, and those qualities made Méndez a very dangerous striker, Calazães said! He also predicted El Salvador was going to qualify for the FIFA 1970 Mexico World Cup.

Ironically, Calazães also died in a car accident in 1977 in his home country of Brasil.

National team career

Méndez played 7 matches for El Salvador at the 1968 Summer Olympics, after he had scored against Cuba in the qualifiers.^[2] Méndez also had the opportunity to play at the 1965 CONCACAF Championship where he played all of the games. In the Championship he started in 6 games, substituted in 2 games and scored 5 goals for the Salvadoran team.^[3] He also played in all the world cup qualification games scoring 3 goals and the three subsequent matches at the 1970 World Cup Finals.^[4]

Personal life

Besides playing soccer and alongside being a professional soccer player, Méndez was pursuing his other passion of becoming a lawyer at the National University of El Salvador, at the time of his death he was already in his second year of his political science degree and was already teaching law science as a substitute professor in a private university. Salvadorean international footballer Jorge "Magico" Gonzalez said during an interview that Méndez was his inspiration to become a professional soccer player; "I always admired his style of play and his overall ability with the ball, he stated".

Death

Sergio Méndez died in a car accident on December of 1978. He is one of six Mexico 1970 FIFA world cup attended players and the 1968 Olympic footballers of El Salvador National team who have already died. Méndez was a very good friend of footballer Jose Antonio (Ruso) Quintanilla, they were also teammates in C.D. Atletico Marte and the national team.^[5]

References

1. Sergio de Jesus Mendez - C.D. Atlético Marte
2. Una y una en La Habana - El Gráfico (Spanish)
3. Gomez, Omar. "El Salvador en Copa CCCF y NORCECA". elbaloncuscatleco.com. Retrieved 22 July 2011.
4. Sergio Méndez – FIFA competition record
5. Hace 40 años de aquel México 70 - El Salvador.com (Spanish)