Ángel Israel Mena Delgado (born 21 January 1988) is an Ecuadorian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a winger for

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

club León and the Ecuador national team.

Club career

Emelec

Mena had extended his contract until 2017 with

Club Sport Emelec Club Sport Emelec is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil that is best known for their professional football team. The football team plays in the Ecuadorian Serie A, the highest level of professional football in the country. Emelec has ...

. He played in 129 games for the national championship and scored 25 goals, according to records of the Ecuadorian Football Federation (FEF). He debuted in the first division in 2007. He scored his first official goal on 16 March 2008 at the Técnico Universitario. In 2010, he was loaned to

Deportivo Cuenca Club Deportivo Cuenca is an Ecuadorian football club based in Cuenca. They currently play in the Serie A, the top-flight football league in the country, and is one of two clubs from Cuenca to have played in the top-flight (the other being LDU ...

. In 2011, he returns to

, and was champion in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

. After scoring 14 goals as Emelec won the 2014 championship, Mena extended his contract with the club for two years in February 2015. Mena scored the first goal in the 2014 Ecuadorian Serie A season final match against

Barcelona SC Barcelona Sporting Club () is an Ecuadorian sports club based in Guayaquil, known best for its professional football team. Internationally known as Barcelona de Ecuador, in Ecuador it is simply referred as Barcelona, El Idolo (BSC) or Barce. T ...

, winning 3–0.

Cruz Azul

In 2017 Mena joined Mexican side

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...

. On 12 February Mena scored an impressive free-kick goal against

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

which earned Cruz Azul a 2–2 draw.

International career

In April 2014, being in Emelec, Mena was first called up to the Ecuador national football team, led by coach

Reinaldo Rueda Reinaldo Rueda Rivera (born 16 April 1957) is a Colombian Association football, football coach. When he was the coach of the Colombia national under-20 football team, Colombia U-20 team, they finished 3rd at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championsh ...

, for a microcycle. Mena was called for Ecuador's provisional 30-man squad for

World Cup 2014 The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting righ ...

in Brazil. Later in 2014, the interim coach of the Ecuador national team,

Sixto Vizuete Sixto Rafael Vizuete Toapanta (born January 13, 1961) is the Ecuadorian football manager. Early career He played for Deportivo Cotopaxi which at that time was promoted to the first division in Ecuador. After his footballing career, he attended ...

called up Mena to play friendly matches against

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

and

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. However, Mena suffered an injury that prevented him playing with the national team. Mena made his debut on 28 March 2015 in a match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, coming in as a sub for

Jefferson Montero Jefferson Antonio Montero Vite (; born 1 September 1989) is an Ecuadorian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Ecuadorian Serie A club S.D. Aucas. He has represented the Ecuador national team at senior international level. Clu ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Ecuador's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mena goal.''

Honours

Emelec *

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Coppa ...

(3):

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

Cruz Azul *

Copa MX The Copa MX (formerly called Copa Tower Monterrey, Copa Eliminatoria, Copa México and Copa Corona MX (for sponsorship reasons)) was a Mexican football cup competition that was established in 1907. After a lengthy hiatus that began in 1997, it wa ...

(1): Apertura 2018 León *

(1): Guardianes 2020 *

CONCACAF Champions League The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

(1):

2023 Events Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1927 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ** Croatia will adopt the eu ...

Leagues Cup The Leagues Cup is an annual association football competition between clubs from Major League Soccer and Liga MX in North America. It debuted in July 2019 with four teams participating from each league. The first edition was a single-eliminati ...

(1):

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

Individual *

Assist Leader:

Golden Boot: Clausura 2019 *

Offensive Midfielder of the Year: 2018–19 *

Best XI: Clausura 2019, Guardianes 2020, Apertura 2021 *

All-Star:

Personal life

Mena is married to Shirley Posligua with whom he has two daughters. He and his family are devout

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

s. Mena is good friends with fellow footballer Joao Rojas with whom he shared a locker while at Emelec, the fact that Rojas played for Cruz Azul was a significant factor in motivating Mena to join the club.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mena, Angel 1988 births Living people Footballers from Guayaquil Men's association football wingers Ecuadorian men's footballers Ecuador men's international footballers C.S. Emelec footballers C.D. Cuenca footballers Copa América Centenario players 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players Cruz Azul footballers Club León footballers Ecuadorian Serie A players Liga MX players Ecuadorian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Ecuadorian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Ecuadorian Christians 2022 FIFA World Cup players