Enrique García (20 November 1912 – 23 August 1969) was an
Argentine
Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
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 ...
. Nicknamed ''Chueco'', or ''El Poeta de la Zurda'' ("the poet of the left leg", due to his skills for football),
[ is regarded as the best Argentine left winger ever.][El Chueco García, un crack olvidado]
by Carlos Aira
on Radio El Espectador (archived, 31 May 2011)[Enrique García: el poeta de la zurda]
by Martín Estévez on ''El Gráfico, 2014''
García had a long tenure in Racing Club de Avellaneda, where he played 234 matches in 9 years of career with the club, although the team did not win any title. Due to his extraordinary dribbling ability, García became an idol of Racing Club, being acclaimed even by his rivals.[ He also had a successful run in the Argentina national team, winning the ]Copa América
The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...
on two occasions. Out of García's 78 goals scored in his career, only two were scored with his right leg.[
]
Biography
García was born on 20 November 1912 in the city of Santa Fe. He started playing football at local Club Las Rosas.[ His brother Salvador played in the ]Unión de Santa Fe
Club Atlético Unión (; mostly known as Unión de Santa Fe ) is a sports club from Santa Fe, the capital city of the Santa Fe Province, in Argentina. The club was founded on April 15, 1907 and plays in the Argentine Primera División.
Althoug ...
reserve team and brought him to the club for a try, but he was not chosen. In 1929 García moved to Club Brown, where he debuted v Unión, scoring the only goal for a 1–0 win. In 1932, Gimnasia y Esgrima hired García (who was 19 yo) for m$n 2,500.[
]
In Gimnasia, García won the Santa Fe regional championship, being part of a forward line
In the sport of Australian rules football, each of the eighteen players in a team is assigned to a particular named position on the field of play. These positions describe both the player's main role and by implication their location on the gro ...
nicknamed ''los pistoleros'' ("the gunmen") due to their high goal average. A journalist of ''El Litoral'' (local newspaper) nicknamed him "Chueco", which would be his most famous moniker.[ One year later, García was traded to Rosario Central for $5,000. The Rosarian team was still playing in regional tournaments, but García became an idol of the club and gained recognition not only in the city but in the whole country. García played near 100 matches with Rosario Central.][Las dos Academias del Chueco García]
by Alejandro Fabbri on TyC Sports, 20 Apr 2018 It was said that Ernesto "Che" Guevara
Ernesto Che Guevara (; 14 June 1928The date of birth recorded on /upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Ernesto_Guevara_Acta_de_Nacimiento.jpg his birth certificatewas 14 June 1928, although one tertiary source, (Julia Constenla, quoted ...
became a fan of Rosario Central after being impressed by García's style of play.[ Writer ]Osvaldo Bayer
Osvaldo Bayer (18 February 1927 – 24 December 2018) was an Argentine writer and journalist. He lived in Buenos Aires. In 1974, during the presidency of Isabel Perón, he went into exile, residing in Linz am Rhein, Germany, throughout the Natio ...
was also an admirer of García.[
In spite of the interest from Independiente to bring García to the club, arch rival ]Racing
In sport, racing is a competition of speed, in which competitors try to complete a given task in the shortest amount of time. Typically this involves traversing some distance, but it can be any other task involving speed to reach a specific goa ...
was the club which signed García in 1936 for $39.000 and all the profits from a friendly match between both clubs. Apart from García, Racing hired Alejandro Scopelli
Alejandro Scopelli Casanova (, ; 12 May 1908 – 23 October 1987) was an Italian Argentine football player and coach. A striker, he played for Argentina between 1929 and 1941, and competed at the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup. He also repres ...
and Enrique Guaita and goalkeeper Angel Capuano (all of them, returning from Italy). García made his debut for a ''porteño'' team in May 1936. He played 232 consecutive matches for Racing Club, being named "the poet of the left leg" by the press. His best season was in 1938, when he scored 20 goals in 32 matches.[
In September 1943 García's left received a serious ]meniscus
Meniscus may refer to:
*Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity
*Meniscus (liquid)
The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...
injury in a match v Boca Juniors
Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...
, and underwent surgery. He never recovered completely causing that two years later García left football. He had played 234 matches with 78 goals scored for Racing Club.[Enrique ‘Chueco’ García, el legendario poeta de la zurda]
on AFA, 21 Aug 2019
National team
García played 35 times for Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
between 1935 (when he was playing for Rosario Central)[ and 1943, scoring 9 goals. He was part of the ]Copa América
The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...
winning squads of 1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...
(where he was one of the keyplayers of the team due to his goals and assistances)[ and ]1941
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...
, he also played in the 1942
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January 1 – WWII: The Declaration by United Nations is signed by China, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Soviet Union, and 22 other nations, in wh ...
edition of the tournament. Unfortunately the peak of his career coincided with World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
denying him the chance to play in a FIFA World Cup
The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...
.
Post-football career
When his professional career ended, García worked at his own sweet shop until 1960, when he returned to football as talent scout and trainer of the youth divisions at Racing Club. "We do not whish to form players from a day to another so footballers can't escape from the human law of evolution", said García by then.[
During his last years, García was in a situation of poverty and used to go from bar to bar, saying to customers "I am Enrique García, the best left winger of all times, would you invite me to have a coffee?"][
García died on August 23, 1969. He was only 56 years old.][El señor Chueco García]
on Racing Club. 23 Aug 2019
Quotes
In his own words
People about García
Honours
;Argentina
* Copa América
The Copa América ( en, America Cup) or CONMEBOL Copa América, known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship (''Campeonato Sudamericano de Fútbol'' in Spanish and ''Campeonato Sul-Americano de Futebol'' in Portuguese), is the t ...
: 1937
Events
January
* January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua.
* January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Fe ...
, 1941
Events
Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix.
January
* January–August – 10,072 men, women and children with mental and physical disabilities are asphyxiated with carbon monoxide in a gas chamber, at Hadamar Eu ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Enrique
1912 births
1969 deaths
Footballers from Santa Fe, Argentina
Argentine footballers
Argentina international footballers
Association football wingers
Rosario Central footballers
Racing Club de Avellaneda footballers
Copa América-winning players