Federico Vairo Moramarco Angellastre (27 January 1930 – 7 December 2010) 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 ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

defender who won three consecutive

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

titles with River Plate and represented

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 ...

at the

1958 World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the sixth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Brazil be ...

. His younger brother Juan Apolonio Vairo Moramarco also played football professionally, including one season for

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

Early life

Federico Vairo was born in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city is located northwest of Buenos Aires, on the west bank of the Paraná River. Rosario is the third-most populous ci ...

Club career

Vairo started his career at

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central () is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on December 24, 1889, by a group of railway workers, taking its name from the Englis ...

in his home city in 1947, he played for the club for 8 seasons before moving to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

to play for River Plate. River won three consecutive league titles between 1955 and 1957. Vairo played for the Argentina National team at the World Cup held in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in 1958. At one time he was the player with the most games played for the national team. His record was not broken until the 1990s. In 1960 Vairo joined

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

an O'Higgins. His first three seasons with the club resulted in mid-table finishes, but the 1963 campaign saw the club relegated, finishing 18th and last in the table. 1964 saw O'Higgins' successful return to the

Primera División de Chile Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera Alí Rafael Primera Rosel ...

by winning the Chilean Second Division title. In 1965 Vairo dedicated his life to the youth leagues as coach of River Plate, where he was in charge of training and turning amateurs to professionals first division footballers. From 1999–2010, River Plate hired him to scout youth players from the

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 28th ...

. One of the best players he scouted was

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...

, when he was 12 years old, despite the fact that he later left the club for Barcelona. In 2005, he was given an award at the 50th anniversary party of O'Higgins.

International career

Between 1955 and 1958 Vairo played 41 games for the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team represents Argentina in men's international football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, the governing body for football in Argentina. Nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' ('The White and S ...

. He helped Argentina to win the 1957

Copa America Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Computer Operator Programming Assistant. trade of ITI * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Asso ...

and represented Argentina at the 1958 World Cup.

Death

On 7 December 2010, Federico Vairo died in a hospital in

, from

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a cancer that develops from the lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a number of subtypes, including gastric adenocarcinomas. Lymph ...

. He is survived by his brother Juan Vairo, his wife Marta, and his three children, Graciela, Daniel, and Claudia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vairo, Federico 1930 births 2010 deaths Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Argentine footballers Argentine expatriate footballers Association football defenders Rosario Central footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers O'Higgins F.C. footballers Expatriate footballers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Deportivo Cali footballers Argentine Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Categoría Primera A players Expatriate footballers in Colombia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Argentina international footballers 1958 FIFA World Cup players Deaths from stomach cancer Deaths from cancer in Argentina Argentine people of Italian descent