Honorino Landa Vera (1 June 1942, in

Puerto Natales Puerto Natales is a city in Chilean Patagonia. It is the capital of both the commune of Natales and the province of Última Esperanza, one of the four provinces that make up the Magallanes and Antartica Chilena Region in the southernmost part of C ...

– 30 May 1987, in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

) was a

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 ...

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 played as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

.1962 FIFA World Cup Chile

Club career

Once Landa received his high-school diploma in 1959, he went to play for the

Unión Española Club Unión Española S.A.D.P. is a professional association football, football club based in the Independencia, Chile, Independencia neighborhood, commune of Santiago, Chile. They currently participate in the Chilean Primera Division, Primera D ...

(Spanish Union) team. In 1961, he scored 24 goals in the national championship; thanks to this, he was called up for the national team of his country. He stopped playing soccer in 1975.

International career

Landa was the youngest player of the Chile national team that won a third place medal at the

1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams. It was held from 30 May to 17 June 1962 in Chile. The qualification rounds took place bet ...

on home soil; during the tournament, he was one of the disgraced players directly involved in the Battle of Santiago incident during the Group 2 match between Chile and

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. After only 12 minutes, Italy's

Giorgio Ferrini Giorgio Ferrini (; 18 August 1939 – 8 November 1976) was an Italian football manager and former football player who played as a midfielder. Nicknamed ''La Diga'' ('The Dam') for his qualities as a defensive midfielder, Ferrini played for Torin ...

committed a hard foul on Landa and was sent off, but refused to leave the pitch and had to be dragged off by policemen; Landa retaliated with a punch a few minutes later, but was not sent off. Chile won the match 2–0. Landa also represented Chile at the

1966 FIFA World Cup The 1966 FIFA World Cup was the eighth FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in England from 11 July to 30 July 1966. The England national football team defeated West Germany 4-2 in the ...

Death

Landa Vera died of cancer in a hospital in

two days before his 45th birthday.

References

1942 births 1987 deaths Chilean men's footballers Deportes Temuco footballers Unión Española footballers Chile men's international footballers 1962 FIFA World Cup players 1966 FIFA World Cup players Men's association football midfielders People from Última Esperanza Province {{Chile-footy-midfielder-stub