Jaime Belmonte Magdaleno (8 October 1934 – 21 January 2009), was a Mexican 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 ...

, known as ''El Flaco'' (''The Slim Man''), He was also called ''El héroe de Solna'' (''The hero of

Solna Solna Municipality ( sv, Solna kommun or , ) is a municipality in Stockholm County in Sweden, located just north of Stockholm City Centre. Its seat is located in the town of Solna, which is a part of the Stockholm urban area. Solna is one of the ...

''), in reference to his goal scored vs

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

in the city of

during 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 ...

earning Mexico's first point in a world cup.

Career

Born in

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, Belmonte began playing professional football with Deportivo Cuautla. He made 89 appearances for the club from 1955 to 1959. In 1959, he joined Deportivo Irapuato. In 13 seasons with Irapuato, Belmonte scored 125 goals.

International

Belmonte played for the Mexico national football team at the 1958 FIFA World Cup in Sweden. He scored the goal in a 1–1 draw with

, earning Mexico its first point at the World Cup hence earning the nickname the ''hero of Solna''.

Personal

Belmonte died from cancer in 2009 at age 74. In 2012, Belmonte received a statue in his honour, outside Irapuato FC's stadium Estadio Sergio León Chávez.

References

External links

* * 1934 births 2009 deaths Mexico international footballers 1958 FIFA World Cup players Irapuato F.C. footballers Footballers from Mexico City Mexican footballers Liga MX players Association football wingers {{mexico-footy-bio-stub