Jorge Chica Ramírez (1952 – 30 March 2020) was an Ecuadorian

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 ...

and

neurosurgeon Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

. He graduated as a doctor when he played for

Barcelona Sporting Club 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 ...

, which is why he was nicknamed "The Doctor" on the pitch. He was champion with

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

in 1980.

Biography

Chica played as left winger in several Ecuadorian football clubs. He became better known when he joined

in 1974, playing for seven seasons until 1980; at the same time he graduated as a doctor, for which he was nicknamed "The Doctor" Chica on the field. He had his greatest performance in the team, in 1977 and 1978, where he established himself as a starter along with Miguel Coronel, Washington Pepe Paes,

Víctor Ephanor Epanor Vítor da Costa Filho (born 1 September 1949 in 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 mill ...

, Juan Madruñero, Nelsinho and others. The two occasions in which Chica scored a goal in a

Clásico del Astillero The Clásico del Astillero is the most historic football rivalry in Ecuador between Barcelona and Emelec, both from Guayaquil, the largest and the second most populated city in Ecuador, with about 2.3 million inhabitants in the city and nearly ...

, Barcelona did not lose, against a Emelec led by Eduardo ''Ñato'' García. The first occasion was in a 1–1 draw in 1977 and the second was on September 17, 1978, when the Argentine footballer Aníbal Cibeyra of Emelec, scored an Olympic goal for the second consecutive classic and the only one of his team in that match, while Ángel Luis Liciedi and Chica rallied the score by ending the match 2–1. He closed his cycle in the Barcelona when he was champion in 1980. As a doctor, he specialized in

neurosurgery Neurosurgery or neurological surgery, known in common parlance as brain surgery, is the medical specialty concerned with the surgical treatment of disorders which affect any portion of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord and peri ...

and worked in various hospitals in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, USA, before returning to Ecuador.

Death

A few days before his death, Chica treated former Emelec footballer Ecuador Figueroa, terminally ill with cancer. Chica died at age 68 on 30 March 2020, of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

complications caused by

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

, during the pandemic in Ecuador.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chica, Jorge Ecuadorian men's footballers Ecuadorian neurosurgeons 1952 births 2020 deaths Men's association football wingers Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Ecuador