Juan Manuel Funes Fernández (born May 16, 1966), popularly known as ''Memín'' Funes is a Guatemalan football coach and former

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 ...

who played professionally for the three most successful clubs in Guatemala – Aurora F.C.,

Municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

, and

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

– and became a member and later captain of the Guatemala national team, which he represented in five

World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

processes. He was recently manager for Liga Nacional club Santa Lucía. As of October 2006, he was part of the coaching staff of the Guatemala under-17 team.

Club career

As a teenager, Funes was part of the youth divisions of Aurora F.C., debuting in the '' Liga Mayor'' with that team. He then joined

– the club he would permanently be most identified with –, where he would reach the peak of his career. During his tenure with the '' Rojos'', Funes helped the team win three consecutive league titles in the 1987, 1988, and 1989-90 seasons, and two more in 1991-92 and 1993-94. He scored 43 goals in official tournaments for Municipal. In 1997, Funes moved to Municipal's arch-rivals

, where he won four more league titles: 1997, 1999, ''Apertura'' 1999, and ''Clausura'' 2001. In 2001, he joined Deportivo Jalapa. After that he played a second tenure with Aurora, and after the team was relegated to ''Primera División'' in 2005, he retired from professional football. A creative midfielder, Funes' play was characterized by good ball control, field vision, dribbling, and mobility. Although he was not a high-scoring midfielder, he would constantly create scoring chances for teammates in attack.

International career

Funes was part of the Guatemala youth squad that won the gold medal at the ''III Juegos Centroamericanos'' in 1986. In 1988, he was part of the squad that participated at the 1988 Olympic tournament, playing against

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 ...

and

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...

. At the full international level, he made 66 appearances from 1985 to 2000, scoring 15 goals. He was also the national team captain from 1994 to 2000. Funes participated in the 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998, and 2002 World Cup qualifying campaigns, becoming the first Guatemalan player ever to participate in five such processes.Source: This record was tied in 2015 by Carlos Ruiz. He was selected to the All-star team of the

1997 UNCAF Nations Cup This page details the 1997 UNCAF Nations Cup, played in Guatemala. Squads :For a complete list of all participating squads see ''UNCAF Nations Cup 1997 squads'' Preliminary round Venue First round Group A ---- ---- Group B ---- ...

tournament, where Guatemala finished in second place. His last international match was a September 2000 World Cup qualification match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

References and notes

External links

FIFA.com - individual record at FIFA tournaments

- RSSSF {{DEFAULTSORT:Funes, Juan Manuel 1966 births Living people Sportspeople from Guatemala City Guatemalan footballers Guatemala international footballers Olympic footballers of Guatemala Footballers at the 1988 Summer Olympics 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Aurora F.C. players C.S.D. Municipal players Comunicaciones F.C. players Association football midfielders