Luigi Mauro Cichero (16 October 1951 – 20 January 2019) was 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 ...

who played as a

central defender In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

. Born in Italy, he represented Venezuela internationally. He competed in the men's tournament at the

1980 Summer Olympics The 1980 Summer Olympics (russian: Летние Олимпийские игры 1980, Letniye Olimpiyskiye igry 1980), officially known as the Games of the XXII Olympiad (russian: Игры XXII Олимпиады, Igry XXII Olimpiady) and commo ...

Early life

Cichero was born in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, Italy and spent his early life there until he was 14, when his family moved to Venezuela.

Playing career

Cichero played professionally in Venezuela for

Deportivo Italia Petare Fútbol Club (until summer 2010 called Deportivo Italia Fútbol Club and known as Deportivo Petare Fútbol Club until summer 2015) is a Venezuelan football club based in Caracas. Formed in 1948 as "Deportivo Italia F.C.", the club after ...

, Unión Deportiva Canarias, and ULA Mérida during the 1970s. He made a name for himself in Venezuela thanks to his skill, resulting in the opportunity to go to Italy and went on trial with

AC Milan Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seaso ...

. While he did not make the team, he ended up moving to

Serie B The Serie B (), currently named Serie Balkrishna Industries, BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 ...

club

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the Province of Grosseto. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, in the Maremma, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the Ombrone river. It is the m ...

. He also represented the Venezuela national team. His first appearances came at the seven team 1980 Olympic qualifying tournament. They came in 4th did not originally qualify for the

, however,

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 ...

was part of the

1980 Summer Olympics boycott The 1980 Summer Olympics boycott was one part of a number of actions initiated by the United States to protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. The Soviet Union, which hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, and its allies later ...

, thereby vacating their spot, allowing Venezuela to compete in the

Olympic football tournament Football at the Summer Olympics, referred to as the Olympic Football Tournament, has been included in every Summer Olympic Games as a men's competition sport, except 1896 (the inaugural Games) and 1932 (in an attempt to promote the new FIFA Wo ...

, where he played three games and served as team captain. He also continued to represent the national team afterwards.

Post-playing career

After retiring from professional football, he began his coaching career. He began working at the football school of the Colegio Campo Alegre de las Mercedes in

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

, Venezuela and became a professor of Sport Sciences at a school and established a football program there. In 1999, he moved to

Norman, Oklahoma Norman () is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, with a population of 128,097 as of 2021. It is the largest city and the county seat of Cleveland County, Oklahoma, Cleveland County, and the second-largest city in the Oklahoma C ...

to become the Director of Coaching for the Norman Youth Soccer Association. In 2003, he was named as the head coach of the St. Gregory's University men's soccer team in

Oklahoma Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...

. He died on 20 January 2019 in the United States, following a battle with cancer.

Personal life

He is the father of professional football players Alejandro Cichero,

Gabriel Cichero Gabriel Alejandro Cichero Konarek (born 25 April 1984) is a Venezuelan former professional who played as a centre-back or left back. Personal life He is the son of Mauro Cichero who was a professional football player and represented Venezuela ...

, and Mauro Cichero.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Cichero, Mauro 1951 births 2019 deaths Footballers from Genoa Venezuelan men's footballers Italian men's footballers Men's association football central defenders Venezuela men's international footballers Italian emigrants to Venezuela Olympic footballers for Venezuela Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics US Grosseto 1912 players