Mauricio Alberto "Chicho" Serna Valencia (born 22 January 1968) is a Colombian former 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 le ...

who played 51 games for the Colombia national team between 1993 and 2001 ''Chicho'' Serna played for a number of clubs, including

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several ...

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional association football, football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the countr ...

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine sports club headquartered in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is mostly known for its professional football team which, since its promotion in 1913, has always played in the A ...

(Argentina),

Puebla F.C. Club Puebla, formerly Puebla F.C. is a Mexican professional football club based in the city of Puebla, competing in the Liga MX. Known as ''La Franja'' ("The Striped Ones"), the team shirt features a diagonal stripe (traditionally blue on white ...

(Mexico),

Chacarita Juniors Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors (usually known simply as Chacarita) is an Argentine football club headquartered in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, while the stadium is located in Villa Maipú, General San Martín Partido of Greater Buenos Aires. ...

(Argentina) and Talleres Córdoba (Argentina). He was often cheered by Boca's fans with "''Chicho, Chicho, Chicho. Huevo, Huevo, Huevo''", referring to his compelling style of play.

Career

Serna was born in

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

. At Boca, he played 96 league games, scoring two goals. He played a total of 123 games for the club in all competitions. Serna played for the Colombia national team and was a participant at the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

and at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for the ...

After retirement

In February 2021, Serna was hired in a role at

, as a link between the Soccer Council and the coaches of the clubs youth department. On 17 August 2021, Boca's reserve team manager,

Sebastián Battaglia Sebastián Alejandro Battaglia (born 8 November 1980) is an Argentine former footballer who played as a midfielder and manager. He spent most of his career with Argentine club Boca Juniors, but also had a brief spell with Spanish side Villar ...

, was appointed first team manager on interim basis, while Serna and Hugo Ibarra took charge of the reserve team, also on interim basis.

Personal life

On 5 May 2015, he was publicly accused in his native Colombia on the

Séptimo día ''Séptimo día'' (Spanish: "Seventh day") is a Colombian television newsmagazine broadcast by Caracol TV on Sunday evenings. It proclaims itself as "a weapon against injustice". ''Séptimo día'' first aired in 1996 on Canal Uno, when Caracol ...

television program, of defrauding an innumerable number of young soccer players with the promise that they had been signed by Argentine clubs, making them travel to the country asking them in advance a commission for the supposed signings. On 5 June 2018, a court in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...

linked him to the crimes of

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance that causes a change in an organism's physiology or psychology when consumed. Drugs are typically distinguished from food and substances that provide nutritional support. Consumption of drugs can be via insuffla ...

and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

in Argentina for a figure close to three million dollars. Also in 2019, he was accused before a United States court by the drug trafficker José Bayron Piedrahíta, better known by his aliases of (El Árabe or El Patrón de Caucasia ); of having committed the crime of money laundering together with Pablo Escobar's widow and son through real estate deals in Argentina and Panama.El señalado narcotraficante que habló y tiene en problemas al Chicho
futbolred.com, 9 June 2019

Honours

Atlético Nacional *

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor (between 2015 and 2019 ''Liga Águila'') due to sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a Colombian professional league for association football clubs. It is the ...

: 1994 Boca Juniors *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; en, "First Division"), known officialy as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Binance for sponsorship reasons, is a professional football league in Argentina, organised by the Argentine Football Association (AFA). Th ...

: Apertura 1998, Clausura 1999, Apertura 2000 *

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

: 2000, 2001 *

Copa Intercontinental The European/South American Cup, more commonly known as the Intercontinental Cup and from 1980 to 2004 as the Toyota European/South American Cup (abbreviated as Toyota Cup) for sponsorship reasons, was an international football competition end ...

: 2000

References

External links

Argentine Primera statistics
at Fútbol XXI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serna, Mauricio 1968 births Living people Footballers from Medellín Colombian footballers Association football midfielders Colombia international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Atlético Nacional footballers Deportivo Pereira footballers Boca Juniors footballers Chacarita Juniors footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Club Puebla players Categoría Primera A players Argentine Primera División players Liga MX players Colombian expatriate footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate footballers in Argentina Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Mexico