Rafael Riquelme Díaz (born 10 May 1995) is 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 le ...

who plays as winger for

Club Universidad Nacional Club Universidad Nacional, A.C., commonly referred to as UNAM, is a professional football club based in Ciudad Universitaria of Mexico City, Mexico. The club competes in the Liga MX, the top division in the Mexican football league system. Fo ...

Primera División de México The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional Association football, football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and amo ...

. He was part of the

Mexico national under-17 football team The Mexico national under-17 football team is one of the youth teams that represents Mexico in football at the under-17 level, and is controlled by the Mexican Football Federation (''Spanish: Federación Mexicana de Fútbol''). The team has reac ...

FIFA World Cup champions in 2011, becoming the first national team to achieve it while hosting, defeating Uruguay 2–0 and managing their second title. He recently graduated, he used to play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

as a

placekicker Placekicker, or simply kicker (PK or K), is the player in gridiron football who is responsible for the kicking duties of field goals and extra points. In many cases, the placekicker also serves as the team's kickoff specialist or punter. Spe ...

Benedictine College Benedictine College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Atchison, Kansas, United States. It was established in 1971 by the merger of St. Benedict's College (founded 1858) for men and Mount St. Scholastica College (founded 1923) for ...

Atchison, Kansas Atchison is a city and county seat of Atchison County, Kansas, United States, along the Missouri River. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 10,885. The city is named in honor of US Senator David Rice Atchison from Missouri an ...

in the

Heart of America Athletic Conference The Heart of America Athletic Conference (HAAC or The Heart) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). Member institutions are located in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska in ...

Early life

Riquelme was born on 10 May 1995 in

Mexico City, Mexico Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley of Mex ...

. His parents moved to Mexico when he was a baby. His mom, a nutritionist, was always encouraging him to play sports since he was 4 years old. He has a younger brother, Rodrigo Riquelme Díaz. At the age of four, Riquelme started playing football for the subsidiary

Pumas Morelos The Pumas Morelos was a football club that played in the Segunda División in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico. The Pumas Morelos are affiliated to Pumas UNAM. The most goals scored were made by Alex Castańeda which were 36. The team was bought by A ...

, coached by

Antonio Jasso Juan Antonio Jasso Almaraz (11 March 1935 – 26 June 2013) was a Mexican professional football forward who played for Mexico in the 1962 FIFA World Cup The 1962 FIFA World Cup was the seventh edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial ...

. At the age of twelve, he was representing his home state in various tournaments around the country.

High school

After retiring from football due to undisclosed differences he had with the club, Riquelme got a scholarship to play football at Maur Hill–Mount Academy so he decided to finish his junior and senior years of high school in

. While playing on the varsity football he was invited to play on the

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

team as a

. On 13 October 2013 in his second game, Riquelme scored a 54-yard field goal to help his school get a win against Horton High School. After this, he started gaining attention from Division-1 Colleges. On 4 February 2015 Riquelme signed his letter of intent to attend

College career

Benedictine College

Riquelme

redshirted Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically, a student's athletic eligibility in a given sport is four seasons, aligning with the ...

for the 2015 season, his first season at

International career

Mexico U-17

At the time of the World Cup, Riquelme was one year younger than all the other players on the team, nevertheless, he was called up by

Raúl Gutiérrez Raúl Erasto Gutiérrez Jacobo (born 16 October 1966), also known as El Potro, is a Mexican professional Association football, football Manager (association football), manager and former player, who is the current manager of Liga MX club Cruz A ...

to serve as a reserve. Riquelme did not get to see any action during the World Cup.

References

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Riquelme, Rafael 1995 births Living people Mexican men's footballers Men's association football wingers