Salvador Antonio Mariona Rivera (born 27 December 1943) is a Salvadoran former

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 as a defender. At international level, he represented his

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at the

1970 FIFA World Cup The 1970 FIFA World Cup was the ninth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's senior national teams. Held from 31 May t ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Club career

Born in Santa Tecla, Mariona moved with his parents to

Izalco Izalco (in Nawat: ''Itzalku'') is a municipality in the Sonsonate department of El Salvador. Volcan Izalco is an icon of the country of El Salvador, a very young Volcano on the flank of Santa Ana volcano. From when it was born in 1770 until 196 ...

while still a boy and started a youth swimming career there, in the end winning a silver medal in a 4x100 m relief competition in

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. He then began his footballing career at Mario Calvo in the

third division In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

and moved up to the

Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador The ''Primera División'' of the (''Professional Football League''), more commonly known as ''La Liga Mayor'' or ''La Primera'', is the top professional association football, football league in El Salvador. It was established in 1969, and in 2 ...

when he joined

Atlante Atlante or Atlantes may refer to: * Atlas (architecture), a column in the shape of a man * Atlante San Alejo, a Salvadoran football club * Atlante F.C., a Mexican football club * Atlante (private equity fund) * ''Atlante''-class tugboat * Atlante ...

. But he spent the major part of his career at Salvadoran giants Alianza and also played for Platense Zacatecoluca, after which he retired in 1977 and became a coach.

International career

Nicknamed ''Chamba'', he was selected to represent

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

for ten years and featured in qualifying and playing in the 1970 World Cup.

Retirement

After football, Salvador Mariona worked as an insurance salesman and gained enough experience to found Desarrollo, SA which quickly became AIG Unión y Desarrollo, SA. Mariona was the Chief Executive of his beloved AlianzaJunta Directiva
- Alianza after taking over in 2005.

Personal life

Mariona is married to Floridalma Palacios and the couple have 5 children, one of them being the father of fellow footballer Javier Mariona, who has also represented El Salvador internationally.

References

External links

La enorme figura del “Gigante de ébano” Salvador Mariona
- El Gráfico 1943 births Living people People from La Libertad Department (El Salvador) Salvadoran footballers Men's association football defenders Alianza F.C. footballers El Salvador men's international footballers 1970 FIFA World Cup players {{ElSalvador-footy-bio-stub