Álvaro Mesén Murillo (born December 24, 1972) is a retired

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Club career

Upon club legend Alejandro González Rojas's retirement in September 1990, then-sixteen years old Álvaro Mesén was called upon to the

Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Al ...

senior team to backfill the third-choice goalkeeper position, behind the more experienced pair of Desiderio Calvo and Paul Mayorga; however upon the signing of former Herediano goalkeeper José Alexis Rojas in early 1991, Mesén was sent back to the youth teams. Rojas's signing had the purpose of adding experience to Alajuelense's door, which was lacking upon González's retirement as Mayorga and Calvo only started a handful of games in the past two seasons, and neither one of them could keep the other's faults in check. Mesén made his league debut for Carmelita on 6 March 1993 against TurrialbaÁlvaro Mesén en datos
- Nación during the 1992-93 season
- Nación before heading back to parent club Alajuelense ahead of the 1993-94 season. Mesén eventually became an understudy to Rojas who was the first-choice goalkeeper, and rose to first-choice keeper himself ahead of the 1997-98 season, when Rojas's career ended at Alajuelense as a result of being on the receiving end of an eight-match ban (as he was involved in a post-match brawl after a match against Saprissa in June 1997--Mesén also was involved in said brawl but received a minor ban), causing the Alajuelense's Board of Directors to show him the door as Rojas was going to be unavailable for six matches (having served two on the 1996-97 season's finals). He went on to play 207 league games for ''Liga'', scoring one goal, a penalty in the 1999-2000 season. He also played for Herediano and Brujas before finishing his career at Liberia Mía, after joining them in 2007.

International career

Mesén made his debut for

in a November 1999

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

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and earned a total of 38 caps, scoring no goals. He represented his country in 15

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

matches and was a non-playing squad member at the

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

and

2006 FIFA World Cup The 2006 FIFA World Cup was the 18th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international Association football, football world championship tournament. It was held from 9 June to 9 July 2006 in Germany, which had won the right to FIFA World Cup hosts ...

s. He also played at the

2003 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2003 UNCAF Nations Cup was an association football tournament. It was held in two venues in Panama in February 2003, and was played in a Round-robin tournament, round robin tournament, each of the 6 teams playing each other once. Costa Rica ...

as well as at the

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious i ...

s. He also was a non-playing squad member at the

2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the fifth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and the 15th overall CONCACAF tournament. It was held in Los Angeles, Miami, and San Diego ...

. His final international was a May 2006 friendly match against the

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. He has also become known for his activism, having been appointed as a

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

ambassador in 2001 and supporting the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea/Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

''Global March Against Child Labour'' campaign.

Retirement

After retiring in 2010, Mesén became the new secretary-general of Fedefutbol in September 2012. He has a master's degree in business administration. He resigned from Fedefutbol in February 2013.Álvaro Mesén renunció a su cargo en la FEDEFUTBOL
- CR Hoy

References

External links

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- Nación {{DEFAULTSORT:Mesen, Alvaro 1972 births Living people Footballers from Alajuela Men's association football goalkeepers Costa Rican men's footballers Costa Rica men's international footballers 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players A.D. Carmelita footballers Liga FPD players Liga Deportiva Alajuelense footballers C.S. Herediano footballers Brujas F.C. players A.D. Municipal Liberia footballers