Ángel Custodio Báez Rivera (8 August 1894 – 21 September 1920) was a Chilean

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 lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Club career

Born in Guayacán town,

Coquimbo Coquimbo is a port List of cities in Chile, city, Communes of Chile, commune and capital of the Elqui Province, located on the Pan-American Highway, in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. Coquimbo is situated in a valley south of La Serena, Chile, La S ...

, Báez stood out as a player of Club Thunder, becoming the

team captain In team sport, captain is a title given to a member of the team. The title is frequently honorary, but in some cases the captain may have significant responsibility for strategy and teamwork while the game is in progress on the field. In eithe ...

in 1915. He represented the Coquimbo city team in intercity matches against La Serena, the adjacent city, winning the silver medal, equivalent to the first place, eleven times in 1913. In 1917, he was selected Director of club Thunder and awarded as the best player of then . In 1915 and 1919, he also represented the

Ovalle Ovalle is a city in the Coquimbo Region of Chile, founded in 1831 as a settlement. It has a population of more than 113,000 people. The name Ovalle was chosen to honor to Chile's vice-president, José Tomás Ovalle. Ovalle is the capital of th ...

city team, a near city to Coquimbo. In the football league of that city, he played for Club Arco Iris in 1919.

International career

Báez made two appearances for the Chile national team in the

1916 South American Championship The 1916 South American Championship () was the first continental championship for national association football teams in South America. It was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina from 2 to 17 July during Argentina's Independence Centenary commemo ...

and scored the goal in the 6–1 loss against

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, the first goal for Chile in the history of the South American Championship/Copa América. He made a second appearance in the 1–1 draw against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

. In the same year, he also played in the friendlies against Argentina on 12 July (1–0 loss in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

on 14 July (4–1 loss in

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

) and the Argentine on 16 July (0–3 win in

La Plata La Plata () is the capital city of Buenos Aires province, Argentina. According to the 2022 Argentina census, census, the La Plata Partido, Partido has a population of 772,618 and its metropolitan area, the Greater La Plata, has 938,287 inhabit ...

Controversy about Telésforo Báez

Despite Ángel Báez played at the 1916 South American Championship and scored the goal against Argentina,

Telésforo Báez Telésforo Segundo Báez Astudillo (16 August 1897 – 3 March 1946) was a Chilean footballer who played as a forward. Career Born in Valparaíso, Báez stood out as a player of Santiago Wanderers in the 1910s. As a player of the second t ...

is frequently and wrongly listed in the squad. In fact, Telésforo, a player of

Santiago Wanderers Club de Deportes Santiago Wanderers is a football club based in Valparaíso, a founding member of the Chilean Football Federation. Their home ground, Estadio Elías Figueroa Brander, is in the north-west of the city. Wanderers have played their ...

from

Valparaíso Valparaíso () is a major city, Communes of Chile, commune, Port, seaport, and naval base facility in the Valparaíso Region of Chile. Valparaíso was originally named after Valparaíso de Arriba, in Castilla–La Mancha, Castile-La Mancha, Spain ...

, was a member of the Chile national team in the 1919 South American Championship, but he was probably confused with Ángel in the 1916 squad by the journals of Valparaíso at the time, according to the research of ASIFUCH, the association of Chilean football researchers. In addition, Telésforo was suspended during 1916 due to an indiscipline act in Octubre 1915.

Personal life

His parents were Carmen Rivera Díaz and Jorge Báez Briones. Ángel worked as a foundry worker for

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major Spanish language, Spanish-language multimedia news agency and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was ...

, the state railway company, like his father. In 1920, Báez returned to

from

due to the fact that he got sick. He died on 20 September of the same year of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

References

External links

* 1894 births 1920 deaths Footballers from Coquimbo Chilean men's footballers Chile men's international footballers Men's association football forwards {{Chile-footy-forward-stub