Alexis Enrique García Vega (born 21 July 1960) is a Colombian retired

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is the current manager of Unión Magdalena in the

Categoría Primera A The Categoría Primera A (), commonly referred to as Liga BetPlay Dimayor due to Sponsor (commercial), sponsorship by online betting company BetPlay, is a professional association football league in Colombia and the highest level of the Colombian ...

Club career

Along with seven more siblings, he grew up in barrio La Floresta of

Medellín Medellín ( ; or ), officially the Special District of Science, Technology and Innovation of Medellín (), is the List of cities in Colombia, second-largest city in Colombia after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia Departme ...

where he started his career playing for the Antioquia Football Selection. In 1980, he joined

Once Caldas Once Caldas S.A., simply known as Once Caldas, is a professional Colombian Association football, football team based in Manizales, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. The club plays its home games at Estadio Palogrande. The club wa ...

Manizales Manizales () is a city in central Colombia. It is the capital of the Caldas Department, Department of Caldas, and lies near the Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Currently, the city is the main center for the production of Colombian coffee and an importa ...

and the same year he was called to play for the Colombia Olympic football team for the Moscow Olympic Games. In 1987, he joined Atlético Nacional of

where he remained until his retirement in 1998. Known as "The Great Captain", Alexis Garcia was considered one of the Colombia's best midfielders and a crowd's favorite in a time when the Colombian football was starting to shine at the international level. In 1989 Garcia led Atlético Nacional to become

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as Copa Libertadores de América (), is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in South American club football. The tournam ...

champions. In 1988 Garcia debuted with the senior

Colombia national football team The Colombia national football team (), nicknamed ''Los Cafeteros,'' represents Colombia in men's international Association football, football and is managed by the Colombian Football Federation, Federación Colombiana de Fútbol (), the govern ...

against

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, a game that the Colombians won 3–0. Because of misunderstandings with national team coach

Francisco Maturana Francisco Antonio Maturana García, also known as ''Pacho'' Maturana (born February 15, 1949) is a Colombian ex-football player and football manager. Under his management, Atletico Nacional was the first team of the nation to win the Copa Libe ...

Alexis Garcia missed the

1990 FIFA World Cup The 1990 FIFA World Cup was the 14th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was held from 8 June to 8 July 1990 in Italy, the second country to host the event for a second ...

in Italy. His last game for the Colombia national team was in August 1993 against Paraguay. Garcia played a total of 25 games for Colombia and scored a total of 2 goals.

International career

García made 24 appearances for the senior

from 1988 to 1993, including participating in the 1993 Copa América. He also played for Colombia at the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow.

Honours

Player

Atlético Nacional *

(2):

1991 It was the final year of the Cold War, which had begun in 1947. During the year, the Soviet Union Dissolution of the Soviet Union, collapsed, leaving Post-soviet states, fifteen sovereign republics and the Commonwealth of Independent State ...

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

(1):

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

Manager

La Equidad * Categoria Primera B (1):

2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...

* Copa Colombia (1):

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Alexis 1960 births Living people Footballers from Quibdó Colombian men's footballers Colombia men's international footballers Footballers at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Colombia Once Caldas footballers Atlético Nacional footballers Categoría Primera A players 1989 Copa América players 1991 Copa América players 1993 Copa América players Copa Libertadores–winning players Colombian football managers Once Caldas managers Atlético Nacional managers Atlético Junior managers Deportivo Pereira managers Men's association football midfielders La Equidad managers Deportivo Pasto managers Unión Magdalena managers 20th-century Colombian sportsmen