José Gerardo "Jamaicón" Villegas Tavares (20 June 1934 – 24 December 2021) was a Mexican

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 defender for the Mexico national team at the

1958 Events January * January 1 – The European Economic Community (EEC) comes into being. * January 3 – The West Indies Federation is formed. * January 4 ** Edmund Hillary's Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition completes the thir ...

and 1962 World Cup matches.

Biography

Villegas was born in the neighborhood of “La Experiencia” in

Zapopan Zapopan () is a city and municipality located in the Mexican state of Jalisco. Part of the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area, Zapopan is the largest city in the state. It's best known as the home of the Virgin of Zapopan, an image of the Virgin ...

and as many in his town he was a

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of textiles: yarn, cloth and clothing. Industry process Cotton manufacturing Cotton is the world's most important natural fibre. In the year 2007, th ...

worker. In his infancy he was nicknamed “Jamaicón” because he cried too much (in some

regions of Mexico Mexico is a federal republic composed of 32 federative entities (): 31 states and Mexico City. According to the Constitution of Mexico, the states of the federation are free and sovereign in all matters concerning their internal affairs. S ...

, “Jamaicón” is considered a polite way to call someone a whiner). He began his football career playing for “Club Imperio” in 1949 and he was selected to the Jalisco State youth league in 1951. In the second round of his selection his team went to play for the National Championship final in the state of

Nuevo León Nuevo León, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Nuevo León, is a Administrative divisions of Mexico, state in northeastern Mexico. The state borders the Mexican states of Tamaulipas, Coahuila, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosí, San Luis ...

. He was raised at the center of a typical Mexican family, and as most other youth in his town, he would work in textiles, and then play in his spare time. His ability to play as a defensive player allowed him to play with one of the best Mexican football clubs, C.D. Guadalajara, known as “Chivas del Guadalajara”. He won eight championships with the Chivas, assisted in 13 World Cup play-offs and played in two

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

. As a right defensive player he could not be passed by and faced world-renowned players who he stopped from scoring., perhaps the most memorable being

Garrincha Manuel Francisco dos Santos (28 October 1933 – 20 January 1983), nicknamed Mané Garrincha, best known as simply Garrincha (, "little bird"), was a Brazilian professional association football, footballer who played as a Midfielder#Winger, righ ...

Botafogo Botafogo (local/standard alternative Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: ) is a beachfront neighborhood (''bairro'') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is a mostly upper middle class and small commerce community, and is located between the hills of M ...

. Villegas died on 24 December 2021, at the age of 87.

1962 World Cup

While Mexico prepared to play in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

at Chile in

1962 The year saw the Cuban Missile Crisis, which is often considered the closest the world came to a Nuclear warfare, nuclear confrontation during the Cold War. Events January * January 1 – Samoa, Western Samoa becomes independent from Ne ...

it was said that if Villegas had defeated

time and time again, surely there was enough defensive strength in the Mexico national team for the World Cup. The

Mexican Football Federation The Mexican Football Federation (), abbreviated as FMF is the official governing body of football in Mexico. It administers the men's and women's national teams with all its youth teams, the national teams of futsal and beach soccer, Liga MX wit ...

went on a tour of trial games with

Ignacio Trelles Ignacio Trelles Campos (31 July 1916 – 24 March 2020) was a Mexican football player and manager. As a player with Club Necaxa, they won three Mexican championships. Later he coached amongst others the Mexico national team. A seasoned and d ...

at the head and their first stop was London, England. Trelles decided to line up “Piolín” Mota, a second-string goalkeeper. Mota was quite concerned with the startup but Trelles told him he had nothing to worry about as Villegas would be there to defend the goal. Mexico lost 8–0 against

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. As a reporter approached him to interview him on his disappointing performance, he said he missed his mother and days had gone by where he could not eat "birria" and that life was not worth it if he was not in his town. Another interesting fact was that, even though he had defeated Garrincha in league games, he was so afraid of him during the 1962 World Cup he constantly asked where the attacker was.

Jamaicon Syndrome

A story also tells that one day he sneaked out of a dinner that was served to the Mexican team in Lisbon, prior to the Sweden World Cup of 1958. The trainer was made aware of this and found him in the Hotel garden, sitting under a tree hugging his legs and looking at the stars with melancholy. As he asked him if he had eaten dinner and everything was Ok, “Jamaicón” answered “How can I eat dinner if that was prepared for a bunch of presumptuous people? All I want are my “chalupas”, some “sopes” and not that trash that's not even Mexican”. Ever since, the phenomenon of Mexicans missing Mexico when they are out of the country is known as “The Jamaicón Syndrome”.

Biography

1962 World Cup

Jamaicon Syndrome

References

Further reading