Rafael Puente del Río or Rafael Puente Jr. (born 31 January 1979) is a Mexican former

actor An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

, professional

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 ...

, and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...

Career

Born to soccer columnist and former Mexico national team goalkeeper

Rafael Puente Rafael Puente Suárez (born 5 February 1950) is a Mexican former professional footballer and manager. He currently works as an analyst for ESPN Deportes and ESPN Mexico. Career Born in Mexico City, Puente began playing football with Mexican P ...

, Puente Jr. began playing football as a striker with

Mexican Primera División Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...

side

Atlante F.C. Atlante Fútbol Club, is a Mexican professional football club based in Mexico City, that competes in Liga de Expansión MX, the second level division of Mexican football. Founded in 1916 as Sinaloa, also later named as Lusitania, then as U-53 ...

, making his professional debut in 2003. He transferred to

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

in 2004. Then on May 22, 2006, he debuted as an actor in telenovelas in '' Codigo Postal'' as Hector Garza. He is now a sports commentator. He was appointed the chief operating officer for

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

in May 2014. He was let go in October 2014 by newly appointed chairman

Néstor de la Torre Nestor, or Néstor, is a given name of Greek origin. In Greek mythology it comes from that of Nestor, the son of Neleus, the King of Pylos and Chloris. The Greek derivation is from a combination of , and . The name is also found in Russia, Portu ...

. After being fired from Guadalajara, Puente Jr. joined his father as an analyst and commentator for

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ) is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications (which owns the ...

in the United States and also for ESPN Mexico. At ESPN, Puente Jr. covered the

2015 Copa América The 2015 Copa América was the 44th edition of the Copa América, the main international football tournament for national teams in South America, and took place in Chile between 11 June and 4 July 2015. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, the 2016 UEFA Champions League Final in

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

, the 2016 UEFA Euro, and also appeared on the networks show like ''

Fútbol Picante ''Futbol Picante'' (translation: ''Spicy Football'' or ''Spicy Soccer'') is a Mexican sports television show in Spanish which covers mostly Mexican football. The show is mostly hosted by David Faitelson and José Ramón Fernández (journalist), ...

'', ''Los Capitanes'', ''ESPN Radio Fórmula'' and ''ESPN Fútbol Center''. Although he had limited experience as a professional footballer, Puente became a football manager, drawing on his experiences playing for

Enrique Meza Enrique Meza Enríquez (born 3 March 1948) is a Mexican professional football Manager (association football), manager who most recently coached C.D. Veracruz, Veracruz. Prior to pursuing a career in coaching, he was a Goalkeeper (association fo ...

Miguel Herrera Miguel Ernesto Herrera Aguirre (born 18 March 1968), popularly referred to by his nickname "Piojo" (Spanish for "louse"), is a Mexican professional football manager and former player. He is the current manager of the Costa Rica national te ...

and José Guadalupe Cruz. On October 5, 2016, Puente Jr. was announced as the new manager for

Ascenso MX Ascenso MX, also known as Ascenso BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, was a professional association football league in Mexico and the second level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Primera División A de México (1994–2009 ...

club

Lobos BUAP Club de Fútbol Lobos de la Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla were a Mexican football club based in Puebla, Mexico. The club represented the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. The club's history goes back to the early 1930s ...

. On May 20, 2017, Rafael Puente Jr. successfully managed Lobos BUAP into

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

promotion for the 2017–18 season. He signed a new one-year contract with Lobos in June 2017. On 2 April 2018, Puente Jr. was sacked after earning nine points in 13 games of the Clausura 2018 season. On January 30, 2020, Puente Jr. was appointed by

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

. On August 10, 2020, Puente was sacked from Atlas after winning only one match of nine.

Honours

Manager

Lobos BUAP *

: Clausura 2017 * Campeón de Ascenso: 2016-17

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Puente, Rafael Jr. 1979 births Living people Mexican male actors Men's association football forwards Atlante F.C. footballers Club Necaxa footballers Querétaro F.C. managers Footballers from Mexico City Mexican men's footballers Male actors from Mexico City Mexican football managers Liga MX managers