Record-breaking World Cup goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal dies aged 93
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Former Mexico goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal (right) receives an International Federation of Football History and Statistics award in Rotenburg in 2021.
PHOTO: REUTERS
MEXICO CITY – Former Mexico goalkeeper Antonio Carbajal, the first footballer to play in five World Cups, has died at the age of 93, local media announced on Tuesday.
“He fell ill last week... he was in the hospital and spent the weekend at home before passing away on Tuesday,” Antonio Moreno, director of the International Soccer Hall of Fame in central Mexico, told AFP.
“Antonio Carbajal is an icon of Mexican and world football because he was the first to appear at five World Cups and he was on the pitch in all of them,” added Moreno, who was in contact with the player and his family.
“In the last years of his life, he dedicated himself to helping and advising low-income children with family and drug addiction problems. He gave talks, organised soccer matches and that still kept him excited in his later years.
“He will be greatly missed, he was a good man, with great character and a history.”
“Tota”, as Carbajal was known, appeared in goal for Mexico at the World Cups in Brazil 1950, Switzerland 1954, Sweden 1958, Chile 1962 and England 1966, in which he earned 11 caps for his country.
He played 47 games in total for the Mexican national team.
Carbajal held the record of playing in five World Cups for 32 years until 1998, when German midfielder Lothar Matthaus also reached the mark.
His compatriots Rafael Marquez, Guillermo Ochoa and Andres Guardado, along with Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon, Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, have also since equalled his record.
Although Carbajal said he was scouted by Real Madrid between 1950 and 1954, the Mexican never left his domestic league and played most of his career in his home town with Club Leon.
“It was with great sadness that we learnt of the passing of Antonio Carbajal, the first player to star in five Fifa World Cups,” said Fifa president Gianni Infantino on the world governing body’s website.
“I send our most sincere condolences to his family and to all the Mexican fans who mourn his loss.” REUTERS, AFP
