MADRID, Spain.- Although soccer in Cuba has not been a remarkably successful sport, throughout history there have been athletes with a recognized career both inside and outside the Island. Today in CubaNet We present you some of them.
Juan Tunas
Born in Havana in 1917, Juan Tuñas was one of the 15 players that made up the Cuba Team that competed in the 1938 Soccer World Cup in France, the only one in which he has participated the Island. Tuñas debuted in the national team at the age of 16.
He played as a striker for clubs such as Juventud Asturiana and Centro Gallego in the 1930s; With the latter he was national and scoring champion in 1938, 1939 and 1940.
Due to the power of his goals, he was nicknamed the “net breaker”.
In 1941 he moved to Mexico and played professionally for Real Club España, winning two league titles during the 1941-42 and 1944-45 seasons. In 2005 he received the Gloria del Deporte Cubano distinction. Tuñas died in Mexico City in 2011, at the age of 93.
Jesus Alonso Fernandez
Jesús Alonso Fernández (1917-1979) emigrated to Spain when he was very young; His parents were Asturians. He began his career in the 1934-35 season at Sportiva Ovetense, a branch team of the Oviedo Football Club.
Known as “Chus” Alonso, he was one of Real Madrid’s most valuable players in the post-war period. Fernández was the author of the first official goal scored at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, then known as Nuevo Chamartín.
With the meringues he played 160 games, in which he scored 66 goals. In the last years of his life he was a director of the Spanish and Castilian Football Federations.
Mario Lopez Alfonso
Although he started out playing baseball, after deciding on soccer Mario López Alfonso rose to be among the best Cuban scorers in the 1930s.
He participated in the II Central American and Caribbean Games held in Havana in 1930, where he was the team captain.
Between 1933 and 1934 he played the qualifying round for the World Championship in Italy.
To date, he is the top Cuban scorer in the World Cup qualifying rounds with seven goals, followed by Léster Moré with six.
After a knee injury he had to retire and became a coach at the Centro Gallego club.
In 1999 he was named among CONCACAF’s top 30 players of all time.
Since 2002, the Mario López Alfonso national soccer school has existed in Cuba, located in the Pedro Marrero stadium in the capital.
Lester More
Léster Moré (Ciego de Ávila, 1977) is also considered among the best soccer players in the history of this sport in Cuba.
The striker began his career at the FC Ciego de Ávila club, where he was one of the top scorers for the “Los Tiburones” team.
Participated in four CONCACAF Gold Cup championships. In 2003 he scored the two goals for Cuba against Canada that helped Cuba achieve its first victory in this competition.
During the 2007 Gold Cup, Léster Moré deserted from the Cuban team before the match between Cuba and Honduras, fleeing to the United States with his teammate Osvaldo Alonso.
After immigrating to the United States, Moré signed with the Charleston Battery.
He retired in 2010 with the club La Azul Legends in the United States.
yenier marquez
Born in Corralillo in 1979, Márquez made his Cuba debut in May 2000 against Barbados in the CONCACAF qualifier for the 2002 Soccer World Cup.
Márquez, who worked as a striker, holds the record for the most games played with the Cuban team.
Odelin Molina
Odelín Molina Hernández (Havana, 1974) is considered the best goalkeeper of all time in Cuban soccer.
Molina participated in all the qualifying processes since 1998, with a balance of 25 games played, 9 wins, 5 draws and 11 losses.
He was international with Team Cuba on more than one hundred occasions.
Osvaldo Alonso
Alonso, one of the most internationally recognized Cuban soccer players, made his debut with the Cuban team in the 2006-2007 Caribbean Cup against the Turks and Caicos Islands. He was captain of the Cuba U-23 Team during the qualification for the 2008 Olympic Games.
During the 2007 Gold Cup, he deserted from the Cuban team and settled in the United States, where he obtained nationality in 2012.
Alonso was four times in the All-Star. He was also a four-time US Open Cup champion.
In 2019, the English portal GOAL placed him within the ideal eleven of the last decade in the MLS.
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