Mauricio Alberto "Chicho" Serna Valencia (born 22 January 1968) is a Colombian former 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 ...

who played as a

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 ...

. Serna played for a number of clubs, including

Deportivo Pereira Deportivo Pereira is a professional Colombian football team based in Pereira, that currently plays in the Categoría Primera A. They play their home games at the Hernán Ramírez Villegas stadium. History Early years While there are several am ...

Atlético Nacional Atlético Nacional S. A., best known as Atlético Nacional, is a Colombian professional football club based in Medellín. The club is one of only three clubs to have played in every first division tournament in the country's history, the other ...

Boca Juniors Club Atlético Boca Juniors () is an Argentine professional sports club based in La Boca, a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires. The club is best known for its men's professional Association football, football team which, since its promotion in 1913 ...

(Argentina), Puebla F.C. (Mexico),

Chacarita Juniors Club Atlético Chacarita Juniors (usually known simply as Chacarita) is an Argentine association football, football club headquartered in Villa Crespo, Buenos Aires, while the stadium is located in Villa Maipú, General San Martín Partido of Gre ...

(Argentina) and

Talleres Córdoba Talleres is a Spanish word meaning workshops, and may refer to: *Talleres (Monterrey Metro) Talleres Station () is a Metro station, terminal station on Line 1 of the Monterrey Metro. It is located on Ave. Solidaridad and Esquisto St. in the San ...

(Argentina). He also appeared 51 times for the Colombia national team between 1993 and 2001.

Career

Serna was born in

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 ...

. At Boca, he played 96 league games, amounting to a total of 123 in all competitions, and also served as captain. Serna played for the Colombia national team and was a participant at the

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 ...

and

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

After retirement

In February 2021, Serna accepted a position at Boca's youth department. On 17 August 2021, Boca's reserve team manager,

Sebastián Battaglia Sebastián Alejandro Battaglia (born 8 November 1980) is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He was recently the manager of San Miguel. He spent most of his career with Primera División Argentina club B ...

, was appointed first team manager on interim basis, while Serna and

Hugo Ibarra Hugo Benjamín "Negro" Ibarra (born 1 April 1974), is an Argentine football manager and former player who played as a right back. He last managed Boca Juniors. With 324 matches played, 10 goals scored and 15 titles won with Boca Juniors,

took charge of the reserve team, also on interim basis.

Personal life

On 5 May 2015, he was publicly accused in his native Colombia on the Séptimo día television program, of defrauding an innumerable number of young soccer players with the promise that they had been signed by Argentine clubs, making them travel to the country asking them in advance a commission for the supposed signings. On 5 June 2018, a court in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

linked him to the crimes of

drug trafficking A drug is any chemical substance other than a nutrient or an essential dietary ingredient, which, when administered to a living organism, produces a biological effect. Consumption of drugs can be via inhalation, injection, smoking, ingestion, ...

and

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

in Argentina for a figure close to three million dollars. Also in 2019, he was accused before a United States court by the drug trafficker José Bayron Piedrahíta, better known by his aliases of (El Árabe or El Patrón de Caucasia ); of having committed the crime of money laundering together with Pablo Escobar's widow and son through real estate deals in Argentina and Panama.El señalado narcotraficante que habló y tiene en problemas al Chicho
futbolred.com, 9 June 2019

Honours

Atlético Nacional *

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 ...

: 1994 Boca Juniors *

Argentine Primera División The Primera División (; ), known officially as Liga Profesional de Fútbol, or Torneo Betano for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Argentina and the highest level of the Argentine football league system. Organ ...

: Apertura 1998, Clausura 1999, Apertura 2000 *

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 ...

: 2000, 2001 *

Copa Intercontinental Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act, a former U.S. law to protect minors from certain material on the internet * Canadian Owners and Pilots Association * Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association * Parlia ...

: 2000

References

External links

* at Fútbol XXI * {{DEFAULTSORT:Serna, Mauricio 1968 births Living people Footballers from Medellín Colombian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Colombia men's international footballers 1994 FIFA World Cup players 1998 FIFA World Cup players Atlético Nacional footballers Deportivo Pereira footballers Boca Juniors footballers Copa Libertadores–winning players Chacarita Juniors footballers Talleres de Córdoba footballers Club Puebla players Categoría Primera A players Argentine Primera División players Liga MX players Colombian expatriate men's footballers Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Colombian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico 20th-century Colombian sportsmen