Federico Vairo Moramarco (27 January 1930 – 7 December 2010) was an

Argentine Argentines, Argentinians or Argentineans are people from Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical, or cultural. For most Argentines, several (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

defender who won three consecutive

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football * ''League of Legends'', a 2009 multiplayer online battle a ...

titles with River Plate and represented

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

at the

1958 World Cup The 1958 FIFA World Cup was the 6th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial football tournament for men's senior national teams. It was played in Sweden from 8 to 29 June 1958. It was the first and only FIFA World Cup to be played in a Nordic country. Br ...

. His younger brother Juan Apolonio Vairo Moramarco also played football professionally, including one season for

Juventus Juventus Football Club (; from , ), commonly known as Juventus or colloquially as Juve (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Turin, Piedmont, who compete in Serie A, the ...

Early life

Federico Vairo was born in

Rosario Rosario () is the largest city in the central provinces of Argentina, Argentine province of Santa Fe Province, Santa Fe. The city, located northwest of Buenos Aires on the west bank of the Paraná River, is the third-most populous city in the ...

Club career

Vairo started his career at

Rosario Central Club Atlético Rosario Central (), more commonly referred to as Rosario Central, or simply Central, is a sports club based in Rosario, Argentina, that plays in the Argentine Primera División. The club was officially founded on 24 December 1889, ...

in his home city in 1947, he played for the club for 8 seasons before moving to

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 ...

to play for River Plate. River won three consecutive league titles between 1955 and 1957. Vairo played for the Argentina National team at the World Cup held in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

in 1958. At one time he was the player with the most games played for the national team. His record was not broken until the 1990s. In 1960 Vairo joined

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 ...

an O'Higgins. His first three seasons with the club resulted in mid-table finishes, but the 1963 campaign saw the club relegated, finishing 18th and last in the table. 1964 saw O'Higgins' successful return to the

Primera División de Chile Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

by winning the Chilean Second Division title. In 1965 Vairo dedicated his life to the youth leagues as coach of River Plate, where he was in charge of training and turning amateurs to professionals first division footballers. From 1999 to 2010, River Plate hired him to scout youth players from the

Santa Fe Province The Invincible Province of Santa Fe (, , lit. "Holy Faith") is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 2 ...

. One of the best players he scouted was

Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (; born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional Association football, footballer who plays as a forward (association football), forward for and Captain (association football), captains both Major League Soccer ...

, when he was 12 years old, despite the fact that he later left the club for Barcelona. In 2005, he was given an award at the 50th anniversary party of O'Higgins.

International career

Between 1955 and 1958 Vairo played 41 games for the

Argentina national football team The Argentina national football team (), nicknamed ''La Albiceleste'' (), represents Argentina in men's international Association football, football and is administered by the Argentine Football Association, Asociación del Fútbol Argentino ( ...

. He helped Argentina to win the 1957

Copa America Copa or COPA may refer to: COPA COPA may refer to: * Child Online Protection Act The Child Online Protection Act (COPA) was a United States law, law in the United States, United States of America, passed in 1998 with the declared purpose of ...

and represented Argentina at the 1958 World Cup.

Death

On 7 December 2010, Federico Vairo died in a hospital in

, from

stomach cancer Stomach cancer, also known as gastric cancer, is a malignant tumor of the stomach. It is a cancer that develops in the Gastric mucosa, lining of the stomach. Most cases of stomach cancers are gastric carcinomas, which can be divided into a numb ...

. He is survived by his brother Juan Vairo, his wife Marta, and his three children, Graciela, Daniel, and Claudia.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Vairo, Federico 1930 births 2010 deaths Footballers from Rosario, Santa Fe Argentine men's footballers Argentine expatriate men's footballers Men's association football defenders Rosario Central footballers Club Atlético River Plate footballers O'Higgins F.C. footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Chile Deportivo Cali footballers Argentine Primera División players Primera B de Chile players Categoría Primera A players Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Argentine expatriate sportspeople in Colombia Argentina men's international footballers 1958 FIFA World Cup players Deaths from stomach cancer in Argentina Argentine sportspeople of Italian descent Copa América–winning players 20th-century Argentine sportsmen