Lolo Fernandez: One of Latin America’s Most Popular Footballers

Throughout his 12-year career with the Peruvian side, yalla shoot between 1935 and 1947, Lolo Fernández was not a World Cup player such as Obdulio Varela of Uruguay and Brazil’s Leonidas da Silva. Despite all this, he is still an inspirational leader in the history of Peru’s soccer. On the field, he did a lot to stimulate the men’s football in all of the country, one of the most soccer-crazed places on the planet. He was very popular in the outback of Peru, from Trujillo and Ica to Puno and Cajamarca. His passion for his homeland was reflected in all facets of his life.

Peru’s national pastime

He began to play soccer before it was a professional sport on Peruvian soil. Football — the world’s most popular sport— was imported by Britain’s expatriates in the second half of the 19th century and is known as Peru’s national pastime.

The oldest and most powerful of three soccer-playing Fernández brothers, he — known affectionately as “Lolo”— is considered as one of the country’s greatest athletes of all time, along with Edwin Vásquez Cam (Olympic gold medalist at the 1948 London Summer Games), Cecilia Tait Villacorta (among the world’s top volleyball players in the past century), Juan Carlos “Johnny” Bello (winner of 12 Bolivarian titles in the early 1970s), and Gabriela “Gaby” Pérez del Solar (silver medal in women’s volleyball at the 1988 South Korea Games).

During Fernández’s tenure

During Fernández’s tenure with the national side, the Andean republic gained one South American Cup (1939) and one Bolivarian Championship (1938). At the club level, he earned the Peruvian League Cup — nationwide competition— six times with his club Universitario de Deportes, having scored a club-record of 157 goals — a record that remains unique. Also, he was the top goal-scorer in the country’s top division of football teams in 1932 (11 goals), 1933 (9), 1934 (9), 1939 (15), 1940 (15), 1942 (11), and 1945 (16). Additionally, he is one of best-known Peruvians Olympians of all time. He holds the distinction of being the first (and only) top player from that nation to compete in the modern Olympiad.

Peru’s First Genuine Top-Class Athlete

Since then, the apex of his career came in the late 1930s when he was the hero of Peru’s South American Football Confederation Cup win, putting the Peruvian flag on the sporting map and making him one of the most exciting players in the game. A Lolo Fernández-inspired Peru defeated Uruguay in the gold-medal match, a surprise to most fans and sportswriters on يلا شوت the American mainland (Campomar, 2014, Penguin). He had been called up by England’s coach Jack Greenwell. Before the championship, Peru’s sportsmen had never won a continental trophy (equivalent of the European Cup). Previously, this Cañete-born footballer was a member of the 1936 Peruvian Olympic football team, which competed in the Berlin Olympics. Curiously, Western Europe was the first continent to recognize Fernández’s talent. Although his homeland’s squad succumbed in a controversial game against Austria (a match they should have won) during the Men’s Olympic Games Soccer Tournament— the unofficial world cup of soccer at that time— he was regarded as one of the South America’s most celebrated sportsmen (Hilton, 2011).

Recognize Fernández’s Talent

Back in Peru, he led his own “soccer revolution” in Universitario de Deportes, winning many top division cups, setting off a wave of explosive emotion in Lima, the nation’s capital. In fact, he was one of the first superstars of that club. The national squad and his club had been his first loves. He could have played abroad, but decided to play for the Peruvian side and the Limean club, one of the nation’s premier clubs (Newton, 2011).

In fact, Lolo Fernández was Peru’s first genuine top-class sportsman in the world of sports in a time when some Spanish-speaking republics began to produce world-famous competitors. Already, in 1928, Argentina’s fighter Victorio Avendaño had caught the public’s attention with his Olympic gold medal in the Games of the IX Olympiad in Holland’s capital city of Amsterdam (Grasso, 2013). Two years later, the Soccer World Cup was won by the host country Uruguay— called the Celeste. Meanwhile, the men’s shooting contingent of Brazil picked up a total of three medals at the 1920 Antwerp Olympics in tiny Belgium (Almanaque Mundial, 1976). On the other hand, on March 19, 1938, four Ecuadorans — Ricardo Planas, Carlos Luis Gilbert, Luis Alcivar Elizalde and Abel Gilbert— swept the gold medals at the Swimming South American Tournament (Almanaque Guayaquil, 2003).

Former Cameroon goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell spoke out against Vn88 newspaper after Samuel Eto’o made a prediction about the 2022 World Cup.

The mood of Ronaldo and other players must be problematic because of Vn88cx’s assessment of the Cameroon team that will win. He was so used to going his own way, with being a superstar, with being surrounded by flattery, with people blinking their eyelashes when he heard him speak. He always considers the people around him from “Planet Ronaldo”.

But Ronaldo is also awake enough to know that his ability to play football is fading, he is no longer playing the role of the almighty God in the team. Then when he saw the “normal actions in an ordinary day” of Fernandes and Cancelo revealed to the media and countless rumors.

Then when he entered the match, he felt that his teammates could no longer pass the ball to him, he would feel his ego was deeply hurt, feel lost when Vn88.cx daily turned his back on him and he felt turned away, felt everything collapse under his feet.

This is a time when Ronaldo’s mentality is very sensitive. What was normal before, over Ronaldo’s head now is no longer normal. This sensitivity could be the next time bomb in the Portuguese team.

To eliminate this potential threat, Ronaldo needs to make it clear to his teammates how he feels. Other Portuguese players must also understand Ronaldo’s insecurities. Vn88 mobile sponsors need to tighten their wallets for each match, close many training sessions with the crowd, and remind the players to eliminate bad jokes in the team.

“When you’re a small team, don’t make claims that you’re going to beat big teams. In sport, first of all, you need a lot of humility,” Joseph-Antoine Bell told Cameroon’s CRTV television channel. More than a week earlier, the President of the Cameroon Football Federation, Samuel Eto’o, predicted that the “Indomitable Lions” would win the 2022 World Cup.

“In theory, as Vn88 said, Cameroon will meet much stronger teams in the group stage. Therefore, ahead of Cameroon are three challenging matches,” continued Joseph-Antoine Bell.

At the 1990 World Cup, Cameroon created an earthquake when they won 1-0 against Argentina in the group stage and reached the quarterfinals. “At the 1990 World Cup, I said that Argentina is the world champion and Cameroon is just a small team, 2-3 months ago, just knocked out of the first round of the CAN (Africa Cup). Therefore, Argentina is the number one candidate. That’s how we speak in the world of football. It will lull the opponent. Despite such a statement, we still work hard to practice in the hope of creating a surprise”, emphasized Joseph-Antoine Bell.

“The difference between the 1990 World Cup and now is that in 1990 we didn’t overstate that we would beat any team. But now the spokesman of Vn88cx, everyone hears bold statements from the Cameroon team. Therefore, other teams will not be subjective and thus, the Cameroon team will lose the element of surprise,” Joseph-Antoine Bell analyzed.

“Even with the statements that have been made, the Cameroon team is now required to play strongly and forcefully to win,” continued Joseph-Antoine Bell.

At the 2022 World Cup, Cameroon is in Group G with Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland. In history, no African team has reached the semi-finals of the World Cup. The best achievement that African football has achieved in a World Cup is the quarter-finals. The three teams that did this were Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010).

Nearly a week after going down in Bayern Munich’s history as the youngest player to reach 100 matches, Musiala and Germany traveled to Qatar to attend the 2022 World Cup with the sponsor of his exclusive image, Vn88.cx Quick news page about the happenings of the match.

The fact that Musiala was called up to the national team is not considered a big surprise, after what the midfielder has shown over the years. Experts in Germany highly appreciate Musiala’s ability and see the 2022 World Cup as an opportunity for this young midfielder to assert himself.

Musiala was born in 2003 in Stuttgart (Germany), to a Nigerian father and a German mother. This midfielder moved to England to live at the age of 7. Before being used at Bayern, Musiala went through a long journey.

Musiala played for the Chelsea academy team and was even called up to play for England U15, U16, U17 and U21 teams. At one point, the Germans believed they had no chance of convincing Musiala to play for them.

Both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and their opponent this week, the New Orleans Saints, are out of the playoff chase heading into Week 17. Nonetheless, the Bucs still have something to play for as a loss would give them the first pick in this year’s NFL Draft.

Buccaneers tickets for the season finale have an average price of just $104, currently. The cheapest tickets available are $37 which makes this week’s game one of the cheapest options of the week. Fans coming from out of town can find hotels near Raymond James Stadium for as little as $80 if you’re looking to stay near the building. You should also make sure to check out Hipmunk.com for any travel options, such as flights to Tampa from any city in the country.

Tampa Bay enters their home finale at 2-13 and has been relatively in shambles over the past month. They just recently started to get their running game going again with third-year back Doug Martin, but have struggled mightily all year to establish any sense of consistency or balance on either side of the football. Lovie Smith will be tasked with a huge turnaround in 2015, but before he can even think about that he’ll have to try to build some momentum this week with a big win over the Saints.

The Buccaneers are losers of five straight and will surely like to end that slide against the Saints, who they lost to in a 37-31 shootout earlier in the year. Mike Glennon was under center then, but Tampa Bay’s fortunes are back in the hands of Josh McCown to close out the season.

A loss would likely end the reign for either Glennon or McCown behind center in Tampa Bay as the Buccaneers would have the first pick in the 2015 NFL Draft and the option for several different signal callers, headlined by Marcus Mariota and Jameis Winston. Mariota hails from Oregon and is expected to be the top overall pick in this year’s draft, due to Winston’s off-the-field issues.

Either way, it’s a disappointing ending to what many believed would be an improved Tampa team this season. There’s a lot of work to be done, but at least there will be one more opportunity to get a victory in 2014.