Mauro Cichero

Although born in Italy, central defender Mauro Cichero moved with his family to Venezuela when he was aged 14. His father became a promoter of women’s football in Caracas. The footballing skills of the young Cichero were soon noted, and he went on to enjoy a career with Deportivo Italia, Deportivo Canarias and ULA Mérida in the Venezuelan Premier League. He also won full international honours with his adopted country. Cichero played in the 1980 Olympic qualifying tournament, in which Colombia and Argentina qualified for Moscow but, after Argentina’s boycott of the Games, Venezuela and Cichero got their chance to play at the Olympics. Cichero had the honour of captaining his country, the only time, up to and including 2016, that Venezuela have played in the tournament.

Cichero and a friend, Alfredo Bufarti, decided to go to Italy in the hope of playing for Milan, but Mauro ended up playing in Serie B with Grosseto. After his playing days, Cichero coached youngsters, opened a soccer school, and was a physical education teacher in an American school. In January 1999 he moved to Oklahoma, USA, where he became a director of a club that had 3000 youngsters playing soccer. He later trained young soccer stars at St. Gregory’s University in the city.

Cichero always maintained the highlight of his career was in beating Colombia 1-0 in the 1980 Olympic qualifying tournament, matched only by playing on front of 80,000 partisan fans in Moskva against the Soviet Union on the first day of the 1980 tournament. Cichero’s sons Alejandro, Gabriel and Mauro jr. were all footballers, and the first two won over 100 Venezuelan caps between them.