Arturo Díaz (footballer)

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Arturo Díaz
Personal information
Full name Arturo del Carmen Díaz Muñoz
Date of birth (1940-11-04)4 November 1940
Place of birth Coquimbo, Chile
Date of death 13 November 1985(1985-11-13) (aged 45)
Place of death Tegucigalpa, Honduras
Position(s) Forward
Youth career
Independiente Vicuña
Unión Farola
Coquimbo Unido
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1959–1965 Coquimbo Unido
1966 Unión Española
1966Colo-Colo (loan)
1967 Ferroviarios
1968 Atlético Indio
Federal
Campamento
Managerial career
Campamento
Honduran Artillery Battalion
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Arturo del Carmen Díaz Muñoz (4 November 1940 – 13 November 1985), more popularly known as Canilla Díaz (Shin Díaz), was a Chilean football player and manager who played as a forward.

Early years[edit]

Born in Coquimbo, a port city in Chile, his parents were Floridor Segundo Díaz Navea, a ship stevedore and amateur water polo player, and Clementina Alicia Muñoz Ávalos, a food peddler. He grew up alongside his five siblings (Jery, Mario, Carlos, Lilian and Magaly) and his two nephews (Alicia and Tito) who were officially adopted as Floridor and Clementina's children.[1]

As a child, Díaz played for both Independiente Vicuña, a club based in the street where he lived, and Unión Farola, before joining Coquimbo Unido.[1]

Club career[edit]

In Chile[edit]

Díaz made his professional debut playing for Coquimbo Unido in the 1959 Segunda División, facing Deportivo San Fernando and, two matchdays later, he scored his first goal against Green Cross.[1] The matches with the traditional opponent, Deportes La Serena, are well remembered, according to the former footballer Hernán Godoy.[2] Along with Coquimbo Unido, he got promotion to the Primera División, the first title for the club,[3] after winning the 1962 Segunda División,[4] scoring the winning goal in the last matchday versus Universidad Técnica del Estado.[5][6]

He stayed with Coquimbo Unido in Primera División, even making an appearance in the cover of the renowned Chilean sports magazine Estadio [es], until 1965, when the club was relegated to the second category. So, he switched to Unión Española for the 1966 season on a deal for 43,000 Chilean escudos, being loaned to Colo-Colo for a summer tournament. The next year, he played for Ferroviarios, his last club in Chile.[1]

In Honduras[edit]

In 1968 he moved to Honduras and joined Atlético Indio under the managing of Carlos "Zorro" Padilla in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional. In the club, he coincided with José Domingo "Yuyo" Tróchez, a current Honduran football commentator. Then he played for Federal, coinciding again with Tróchez, and Club Campamento, becoming the team goalscorer en 1976 with eight goals. He retired at the end of the 1970s, according to the former merchant sailor from Coquimbo, Luis Rivera, with whom Díaz met in Tegucigalpa.[1]

Coaching career[edit]

At the same time he was a player of Club Campamento, he performed as the team manager.[1] Next, he worked as the coach of an amateur team from the Honduran Army. Then, he coached the first, the third and the fourth team of the Honduran Artillery Battalion until his death in 1985 due to a virulent meningitis.[3]

Personal life[edit]

Díaz was nicknamed Canilla (Shin) due to the fact that his legs were very thin, according to his fellow Manuel Ñurdo Díaz.[1]

He made his home in Honduras and married Francis Galo, a nurse, in 1968, with whom he had three children: Cristian Arturo (born 1969, deceased), Francisco Segundo (born 1971) and Francis Jackeline (born 1972).[3]

To his death, his body was escorted and glorified by Armed Forces of Honduras and laid to rest in the Santa Anita cemetery.[1]

His Chilean family just met his Honduran family in 2021 through a video call,[7] due to the fact that Díaz's granddaughter, Julieth Diaz, accidentally discovered an article on the internet about his grandfather and made contact with the author, Felipe Fernández.[3]

Honours[edit]

Coquimbo Unido

Legacy[edit]

Considered a historical player of Coquimbo Unido, the branch office in Valparaíso is called "Arturo Canilla Díaz".[3]

Since 2018, an initiative motivated by both Humberto Cuéllar, a well-known fan of Coquimbo Unido and TV panelist, and Mario "Loco" Rodríguez, a former goalkeeper and coach of Coquimbo Unido Academy, looks for honoring Díaz by naming a street or making a monument in Coquimbo.[8]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Fernández, Felipe (6 January 2021). "Con la fuerza y coraje del 'Canilla' Díaz". Asifuch (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2022.
  2. ^ "Las mejores anécdotas del popular Hernán Clavito Godoy en su carrera". Publimetro Chile (in Spanish). Publimetro. 7 February 2017. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Las familias del "Canilla" Díaz se unen después de 40 años". Diario El Día (in Spanish). El Día. 1 March 2021. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  4. ^ Espina, Eduardo (10 May 2007). "Chile 1962". RSSSF. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  5. ^ Chomsky (2 July 2018). "El Pocho Alfonso Morales" (in Spanish). La Tercera. Retrieved 11 August 2022.
  6. ^ Fotografía de la revista "Estadio" a los jugadores de Coquimbo Unido Corp. Coquimbo Unido Oficial (in Spanish)
  7. ^ @asifuch (March 1, 2021). "Compartimos la nota sobre la unión de las familias de Arturo 'Canilla' Díaz" (Tweet) (in Spanish). Retrieved 10 August 2022 – via Twitter.
  8. ^ "COQUIMBANOS EMBLEMÁTICOS SOLICITAN QUE UNA CALLE LLEVE EL NOMBRE DE ARTURO «CANILLA» DÍAZ". Diario La Región (in Spanish). 6 July 2018. Retrieved 11 August 2022.