Dunga joins the Football Hall of Fame in Mexico, Tita honoured | OneFootball

The Brazilian Dunga, the Colombian René Higuita, and the Spaniard Iker Casillas led the thirteenth induction ceremony of 18 new figures into the International Football Hall of Fame, held on Tuesday night in Pachuca (Mexico).

Dunga recalls his beginnings in Mexico

Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri “Dunga”, World Cup champion with Brazil in 1994, expressed his gratitude: “It is a very special day to be part of the legends of football. It is a pleasure to return to Mexico, where I began my story with the Brazilian national team in 1983, when we won the U-20 World Cup.”

Higuita celebrates the honor

Higuita added: “Disbelief overwhelms me to be in a place where there are already figures like Beckham, Beckenbauer, Hugo Sánchez, Maradona, Zico, Javier Aguirre, Cruyff, Valdano, Platini, Pelé, and Zidane, among others.”

Casillas praises the moment

Iker Casillas, European and World champion with Spain, highlighted: “This induction is very important to me. I don’t know if I will be the youngest of all the illustrious legends here, but it is a great honor to share this with all of them.”

Forlán, Koeman, and Lineker also inducted

Also included were the former Uruguayan striker Diego Forlán, Copa América champion (2011) and best player of the 2010 World Cup; former Dutch defender Ronald Koeman, winner of the Champions League with Barcelona (1992) and the Euro Cup with the Netherlands (1988); and English striker Gary Lineker, top scorer of the 1986 Mexico World Cup.

National category in Mexico

The national category included five Mexican World Cup players: midfielders Miguel España (1986), Ignacio Ambriz (1994), and Gerardo Torrado (2002, 2006, and 2010), as well as forwards Luis Flores (1986) and Juan Francisco Palencia (1998 and 2002).

Brazilian Tita receives tribute

In this national section, former Brazilian midfielder Milton Queiroz “Tita” was included, one of the historic figures of León, with whom he won a league championship. The former Flamengo and Vasco player also won the Copa América (1989) with Brazil and the Copa Libertadores on two occasions: with the Rio de Janeiro club (1981) and Grêmio (1983).

Veterans: Pirri and Ubaldo Fillol

The thirteenth class of inductees included two veterans of national football and two international ones.

The two national veterans were top-scoring forwards in local football: Mexican Bernardo Hernández for Atlante (1967-1968) and Chilean Osvaldo “Pata Bendita” Castro for América (1973-1974).

The international veterans are Pirri, the former Spanish midfielder highly decorated with Real Madrid, and the legendary former Argentine goalkeeper Ubaldo Fillol, world champion with Argentina (1978).

Women’s football: two inductees

Women’s football saw two inductees: Guadalupe Tovar, captain of the Mexican national team, runners-up at the 1971 World Cup, and the legendary Abby Wambach, top scorer for the United States, with whom she won the World Cup (2015) and Olympic gold in Athens 2004 and London 2012.

About the Hall of Fame

The International Football Hall of Fame was inaugurated in 2011 in Pachuca and is endorsed by FIFA.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.