José Rafael Meza

José Rafael Meza Ivancovich (6 July 1920 – 15 July 1988), better known as Fello Meza, was a Costa Rican footballer who represented the Costa Rica national football team between 1941 and 1951, scoring eleven goals in seven games. Regarded as one of the greatest Costa Rican footballers of all time, Meza scored over three hundred goals in a twenty-year career.

Early and personal life Meza was born in Cartago, Costa Rica, to Rafaela Ivankovich Fernández, whose godparents were the parents of Costa Rican president Francisco Orlich Bolmarcich, and Francisco Meza Garci. His maternal grandparents were Nicolás Ivankovich Trojanovich, a Croat-Yugoslavian immigrant who arrived in Costa Rica in 1874, and Costa Rican Camila Fernández Ruíz. He married Lidia Montoya in 1941, and the pair had twelve children.

He was the fifth of seven siblings, including fellow footballer Jaime Meza, who played alongside him in Costa Rica and Mexico.

Club career Early career in Costa Rica Meza took an interest in football from a young age, after his father brought him a football at the age of five. His last season in Mexico was spent with Moctezuma, scoring nineteen times.

Later playing career Meza moved to Colombia for the 1950 season, joining the University of Bogotá side that featured seven other Costa Ricans. Having suffered a serious knee injury, he only managed to play in eight official games, scoring eight goals.

Having returned to Costa Rica to recover from the injury, he re-joined boyhood club Cartaginés as a player-coach. He briefly moved to Honduras with Aduana de Tela, in a technical director role, helping the side win the 1952 Honduran Amateur League. Another season with Cartaginés followed, before another stint as coach of Aduana de Tela - though he did feature in an international match against Marianao de Cuba, scoring once, after the crowd insisted he play.

After a final season with Cartaginés in 1955, he joined Herediano, playing his final game for the club in a friendly on 6 January 1957 against Austrian side Rapid Wien, notching either four or five assists in either a 7–2 or 7–0 win, according to different sources. Following his retirement, Cartaginés renamed their stadium in his honour, and he played for ten minutes in a friendly against Uruguayan side Liverpool in 1973, making an assist for Leonel Hernández in the 2–2 draw.

International career Meza first featured for Costa Rica at the 1941 CCCF Championship, hosted in San José, Costa Rica, where he finished top scorer with five goals and three goals against Panama and Curaçao, respectively. His next call up for the national team came ten years later, in the same competition, though he did not feature as his brother, Jaime, finished as one of the top scorers. Due to disciplinary issues, Meza, along with other members of the squad, was banned from the national team for two years, signalling an end to his international career.

Death Meza died at the age of sixty-eight on 15 July 1988 in San José.

Career statistics

International

International goals Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Costa Rica goal.