Álvaro Mesén Murillo (born December 24, 1972) is a retired Costa Rican footballer.
Upon club legend Alejandro González Rojas's retirement in September 1990, then-sixteen years old Álvaro Mesén was called upon to the Alajuelense senior team to backfill the third-choice goalkeeper position, behind the more experienced pair of Desiderio Calvo and Paul Mayorga; however upon the signing of former Herediano goalkeeper José Alexis Rojas in early 1991, Mesén was sent back to the youth teams.
Rojas's signing had the purpose of adding experience to Alajuelense's door, which was lacking upon González's retirement as Mayorga and Calvo only started a handful of games in the past two seasons, and neither one of them could keep the other's faults in check.
Mesén eventually became an understudy to Rojas who was the first-choice goalkeeper, and rose to first-choice keeper himself ahead of the 1997-98 season, when Rojas's career ended at Alajuelense as a result of being on the receiving end of an eight-match ban (as he was involved in a post-match brawl after a match against Saprissa in June 1997--Mesén also was involved in said brawl but received a minor ban), causing the Alajuelense's Board of Directors to show him the door as Rojas was going to be unavailable for six matches (having served two on the 1996-97 season's finals).
[5] Mesén made his debut for Costa Rica in a November 1999 friendly match against Slovakia[2] and earned a total of 38 caps, scoring no goals.