Oscar Emilio Rojas Ruiz (born April 27, 1979 in

San José San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to: *San Jose, California, United States *San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital San José or San Jose may also refer to: Places Argentina * San José, Buenos Aires ** San ...

) is a Costa Rican-Mexican naturalized

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

or forward, who last played for

Municipal Grecia Municipal Grecia is an association football club based in Grecia, Costa Rica. Founded in 1998, the club will make their debut in the Liga FPD after being promoted from the Liga de Ascenso. The team plays in the Estadio Allen Riggioni. History I ...

Club career

Rojas made his professional debut in 1999 for Carmelita before moving abroad to play in the Primera División with

La Piedad La Piedad is a municipality located at in the north-west of the Mexican state of Michoacán, bordering Jalisco and Guanajuato. The municipal seat is the town of La Piedad de Cabadas. The original colonial name was San Sebastián. It is bordered ...

in the 2001 Invierno. He had a stint at second division Tigrillos de Nuevo León and has also played for Irapuato. He made his return to the Primera División in 2004, joining Dorados for the 2004 Apertura. He was a mainstay in midfield with the team, starting 16 of 17 games, and scoring three goals. Rojas subsequently moved to

Veracruz Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...

in summer 2005 and Jaguares Chiapas in 2006. He remained with until the end of 2008, helping the club reach the playoff series twice. He left them for a brief spell at Morelia, then dropped into the second division to play for Mérida, Indios and Toros Neza before returning to Costa Rica with

Herediano Club Sport Herediano (), commonly known as Herediano and nicknamed El Team, is a Costa Rican multisport club based in Heredia, Heredia province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Herediano is mostly known for its association ...

ahead of the 2012 Verano championship.

Return to Mexico

In summer 2012, Rojas returned to La Piedad,Óscar Rojas regresa al futbol de México con La Piedad
- Nación with the club being relocated to Veracruz and recalled Tiburones Rojos. His debut was postponed when Morelia, who still owed him, did not immediately agree on the transfer. He left the club in summer 2013 after they told him he did not fit in their plans after winning promotion to Mexico's top tier. After a few months out of a club, he joined another Mexican second division side, Estudiantes Altamira.

International career

Óscar Rojas made his debut for

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

in a 1–0 World Cup qualification victory over

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

on November 11, 2001 and earned a total of 28 caps, scoring 1 goal. He represented his country in 9

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches and appeared at the

2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the sixth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Miami and Pasadena. The format ...

, but missed out on the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams organized by ...

as one of the last cuts by national coach Alexandre Guimaraes. Absent from the national team for three years, he returned to the selection in 2005, first under

Jorge Luis Pinto Jorge Luis Pinto Afanador (born 16 December 1952) is a Colombian football manager. He is the current manager of Categoría Primera A club Deportivo Cali. Managing career Pinto managed several teams in Colombia, including Santa Fe and Unión ...

and then under the reappointed Guimaraes and he played at the

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious ...

. Again, however, he was not chosen for the World Cup squad in

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

. His first international goal came against

Peru national football team The Peru national football team represents Peru in men's international football. The national team has been organised, since 1927, by the Peruvian Football Federation (FPF). The FPF constitutes one of the ten members of FIFA's South American ...

on August 22, 2007. He announced his retirement from the national team on April 10, 2009. However, he was once again selected by Pinto for a match against Jamaica on March 21, 2012, making his return to the national team just weeks before his thirty-third birthday. His final international was a September 2012

match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list Costa Rica's goal tally first.''

Personal life

Rojas is married to Jessica Tencio and they were expecting their fourth child in October 2014.Óscar Rojas espera su cuarto ‘chavito’
- Al Día

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rojas, Oscar 1979 births Living people Footballers from San José, Costa Rica Men's association football midfielders Costa Rican men's footballers Costa Rica men's international footballers 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players A.D. Carmelita footballers C.D. Irapuato footballers Dorados de Sinaloa footballers C.D. Veracruz footballers Chiapas F.C. footballers Atlético Morelia players Venados F.C. players Indios de Ciudad Juárez footballers Toros Neza footballers C.S. Herediano footballers Liga MX players Municipal Grecia players Costa Rican expatriate men's footballers Costa Rican emigrants to Mexico