Armando Javier Dely Valdés (5 January 1964 – 17 August 2004) was a Panamanian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He was the elder brother of the twins Julio Dely Valdés and Jorge Dely Valdés.

Club career

He started his playing career with Técnica y Deportes in Panama. In 1983, he was signed by Argentinos Juniors and went on to win a number of major titles with the club. They were back-to-back league champions in the Metropolitano 1984 and the

Nacional Nacional, the Portuguese and Spanish word for "national", may refer to: Airlines * Nacional Transportes Aéreos, a Brazilian airline defunct in 2002 * Transportes Aéreos Nacional, a Brazilian airline defunct in 1961 Bank * Banco Nacional, a ...

1985. They went on to win the

Copa Libertadores The CONMEBOL Libertadores, also known as the Copa Libertadores de América ( pt, Copa Libertadores da América), is an annual international club football competition organized by CONMEBOL since 1960. It is the highest level of competition in S ...

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a ...

and the 1985 Copa Interamericana, and played in the Copa Intercontinental against

Juventus Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...

of Italy.Pele Dely, un colonense que reinó en Argentina
- Somos Lasele Nicknamed ''Pelé'', Dely Valdés left Argentinos Juniors for another Argentine team, Instituto de Córdoba. He went on to play for San Martín de Tucumán in Argentina, Maccabi Tel Aviv and

Beitar Tel Aviv Beitar Tel Aviv Football Club (Hebrew: מועדון כדורגל בית"ר תל אביב) was an Israeli football club based from Tel Aviv. The club merged in 2000 with Shimshon Tel Aviv to create Beitar Shimshon Tel Aviv,Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, Peñarol and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Uruguay Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering ...

International career

Dely Valdés represented his country in 4

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 His final international was a December

1995 UNCAF Nations Cup Six national football teams from Central America competed in the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup (''Copa Centroamericana''). The winning team was Honduras, defeating Guatemala in the final. Squads Preliminary round Stadium First round Group A ' ...

match against

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

Retirement and death

After retiring as a player he worked as the assistant manager of the Panama national team between 1996 and 2001 and became the coach of the Panama Under-20 team in 2001. He also managed

Plaza Amador Plaza Amador is a Panamanian football club based in Panama City, that currently plays in Liga Panameña de Fútbol. It is the oldest team in Panama. History C.D Plaza Amador was founded in 1955 by Panamanian sports legend León Cocoliso Tejada ...

and Árabe Unido. On May 29, 2001, Daly Valdés suffered a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

which left him in a coma from which he never recovered. He was left in a

permanent vegetative state A persistent vegetative state (PVS) or post-coma unresponsiveness (PCU) is a disorder of consciousness in which patients with severe brain damage are in a state of partial arousal rather than true awareness. After four weeks in a vegetative st ...

in which he suffered

sepsis Sepsis, formerly known as septicemia (septicaemia in British English) or blood poisoning, is a life-threatening condition that arises when the body's response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs. This initial stage is follo ...

and lung infections amongst other complications. He died in the Manuel Amador Guerrero Hospital in Colón in 2004."Murió Armando Dely Valdéz, jugador de Argentinos Jrs., hermano mayor de Julio César y Jorge Dely Valdéz"
- ''Mediotiempo'' After his death, the Panamanian Football Federation renamed the Árabe Unido football stadium to

Estadio Armando Dely Valdés Estadio Armando Dely Valdés is a multi-purpose stadium in Colón, Panama. It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of CD Árabe Unido The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format th ...

Honours

Club

;Argentinos Juniors * Primera División Argentina:

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast A ...

References

External links

*
''Clarín'' obituary

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dely Valdes, Armando 1964 births 2004 deaths Sportspeople from Colón, Panama Men's association football forwards Panamanian men's footballers Panama men's international footballers C.D. Árabe Unido players Argentinos Juniors footballers Instituto Atlético Central Córdoba footballers San Martín de Tucumán footballers Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. players Beitar Tel Aviv F.C. players Peñarol players Liverpool F.C. (Montevideo) players C.D. Plaza Amador players Panamanian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Argentina Expatriate men's footballers in Uruguay Expatriate men's footballers in Israel Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Argentina Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Israel Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Uruguay Argentine Primera División players 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players