Diego Armando Mejía Pérez (born June 20, 1982 in

San Salvador San Salvador (; ) is the capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its eponymous department. It is the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center. The Metropolitan Area of San Salvador, which comprises the capital i ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

) is a retired Salvadoran

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 ...

Club career

Mejía came through the Chelona youth academy and had a couple of seasons at Alianza before moving abroad to play for Honduran giants

F.C. Motagua Club de Fútbol Motagua (), formerly Club Deportivo Motagua up to 2017, is an association football club, located in Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. F.C. Motagua was founded as ''Club Deportivo Motagua'' on 29 August 1928. The club competes ...

. After six months he returned to El Salvador to play for

Once Municipal Club Deportivo Once Municipal was a Salvadoran football team from Ahuachapán that last competed in the Primera División, the premier division of Football in El Salvador, in 2018. It was nicknamed "''The Canarian Tank"'', and its home stadium ...

and

San Salvador F.C. San Salvador Fútbol Club was a professional association football, football club located in San Salvador, El Salvador that participated in Salvadoran Primera División, Primera División de Fútbol Profesional from 2002 to 2008. The club played i ...

In 2007, he joined Mexican side Cobras. In December 2007, that was reported that Mejía would make a comeback to football after a year long injury had prevented him from taking part in competitive games at any level. He impressed during trials at both

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

side Carolina RailHawks, and USL Second Division side Real Maryland in the early part of 2008, but ultimately decided to sign with the

PDL PDL is an initialism for: Politics *Democratic Liberal Party (Romania), Democratic Liberal Party (''Partidul Democrat Liberal''), a former political party in Romania *Labour Democratic Party (''Partito Democratico del Lavoro''), a former politi ...

team,

Southern California Seahorses Southern California Seahorses are an American soccer team based in La Mirada, California. Founded in 2001, the team plays in USL League Two, the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The team plays its home games in the stadium on the camp ...

in the fourth division

Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental association football, soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United Stat ...

. He scored three goals in 11 games for them.

International career

With the El Salvador U-21 team, Mejía won the 2002 Central American and Caribbean Games. He made his senior debut for

in a March 2001

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, a scrimmage, a demonstration, a preseason game, a warmup match, or a preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the player's or ...

against

Panama Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Cos ...

and has earned a total of 19 caps, scoring 3 goals. He has represented his country in 3

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 played at the

2003 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2003 UNCAF Nations Cup was an association football tournament. It was held in two venues in Panama in February 2003, and was played in a Round-robin tournament, round robin tournament, each of the 6 teams playing each other once. Costa Rica ...

as well as at the

2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the seventh edition of the Gold Cup, the association football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). For the first time since 1993, the tournament was held in more than one c ...

. His final international game was a September 2004 World Cup qualification match against the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list El Salvador's goal tally first.''

Post football

Mejía is now an athletic director in one of three

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

schools in Mexico, in the Chihuahua state.

References

External links

* 1982 births Living people Footballers from San Salvador Men's association football forwards Salvadoran men's footballers El Salvador men's international footballers 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Alianza F.C. footballers F.C. Motagua players C.D. Once Municipal footballers San Salvador F.C. footballers Southern California Seahorses players Salvadoran expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Honduras Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players USL League Two players {{ElSalvador-footy-bio-stub