The Estadio Olímpico Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez, named after the Panamanian football star

Rommel Fernández Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez (15 January 1966 – 6 May 1993) was a Panamanian footballer who played as a striker. The second Panamanian to play in Europe, he spent almost his entire professional career in Spain, amassing La Liga totals of 104 ...

(1966–1993), is a multi-purpose stadium in

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

. It is used for different sports, but mainly

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 ...

(soccer) games. It was inaugurated February 6, 1970, and was designed to accommodate the XI Central American and Caribbean Games in 1970. Through further reforms, the stadium reached its current capacity of 32,000 spectators all seated, the largest stadium in Panama. It is part of Sports City

Irving Saladino Irving Jahir Saladino Aranda (born January 23, 1983) is a Panamanian former long jumper. He was Olympic champion, having won at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and is Panama's first and only Olympic gold medalist. He was world champion in the long j ...

History

Early history

On April 4, 1976, it marked the debut of the Panamanian national team to make the run to the

1978 FIFA World Cup The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June. The Cup was won by t ...

in Argentina. In Estadio Revolución, they took on Costa Rica and won surprisingly 3–2, with two goals from Agustin Sanchez and one from Luis Tapia. The most memorable ANAPROF match was the final match played in the stadium in 1996, when more than 25,000 fans watched San Francisco F.C. take on

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 ...

. The original name of the stadium was Estadio Revolución (meaning "Revolution Stadium"), but in 1993, it changed its name to Estadio Rommel Fernández in honour of Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez, a Panamanian soccer player who died in a car accident in

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-ea ...

, Spain, on May 6 of that year. At that time, the stadium had a capacity of 22,000. The stadium is often used by LPF, Liga Panameña de Futbol.

Recent history

In 2009, the stadium was totally renovated; its shape and facade were changed completely, more seats were installed as well as a new giant screen and a new athletics track, and it is fully air conditioned with modern equipment. It was the spearhead for IX Central American Sports Games 2010, in which the stadium was reopened in the opening ceremony of these games.

International Soccer Matches

References

External links

Football venues in Panama City Athletics (track and field) venues in Panama Multi-purpose stadiums in Panama American football venues in North America 1970 establishments in Panama Sports venues completed in 1970 {{Panama-sports-venue-stub