Fidel Escobar Mendieta (born 9 January 1995) is a Panamanian professional

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 plays as a

centre-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

for

Liga FPD The Primera División of Costa Rica, commonly known as Fútbol de Primera División (FPD), and Liga Promerica for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional association football division in Costa Rica. It is administered by the Unión de Clubes ...

club

Saprissa Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...

and the Panama national team.

Club career

San Francisco

Born 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 ...

, Escobar graduated from

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

's youth setup, and made his senior debut during the 2012–13 campaign, aged only 18. During the next season he established himself as a first team regular making 14 starts and scoring one goal. On 26 October 2013, Escobar scored his first goal for ''Los Monjes'' in a 2–0 victory over Chorrillo.

Sporting San Miguelito

After impressing with San Francisco, Escobar was signed by

Sporting San Miguelito Academia de Futbol Sporting San Miguelito is a Panamanian professional football team playing in Liga Panameña de Fútbol (the highest level of Panamanian football). Founded in 1989, it is based in San Miguelito District of Panamá Province. Hi ...

for the 2014 Clausura season. He made 14 appearances scoring one goal in his first season at the club. On 16 March 2014, Escobar scored his first goal with San Miguelito in a 2–2 draw with Alianza. In his two and a half seasons with the club Escobar made 65 league appearances scoring six goals.

Sporting B (loan)

As a result of his impressive play with his club and at the Under-20 World Cup Escobar received the attention of European clubs. During July 2016, Escobar was sent on loan with an option to buy to

Sporting Clube de Portugal Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional fo ...

's reserve side

Sporting B Sporting Clube de Portugal B is the reserve team of Portuguese football club Sporting CP, a team based in Lisbon. Reserve teams in Portugal play in the same league system as the senior team, rather than in a reserve team league. However, they cann ...

. Escobar made his debut for Sporting B on 6 August 2016 playing the entire match in a 1–2 loss to

Portimonense S.C. Portimonense Sporting Clube is a Portuguese sports club based in Portimão. Founded on 14 August 1914, it is most notable for its professional association football, football team, which currently plays in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portu ...

In January 2017, Escobar attempted to terminate his contract with Sporting in search of other opportunities and was threatened with legal action by the Portuguese side. Escobar eventually apologized to the club and was reinstated for the second half of the season. He made his return to the side on 15 April 2017, starting in a 2–0 victory over

União da Madeira União is the Portuguese word for Union. It may refer to: *the Brazilian federal government *União do Vegetal, a church known for its usage of Hoasca as tea * Brazilian frigate ''União'' (F45), a general-purpose ''Niterói'' class frigate launc ...

New York Red Bulls (loan)

On 27 July 2017 it was announced that Escobar was joining

New York Red Bulls The New York Red Bulls are an American professional soccer club based in the New York metropolitan area. The Red Bulls compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The club was established in October 1994 and be ...

on an 18-month loan. For his play on 10 March 2018, in which he helped lead New York to a 4–0 victory over

Portland Timbers The Portland Timbers are an American professional men's soccer club based in Portland, Oregon. The Timbers compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The Timbers have played their home games at P ...

in the team's first league match of the season, Escobar was named to the Starting XI for Major League Soccer's Team of the Week. Escobar was loaned to affiliate side

New York Red Bulls II New York Red Bulls II is an American professional soccer team based in Montclair, New Jersey. They are the reserve team of the New York Red Bulls and play in MLS Next Pro, the third tier in the American soccer pyramid. History Red Bull New Yo ...

of the

United Soccer League United Soccer League (USL), formerly known as United Soccer Leagues, is a Association football, soccer league in the United States and Canada. It organizes several men's and women's leagues, both professional and amateur. Men's leagues curren ...

for the match against

Tampa Bay Rowdies The Tampa Bay Rowdies are an American professional Association football, soccer team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The club was founded in 2008 and first took the pitch in 2010. Since 2017, the Rowdies have been members of the USL Champions ...

on 14 April 2018. He opened the scoring for New York in the 5–0 victory. Escobar's loan was not extended by the Red Bulls at the end of their 2018 season.

Córdoba (loan)

On 10 July 2019, after a six-month spell at

Correcaminos UAT Club de Fútbol Correcaminos de la Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, simply known as Correcaminos UAT, is a Mexican professional football club based in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas. It currently plays in the Liga de Expansión MX. The team wa ...

, Escobar joined Spanish

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

side

Córdoba CF Córdoba Club de Fútbol (), (from the 2020–21 season onwards competing under the umbrella of Unión Futbolística Cordobesa, S.A.D.) is a Spanish football club based in Córdoba, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1951 as ...

on loan for one year.

Alcorcón

On 28 July 2020, Escobar agreed to a three-year contract with

AD Alcorcón Agrupación Deportiva Alcorcón S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Alcorcón, in the autonomous community of Madrid. Founded in 1971, it currently plays in Primera Federación – Group 1, holding home matches at the Municipal de Santo ...

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

. On 31 January 2022, he was loaned to

Primera División RFEF Primera may refer to * Nissan Primera, a car * Primera Air, a former airline * Primera división (disambiguation), multiple top division football leagues * Primera, Texas, a town in Cameron County, Texas * Alí Primera, Venezuelan musician, compos ...

side

Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa (), better known as Cultural Leonesa or La Cultural, is a Spanish football team based in León, in the autonomous community of Castile and Leon. Founded on 5 August 1923, it currently plays in Primera División RFE ...

International career

Escobar played at the

2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2015 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the twentieth edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup since its inception in 1977 as the FIFA World Youth Championship. The competition took place for the first time in New Zealand, the third time on Oceanian soil after ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. He made his debut in the competition on 30 May 2015 scoring an 84th-minute equalizer in a 2–2 draw against heavily favored side

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

. Escobar made his senior debut for

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 ...

in a February 2015

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 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 ...

. In May 2018 he was named in Panama's preliminary 35 man

squad In military terminology, a squad is among the smallest of military organizations and is led by a non-commissioned officer. NATO and US doctrine define a squad as an organization "larger than a team, but smaller than a section." while US Army do ...

for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national Association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awa ...

in Russia, and played all three matches in an eventual group-stage exit.

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

:''Scores and results list Panama's goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

MLS Supporters' Shield The Supporters' Shield is an annual award given to the Major League Soccer team with the best regular season record, as determined by the MLS points system. The Supporters' Shield has been annually awarded at the MLS Supporters' Summit since 1 ...

(1):

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

International

;Panama U20 Runners-up *

CONCACAF U-20 Championship The CONCACAF Under-20 Championship is the second longest running international association football event in the North America, Central America and the Caribbean region, CONCACAF, and is the qualification tournament for the FIFA U-20 World Cup. ...

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Escobar, Fidel 1995 births Living people Sportspeople from Panama City Panamanian footballers Men's association football defenders Liga Panameña de Fútbol players San Francisco F.C. players Sporting San Miguelito players Liga Portugal 2 players Sporting CP B players Major League Soccer players USL Championship players New York Red Bulls players New York Red Bulls II players Correcaminos UAT footballers Segunda División players Segunda División B players Córdoba CF players AD Alcorcón footballers Cultural y Deportiva Leonesa players Footballers at the 2015 Pan American Games Copa América Centenario players 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2018 FIFA World Cup players 2019 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Panama international footballers Panamanian expatriate footballers Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Spain Pan American Games competitors for Panama