Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

is one of the sports played at the

Central American and Caribbean Games The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for countries in Cent ...

, a quadrennial multi-sports event for countries in those regions. The Games can involve eligible national teams from two football confederations,

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football,, ; french: Confédération de football d'Amérique du Nord, d'Amérique centrale et des Caraïbes, . Dutch uses the English name. abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typese ...

and

CONMEBOL The South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL, , or CSF; es, Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol; pt, Confederação Sul-Americana de Futebol) is the continental governing body of football in South America (apart from Guyana, Suri ...

. A men's tournament was first held in the second edition of the Games in 1930. The first women's event was held in 2010. In 2010, only a women's tournament was played, but both men's and women's events have been held in subsequent editions. The women's tournament is for senior national women's teams. The following is a summary of the football championships at the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Tournament history

Source

Men's tournament

The men's tournament has changed several times regarding player eligibility. In the first men's tournaments, full senior squads competed, but now the men's tournament is only for under-20 teams. In full: * Football at the 1930 Central American and Caribbean Games, 1930–

1946 Events January * January 6 - The 1946 North Vietnamese parliamentary election, first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into f ...

: Full senior squads * 1950–

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

: Amateur squads *

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

: Under-23 squads * 1993-now: Under-20 squads

Men's medallists

Women's tournament

The women's tournament is for senior national teams, and was established at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games.

Women's medallists

Medal count

Men's

All-time top goalscorers (until 1974)

Hat-tricks (until 1974)

Since the first official tournament in Football at the 1930 Central American and Caribbean Games, 1930 until the edition in

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

, 40 hat-tricks have been scored in over 100 matches of the 11 editions of the tournament in-between that period. The first hat-trick was scored by

Rafael Madrigal Rafael may refer to: * Rafael (given name) or Raphael, a name of Hebrew origin * Rafael, California * Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, Israeli manufacturer of weapons and military technology * Hurricane Rafael, a 2012 hurricane Fiction * ''R ...

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 ...

, playing 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 ...

on 17 March 1930; and the last was by

Martín Zúñiga Martin Roberto Zúñiga Hernandez (born 6 August 1970), better known as "El Pulpo" Zúñiga (The Octopus), is a Mexican professional soccer game analyst, sports anchor and former Major League Soccer goalkeeper. He is most recognized for his invol ...

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 ...

, playing against

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 22 November 2014. The record number of hat-tricks in a single Central American and Caribbean Games is ten, during the 1946 edition. The only player to have scored three hat-tricks is Costa Rica's

Hernán Bolaños Hernán Bolaños Ulloa (March 20, 1912 – May 9, 1992) was a Nicaraguan-Costa Rican footballer. He was born in Granada, Nicaragua. Club career He joined Alajuelense in 1930 and played for Audax Italiano, Universidad de Chile and Universida ...

, one in the inaugural edition in 1930 and two in

1938 Events January * January 1 ** The Constitution of Estonia#Third Constitution (de facto 1938–1940, de jure 1938–1992), new constitution of Estonia enters into force, which many consider to be the ending of the Era of Silence and the a ...

, in which he was the top goal scorer with 10 goals. He is closely followed by

Hilario López Hilario López García (18 November 1907 – 17 June 1965) was a Mexican football forward who made three appearances for the Mexico at the 1930 FIFA World Cup. Honours International * Central American and Caribbean Games Gold Medal (1): 1935 ...

Emmanuel Amador Immanuel ( he, עִמָּנוּאֵל, 'Īmmānū'ēl, meaning, "God is with us"; also romanized: , ; and or in Koine Greek of the New Testament) is a Hebrew name that appears in the Book of Isaiah (7:14) as a sign that God will protect the ...

, Gonzalo Fernández,

José Verdecia José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced ...

and Francisco Piedra with two hat-tricks each. The record for the most goals scored in a single Central American and Caribbean Game is 7, which has been achieved once: by

Maximiliano Juliana Maximiliano is a masculine name of Latin origin, with its derivation from the Latin word "Maximum", which literally translates to "greatest". In fact, as a byproduct of imperialism, the name has become very common in Latin America and rivals that o ...

when he scored 7 for

Netherlands Antilles nl, In vrijheid verenigd"Unified by freedom" , national_anthem = , common_languages = Dutch English Papiamento , demonym = Netherlands Antillean , capital = Willemstad , year_start = 1954 , year_end = 2010 , date_start = 15 December , ...

in a 14-0 win over

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

. Puerto Rico also holds the record for most hat-tricks conceded with 15, with the next closest being

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...

and Guatemala with 6. On the other hand, Costa Rica holds the record for most hat-tricks scored with 11, with the next closest being

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

with 7.

List

Footnotes

:A. Final stage was a round-robin group. :B. The Colombian football team were awarded bronze medals in spite of having been thrown out of the tournament.

References

{{International football

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 ...

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...