Héctor Ramón Zelaya Rivera (born 12 August 1958) is a retired Honduran

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 ...

player.

Club career

Nicknamed ''Pecho de Águila'' (Eagle chest), he started as a forward but later played in defense or midfield for

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 ...

. He made his professional debut in the Honduran Liga Nacional on 7 March 1976 wearing the Motagua jersey in the 1–0 win against Campamento. Not to be confused with former Motagua teammate ''Héctor "Lin" Zelaya'', Zelaya also played for Spanish

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 ...

side

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

but an injury to his left knee prevented him from making an impact and he had to retire in 1983. He played his final game for Motagua against Universidad, aged only 24.

International career

Zelaya played three games for the Honduras U-20's at the 1977 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Tunisia. He then played in 7 World Cup qualifying matches in 1980 and 1981, taking Honduras to their first ever World Cup. He made history by scoring his country's first ever goal at a World Cup Finals Tournament, when he scored against hosts

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

at the

1982 FIFA World Cup The 1982 FIFA World Cup was the 12th FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial Association football, football tournament for men's senior national teams, and was played in Spain between 13 June and 11 July 1982. The tournament was won by Italy national foo ...

. He put

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 ...

1–0 up in

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

before Spain scored the equalizer.

Retirement

After his playing career came to a premature end, he worked 25 years in the coffee business of his wife's family. Also, he has been working for a children's football programme in Honduras called ''Fútbol para la vida''.

Personal life

Zelaya is married to journalist Marlen Perdomo and they have 4 children: Héctor, Iving, Alejandra and Marlen. “Pecho de Águila” (interview)
- La Tribuna

Honours and awards

Club

;C.D. Motagua *

Liga Profesional de Honduras Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga ...

(1): 1978–79

References

External links

El gol más "bonito" del mundo
La Tribuna
Un día muy especial
- ESPN

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zelaya, Hector 1958 births Living people People from Santa Bárbara Department, Honduras Men's association football defenders Honduran footballers Honduras men's international footballers 1982 FIFA World Cup players F.C. Motagua players Deportivo de La Coruña players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Honduran expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain Segunda División players