Jorge Alexander Rodas Hurtarte (born October 9, 1971) is a retired

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 ...

n professional

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 ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He last played for

Aurora F.C. Aurora Fútbol Club is a Guatemalan professional football club. They are based in Guatemala City and play their home matches in the Estadio Cementos Progreso. Once one of the most powerful teams in the country and a traditional rival of fellow ...

in the Guatemalan ''

Primera División 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 ...

'' as of the end of the 2007-08 season. Rodas was the first Guatemalan footballer to play in

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

, when he starred for San José Clash in 1996. He was also a member of the Guatemala national team. He is the younger brother of

Julio Rodas Julio Alberto Rodas Hurtarte (born 9 December 1966) is a retired Guatemalan professional football striker. Club career At the club level, Rodas started his professional career playing for Municipal. He then had a one-season stint in El Sa ...

, who was also a member of the national team.

Club career

Rodas began playing professionally for

Municipal A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, nest ...

, where he became first known for his abilities as a central midfielder and his shooting range. After winning the 1993-94 league tournament with Municipal, he signed with their arch-rival,

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, are a football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. The most popular and successful footba ...

, where he would be part of seven championship-winning squads.

Major League Soccer

In 1996, Rodas became the first Guatemalan to play professionally in the United States, when he was signed by San Jose Clash. He took the field in the first-ever Major League Soccer match on April 6. 1996, when The Clash beat

D.C. United D.C. United is a professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in the Eastern Conference of Major League Soccer, the top tier of American soccer. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Suppo ...

1-0 at home. Alongside players like

Eric Wynalda Eric Boswell Wynalda (born June 9, 1969) is an American soccer coach, television commentator, and retired player. He was formerly an analyst and color commentator for soccer coverage on Fox Sports 1 and ESPN. Previously, he served as head coach ...

, John Doyle, and

Eddie Lewis Edward Lewis may refer to: Politicians * Edward Lewis (Devizes MP) (1650–1674), British MP for Devizes, 1669–1674 * Edward Lewis (Radnor MP), British MP for Radnor, 1761–1768, 1769–1774 and 1775–1790 * Edward Parke Custis Lewis (1837–1 ...

, Rodas helped San Jose reach the MLS playoffs that year. He played in 29 matches, made three assists, and scored one goal on a

direct free kick A free kick is a method of restarting play in association football. It is awarded after an infringement of the laws by the opposing team. Direct and indirect free kicks Free kicks may be either direct or indirect, distinguished as follows: ...

against

New England Revolution The New England Revolution is an American professional soccer club based in the Greater Boston area that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Eastern Conference of the league. It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having compet ...

on August 11, catalogued in the ''San Jose Earthquakes 100 Greatest Goals''

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

as the team's second-best goal of the year. After the inaugural MLS season, Rodas was transferred back to Communicaciones in January 1997.

Later career

Rodas would stay at Comunicaciones until 2002, and after that he played briefly for

Xelajú MC Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is both the seat of the namesake Department and municipality, in Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It may ...

. Later, he joined

Deportivo Jalapa Jalapa was a Guatemalan professional football club that played in the '' Liga Nacional'', the top level division in the country. They were based in Jalapa, and their home stadium was the Estadio Las Flores. History The team was founded on Ju ...

, achieving further success by helping the team win the Domestic Cup in consecutive years in 2005 and 2006; he scored the only goal of a 1-0 win over Municipal in the 2006 final. He had other notable individual performances at Jalapa, among them scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

against

Deportivo Heredia Club Deportivo Heredia is a Guatemalan association football, football team that last played in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala. History Founded as ''Deportivo Heredia'' in 1958, the club has been based in San José, El Petén, San J ...

in a 3-2 win on which the team advanced to the semi-final of the 2005 apertura tournament. After his tenure with Jalapa ended in 2006, Rodas, aged 35, continued his career with a brief spell with ''Deportivo Mixco'' in the ''

''. For the 2007-08 season, he was signed by former top-division team

, which had been relegated to the ''

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 ...

'' the previous season. Aurora earned promotion back to the ''Primera División'' for the 2008–2009 season.

International career

Rodas made his debut for

in a May 1991

UNCAF Nations Cup The Copa Centroamericana (, Spanish for "Central American Cup") was the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ''Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol'' (UNCAF), the sport's Central Am ...

match against

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 ...

alongside his brother

Julio Julio is the Spanish equivalent of the month July and may refer to: *Julio (given name) *Julio (surname) *Júlio de Castilhos, a municipality of the western part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil * ''Julio'' (album), a 1983 compilation albu ...

. Jorge Rodas earned 38 overall caps, scoring four goals, and represented his country in 12

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 was part of the squads that competed at the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

tournaments of 1996 and 2000, and at the

of 1995, 1997, and 1999.UNCAF Tournament 1999
- RSSSF His final international was a January 2001 World Cup qualification match against

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 ...

International goals

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rodas, Jorge 1971 births Living people People from Jalapa Department Association football midfielders Guatemalan footballers Guatemalan expatriate footballers Guatemala international footballers C.S.D. Municipal players Comunicaciones F.C. players San Jose Earthquakes players Xelajú MC players Aurora F.C. players Major League Soccer players Guatemalan expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players