Juan Carlos García Barahona (8 March 1988 – 8 January 2018) was a Honduran 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 played as a

left-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 ...

. He began his career at Marathón and later went on to Olimpia. He signed for

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

in 2013, where he made one appearance in the

Football League Cup The EFL Cup (referred to historically, and colloquially, as the League Cup), currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual knockout competition and major trophy in men's domestic football in England. Organised by the ...

. He also had a loan spell at

Tenerife Tenerife (; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands. It is home to 43% of the total population of the archipelago. With a land area of and a population of 978,100 inhabitants as of Janu ...

in which he did not play a match. A full international from 2009 to 2014. García earned 39 caps for

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 ...

. He was included in their squads for three

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 ...

s and the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for men's national football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil from 12 June to 13 July 2014, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Club career

Marathón

García came through the youth ranks of and started his senior career with C.D. Marathón.

Olimpia

On 12 July 2010, it was announced García would move on a free transfer to CD Olimpia. He made his first appearance for the club in the

Liga Nacional de Fútbol 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 ...

against

Hispano The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

in a 2–0 victory. García was heavily criticized by the club's followers in the two finals of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras in which he played. On 11 December 2010, in the second leg final against

Real España Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (2010) ...

in the

Apertura The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is div ...

, Juan Carlos García was sent off in the 78th minute of the game after head butting Mario Martinez, which led to

winning 2–1 in extra time. On 15 May 2010, in the second leg final against CD Olimpia in the

Clausura The ' and ' tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is div ...

Amado Guevara Amado Guevara (born 2 May 1976) is a Honduran former professional footballer and manager. He was the coach of Puerto Rico from 2018 to 2019. A former midfielder, he is the second all-time cap leader for the Honduras national team seconded by Ma ...

had at shot at goal from outside of the area deflected by Juan Carlos García with a header that ended up in his own goal, which meant

Motagua The Motagua River () is a river in Guatemala. It rises in the western highlands of Guatemala where it is also called Río Grande, and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The final few kilometres of the river form part of the ...

won the championship with a 3–1 victory.

Wigan Athletic

On 26 July 2013, García signed a three-year contract with Wigan Athletic. He made his debut for the club on 24 September, starting in a 5–0 away defeat in a

third round match against

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The tw ...

. García made no further appearances that season, his only time named in the matchday squad was as a substitute was for a

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

match on 6 October, a 2–1 home win over

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club, based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second tier of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. T ...

. On 10 August 2014 García moved to 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

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

, on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

-long loan. Two weeks later he was included in a matchday squad for the only time, a 1–0 defeat away to

SD Ponferradina Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 7 June 1922, it plays in Segunda División, holding home matches at the ...

on the opening day. He returned to Wigan on 8 January 2015, after making no appearances for the club. He was released by Wigan at the end of the 2015–16 season and subsequently retired.

International career

García made his debut for

in a July

2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the tenth edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the twentieth soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was played from July 3 to 26, 2009 in the United States ...

match against

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

, coming on as a sub for

Carlos Palacios Carlos Palacios may refer to: * Carlos Palacios (Honduran footballer) (born 1982) * Carlos Palacios (Chilean footballer) (born 2000) {{hndis, Palacios, Carlos ...

. He also represented his country in 4

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 played at the

2011 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2011 Copa Centroamericana ( en, 2011 Central American Cup) was the eleventh edition of Copa Centroamericana (formerly known as the UNCAF Nations Cup), an international football championship for national teams affiliated with the Central Amer ...

, as well as at the

and

2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the 21st CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's 50 years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition started on June ...

s. On 3 June 2011, García was included by

Luis Fernando Suárez Luis Fernando Suárez Guzmán (born 23 December 1959) is a Colombian football manager and former player who played as a defender. He is the current manager of the Costa Rica national football team. Suárez has managed in six Latin American c ...

in Honduras' 23-man squad for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup due to an injury to defender

Emilio Izaguirre Emilio Arturo Izaguirre Girón (; born 10 May 1986) is a Honduran former professional association football, footballer who played as a left-back. He became the new sporting director of Motagua in October 2022. Izaguirre started his career at F. ...

. On 6 February 2013, Garcia scored his lone international goal, a

bicycle kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick, scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before d ...

to equalise in a 2–1 home win 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 ...

during World Cup qualifying. It was the first time in 24 years that the United States had lost their first game of a World Cup qualification campaign. He made one appearance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as Honduras exited in the group stage, replacing Izaguirre at half time in a 2–1 defeat to

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

on 21 June.

International goals

Illness and death

On 16 February 2015, it was announced that García had been diagnosed with

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

. He died on 8 January 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Juan Carlos 1988 births 2018 deaths People from Tela Men's association football defenders Honduran men's footballers Honduras men's international footballers 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2014 FIFA World Cup players C.D. Marathón players C.D. Olimpia players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Wigan Athletic F.C. players CD Tenerife players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in England Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in Honduras