Mario Rafael Rodríguez Rodríguez (born September 14, 1981 in

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 ...

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 ...

) is a retired Guatemalan

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 has played for local club

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 ...

. Rodríguez has played locally also played for

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 ...

and 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 ...

for

Columbus Crew The Columbus Crew, formerly known as Columbus Crew SC, is an American professional soccer club based in Columbus, Ohio. The Crew competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference and began play in 1996 as one ...

. He was also a member of the Guatemala national team.

Club career

Rodríguez, nicknamed ''El Loco'' (Spanish for ''The Crazy Man''), started his career in Guatemala in 2002 with

, where he would remain until 2004. In February 2004 during the 211th clasico between longtime arch-rivals

and

, he collided with goalkeeper

Danny Ortiz Josué Danny Ortiz Maldonado (July 26, 1976 – February 29, 2004) was a Guatemalan football goalkeeper who played for the Guatemalan national team and CSD Municipal. Club career Ortíz played for both Guatemalan giants Comunicaciones and CSD ...

causing Ortiz to suffer a torn pericardium. Ortiz was taken to the Hospital Centro Médico where he died two hours later. In 2005, he joined

from Costa Rican side

Alajuelense Liga Deportiva Alajuelense (LDA, ), commonly known as Alajuelense and nicknamed La Liga (), is a Costa Rican multisport club based in the borough of El Llano, Alajuela, Alajuela province. Although they compete in a number of different sports, Ala ...

, and in 2006, he played for

Miami FC The Miami FC is an American professional soccer team based in Miami, Florida that competes in the USL Championship, the second tier of the American soccer pyramid. The club began play in the North American Soccer League (NASL) in the 2016 se ...

, and with 7 goals and 4 assists he was second in scoring for the club behind

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

ian forward

Romário Romário de Souza Faria Figueiredo (born 29 January 1966), known simply as Romário (), is a Brazilian politician and a former professional footballer. A prolific striker renowned for his clinical finishing, he scored over 750 goals and was ...

. He returned to Guatemala to play for

for the ''2007 Clausura''. He has been productive for Municipal. But despite being the top scorer on the team since joining, he hasn't always had the best relationship with Municipal fans because of his past with rivals Comunicaciones. In March 2009, Rodríguez almost signed with

Chunnam Dragons The Jeonnam Dragons (Korean: 전남 드래곤즈) are a South Korean professional football club based in the city of Gwangyang, South Jeolla Province that competes in the K League 2, the second tier of South Korean football. The Dragons play thei ...

from the Korean League, only for the deal to fail through at the second attempt.

International career

Rodríguez made his international debut in a January 2003 friendly 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 ...

and has since been capped over 70 times for his country. He represented his country in 19

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 as well as at the

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

and

2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the ninth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and was won by the United States over Mexico. It was contested in the United States from ...

s. In 2006, Rodríguez was recalled by Guatemala national coach

Hernán Darío Gómez Hernán Darío Gómez Jaramillo (; born 3 February 1956), also known as El Bolillo (; ''The Baton''), is a Colombian former football manager and former player who played as a defensive midfielder. Career He was an active player from 1966 to 198 ...

to play against

Haiti Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...

. He scored a goal and then was recalled for a friendly in

against

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 ...

. He made his return to the national squad for the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign, scoring three goals in the first two matches, against

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Saint Vincent and the Grenadines () is an island country in the Caribbean. It is located in the southeast Windward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, which lie in the West Indies at the southern end of the eastern border of the Caribbean Sea wh ...

Post-career

On 12 March 2023, Rodriguez was proclaimed a candidate for the 2023 Guatemala City mayoral election with the

National Convergence Front The National Convergence Front ( es, Frente de Convergencia Nacional, FCN–Nación) is a right-wing political party in Guatemala. History The party was established on 7 January 2008. It was initiated by a group of retired army officers, includ ...

.http://www.publinews.gt/gt/noticias/2023/03/12/mario-el-loco-rodriguez-candidato-alcalde-guatemala-fcn-nacion-12-marzo-2023.html

International goals

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

Honours

;Comunicaciones *

Liga Nacional de Guatemala 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 * Lig ...

: Clausura 2003 ;Municipal *

: Clausura 2005, Apertura 2005, Clausura 2006, Apertura 2006, Clausura 2008, Clausura 2010, Apertura 2011

External links

Player profile
- CSD Municipal *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rodriguez, Mario 1981 births Living people Footballers from Guatemala City Guatemalan men's footballers Guatemalan expatriate men's footballers Guatemala men's international footballers 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Comunicaciones F.C. players Liga Deportiva Alajuelense footballers C.S.D. Municipal players Columbus Crew players Fort Lauderdale Strikers (2006–2016) players Major League Soccer players USL First Division players Liga FPD players Expatriate men's footballers in Costa Rica Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Men's association football wingers