Martín Alejandro Machón Guerra (born 4 February 1973) is a Guatemalan former 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 ...

. He played mostly in the

midfield Midfield is the part of a sports field that lies approximately in the center. In American football, association football (soccer) and field hockey, it is the area in and around the center circle, as well as the players who occupy that region. In ...

for local club

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 Major League Soccer clubs

Los Angeles Galaxy LA Galaxy, also known as the Los Angeles Galaxy, are an American professional soccer club based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Galaxy competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), as a member of the Western Conference. The club began pla ...

and

Miami Fusion The Miami Fusion was a professional soccer team based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. They played in Major League Soccer (MLS) for four seasons, from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one of the league's first two expansion teams, their best seas ...

, and also became a member of the Guatemala national team, which he represented during three

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 ...

processes.

Club career

Born in Santa Catarina Pinula, Machón was scouted by top-level club ''Galcasa FC'', now defunct, and debuted in the '' Liga Mayor'' with them in the 1990–91 season, scoring twice in his first match against Xelajú MC.Source: http://www.deguate.com/artman/publish/personajes_deportistas/Mart_n_Alejandro_Mach_n_739.shtml He then joined Aurora F.C., and while at that team, he was first called up to the national team. In 1993, he had a call-up from Spanish '' Segunda División'' team CD Badajoz, where he trained for a brief period but did not go on to play-officially. After his return from Spain, Machón spent another year at Aurora, and in 1994 he joined

, where he had a successful time as he helped the team win league titles in the 1994–95 and 1996–97 seasons.

Years abroad: MLS and Mexico

In 1997, Machón became the second Guatemalan footballer after Jorge Rodas to sign for a team of the U.S. Major League Soccer, when

brought him to their roster. He played the 1997 and 1998 seasons at Galaxy, and during the latter, he scored 6 goals and made 14 assists, which earned him participation at the 1998

MLS All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from Liga MX. MLS initially adopted a traditional all-star ...

. He also helped the team reach the playoffs in both seasons. Machón was loaned in December 1998 to México Primera División side

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

, where he played for one year before returning to the MLS, this time to play for

, where in spite of his team's struggles he had a positive 2000 season, making 16 assists in 24 matches. The following year he had his second stint with a Mexican club, joining

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geograp ...

and spending two seasons there.

Later playing years and retirement

After his second period playing in Mexico, Machón re-joined his former team

, where he remained until 2006. During the 2004–05 season and part of the 2005 Apertura tournament, he could not play due to a knee injury. He retired at the end of the 2006 ''Apertura'' season, and in February 2007 he was one of several former players to participate in a friendly match in Guatemala City to honor

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona (; 30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two joint winners of the F ...

. As of January 2008, he was a radio commentator and entrepreneur. He also has been working with the organization DGEF in Guatemala. DGEF is an organization that helps young children get physically active. What he does helps children do physical activities and complements their academic training.

International career (1992–2006)

Machón made his debut for Guatemala in a May 1992 friendly match against

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: ' ...

and has earned a total of 60 caps, scoring 5 goals.Guatemala – Record International Players
– RSSSF Machón represented the Guatemalan team in the qualification rounds for the World Cups of 1994, 1998, and 2002. He also was part of the national 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 ...

s of 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2003. At the 1998 Gold Cup, his

corner kick A corner kick is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defending team. The kick is take ...

provided the assist in

Juan Carlos Plata Juan Carlos Plata (born 1 January 1971) is a Guatemalan soccer coach and retired football striker. He is the highest-scoring player in the history of Guatemala's top division. As of January 2010, Plata has, except for Marc Lloyd-Williams, bee ...

's goal against

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 ...

on which Guatemala achieved a surprise draw with the then world champions. Machón played his last international match in February 2006 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 territori ...

International goals

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

References

External links

Weltfussball.de – career summary
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Machon, Martin 1973 births Living people People from Guatemala Department Guatemalan footballers Guatemalan expatriate footballers Guatemala international footballers Aurora F.C. players CD Badajoz players Comunicaciones F.C. players LA Galaxy players Santos Laguna footballers Miami Fusion players Atlas F.C. footballers Major League Soccer players Liga MX players Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate footballers in Mexico 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Major League Soccer All-Stars Miami Fusion draft picks Association football midfielders C.S.D. Galcasa players