Milton Javier Flores Miranda (5 December 1974 – 19 January 2003) was a 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.

Early years

Flores was born to Pedro Alfredo Flores and Janneth Miranda in

La Lima La Lima is a city, with a population of 75,100 (2020 calculation),Citypopulation.de
Population of the major ...

, Honduras, near sports recreation park named ''Polideportivo Chulavista''. He started playing baseball, but later was discovered as a goalkeeper talent. He attended elementary school Manuel Bonilla, where he became best friends with

Carlos Pavón Carlos Alberto Pavón Plummer (born 9 October 1973) is a Honduran former professional footballer who played as a striker. He is regarded as one of the best Honduran footballers in history, and by most as the nation's greatest player ever. Mos ...

. He also played in ''La Mosquito''.

Club career

Nicknamed ''el Chocolate'', the goalkeeper played 231 games for

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) ...

from 1992 to 2002. Real Españas fans idolized Chocolate for his excellent performances with the team.

International career

Flores made his debut 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 ...

in a January

1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the third edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament returned to the United States and California; the games were hosted by Los ...

match 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 ...

and had earned a total of 22 caps, scoring no goals. He has represented his country in 8

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

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

and

1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the fourth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Los Angeles, Miami, and O ...

s. He also was part of the

Honduras national football team The Honduras national football team ( es, Selección de fútbol de Honduras) represents Honduras in men's international football. The team is governed by the Federación Nacional Autónoma de Fútbol de Honduras (FENAFUTH). They are nicknamed ...

at the

1995 UNCAF Nations Cup Six national football teams from Central America competed in the 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup (''Copa Centroamericana''). The winning team was Honduras, defeating Guatemala in the final. Squads Preliminary round Stadium First round Group A ' ...

. His final international was a July 2001 FIFA 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 ...

. One of the most famous games Chocolate ever played was against Brazil for the Panamericanos Of Mar del Plata, Argentina, where he stopped 3 penalties and scored the goal that passed Honduras to the next stage. After that goal, Chocolate danced

punta Punta is an Afro-indigenous dance and cultural music originating in the Caribbean Island of Saint Vincent And The Grenadines by the Garifuna people before being exiled from the island. Which is also known as Yurumei. It has African and Arawak ...

, the national Honduran dance, as a celebration. He was the goalkeeper of the Honduras national soccer team, on the game they won Mexico for the first time in history on qualifiers, at the end of the game, in an interview by Salvador Nasralla, crying he dedicated the win to his mother, who had died years before.

Death and legacy

He was killed by automatic weapons fire as he was allegedly engaged in a sexual act in his parked car in La Unión, the

red light district A red-light district or pleasure district is a part of an urban area where a concentration of prostitution and sex-oriented businesses, such as sex shops, strip clubs, and adult theaters, are found. In most cases, red-light districts are partic ...

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 671,460 ...

. After the shooting, he tried to drive himself to a hospital but drove into a tree where he died. It has, alternatively, been voiced that he was passing a notoriously criminal neighborhood where gang members, taking his for a rival car, started shooting Flores' car. After his death, a football stadium was named after him in La Lima, his hometown. His wake took place in Polideportivo Chulavista, with massive attendance by fans, making it one of the most noted funerals ever in Honduras. Soccer players, friends, TV reporters from national and international channels and family gathered to say farewell. He was famous by his imitations of TV personalities in Honduras, also a skilled dancer. Real Espana's fans remember him as one of their team's most memorable players until the present day. He was buried in Lima Nueva Cemetery, next to his mother. He was survived by his wife Roxana Flores.

Honours and awards

Club

;C.D. Real Espana *

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 ...

(4): 1993–94, 2003–04 A, 2006–07 C, 2010–11 A *

Honduran Cup The Honduran Cup was the top knock-out Association football, football tournament in Honduras. The first tournament was played in 1968 Honduran Cup, 1968, four years later the second tournament took the name ''Copa Presidente'' ( en, President's Cu ...

: (1):

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

Country

;Honduras *

Copa Centroamericana 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 ...

(1):

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

References

External links

*
Miles de hondureños en sepelio de Milton "Chocolate" Flores
- Terra * {{DEFAULTSORT:Flores, Milton 1974 births 2003 deaths People from Cortés Department Association football goalkeepers Honduran footballers Honduras international footballers 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Real C.D. España players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players People murdered in Honduras Deaths by firearm in Honduras Honduran murder victims Male murder victims Footballers at the 1995 Pan American Games Pan American Games competitors for Honduras Copa Centroamericana-winning players Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football