Reinier Alcántara Núñez (born January 14, 1982 in

Pinar del Río Pinar del Río is the capital city of Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. With a population of 139,336 (2004) in a municipality of 190,332, it is the List of cities in Cuba, 10th-largest city in Cuba. Inhabitants of the area are called ''Pinareños'' ...

) is a retired

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

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 who played for Miami FC in the

USL First Division The USL First Division (usually referred to as USL-1) was a professional men's soccer league in the United States and Canada from 2005 to 2010. During its existence, it formed the second tier of soccer in the United States soccer league system b ...

Career

Club

Alcántara made his debut with

FC Pinar del Río FC Pinar del Río is a Cuban football team playing in the Cuban National Football League and representing Pinar del Río Province. They play their home games at the Estadio La Bombonera in Pinar del Río. History The team won 7 league titles, ...

at age of 15 and played with the team until the time of his defection to the United States. Has won Cuban league MVP award in 2006 and 2007, although this has not earned him much reward in his home nation because Cuban players are not permitted to sign professional contracts. Alcántara defected from Cuba to the United States in 2008 in the hope of a securing professional career. Following his defection he trialed with several

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 ...

clubs, including

Chivas USA Chivas USA (pronounced ''CHEE-vahs'') was an American professional soccer team based in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, California. The club played from 2005 to 2014 in Major League Soccer (MLS) and was a subsidiary of Mexican club C.D. Guada ...

who filed a discovery claim on him following the 2008 season, which means that whomever the MLS awards the claim will have first rights to sign him to a professional contract. Having not been offered an MLS contract, Alcántara joined Miami FC of the

for the 2009 season, alongside his compatriot Pedro Faife.

International

Alcántara was a member of Cuba's under 17 and 23 teams and in 2005 made his debut for the senior Cuba national team in a January 2005 Gold Cup qualification match 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 ...

. During the

2007 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 ...

on 8 June 2007 at

Giants Stadium Giants Stadium (sometimes referred to as Giants Stadium at the Meadowlands or The Swamp) was a stadium located in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in the Meadowlands Sports Complex. The venue was open from 1976 to 2010, and it primarily hosted sp ...

he scored the first goal of the match against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. Alcántara has been capped 18 times for the national team, scoring 10 goals, but he is not expected to make any more appearances for the national team since his defection to the United States. He represented his country in only 2 FIFA World Cup qualifying matches.

Personal life

Defection to the United States

Alcántara's formal job in Cuba was a sports complex maintenance employee since there were officially no professional footballers in Cuba.Defector Recounts Escape
- Washington Post He

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

to 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 ...

when he disappeared from his hotel outside of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

before a CONCACAF 3rd round

World Cup qualifier 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 ...

against the

on 11 October 2008. Alcántara planned his defection before he even left Cuba. He fled from the Cuban team's coaches and security at his hotel before the match. He eventually met up with a friend who drove him to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, Georgia, where he began his legal defection to the United States.

References

External links

Miami FC bio
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alcantara, Reinier 1982 births Living people People from Pinar del Río Association football forwards Cuban people of Catalan descent Defecting Cuban footballers Cuba international footballers FC Pinar del Río players Miami FC (2006) players USL First Division players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Cuban expatriate footballers Cuban expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate soccer players in the United States Cuban footballers