Salvador Bernárdez (6 January 1954 – 18 July 2011) was a Honduran international

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 ...

Club career

Nicknamed ''Pichini'' and ''Pólvora'', Bernárdez played his entire career for

F.C. Motagua Club de Fútbol Motagua (), formerly Club Deportivo Motagua up to 2017, is an association football club, located in Tegucigalpa, capital of Honduras. F.C. Motagua was founded as ''Club Deportivo Motagua'' on 29 August 1928. The club competes ...

in the Honduran league. He was the Honduran league's top goalscorer in the 1978/79 season and still is the 9th best scorer for Motagua of all time with 36 goals.

International career

Bernárdez has represented

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 9

1982 FIFA World Cup qualification A total of 109 teams entered the 1982 FIFA World Cup qualification rounds, which began with the preliminary qualification draw on 14 October 1979 at Zürich, competing for a total of 24 spots in the final tournament, an increase from 16 in the pr ...

matches, helping them to qualify for their first World Cup Finals tournament. He did however not make the final squad for Spain 1982 due to injury. He went on to earn 14 caps, scoring 5 goals.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Honduras' goal tally first.''

Retirement

He coached Barcelona a U-15 Boys competitive team for one season. He moved to the United States in the 1980s.

Personal life and death

Bernárdez' father Víctor also played for Motagua in the 1940s and 1950s. Salvador was married to Julia Maritza Gracia. He died at the age of 58 in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

from a heart attack.LaPrensa.hn – Fallece Salvador 'Pichini' Bernárdez
– 18 July 2011

Honours

: Motagua :: 1978–79 : Individual :: Top goalscorer with Motagua in 1978–79

References

External links

En Estados Unidos falleció “Pichini” Bernárdez
- Honduras Fútbol 1950s births 2011 deaths People from La Ceiba Association football midfielders Honduran footballers Honduras international footballers F.C. Motagua players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Honduran emigrants to the United States {{Honduras-footy-bio-stub