Wilmer Raynel Neal Velásquez (born April 28, 1972) is a retired Honduran

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 ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

. He was regarded as one of the greatest footballers in Honduran soccer for Olimpia, and by foremost as the nation's greatest striker ever alongside

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 is currently the all-time top goalscorer in the Honduran National Football League with 196 goals, and was the second player to reach 150 goals after

Denilson Costa Denilson Costa (born 10 June 1968) is a Brazilian and naturalized Honduras, Honduran Association football, football coach and former player. He is currently the second all-time top scorer in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras, Honduran Lig ...

Club career

Nicknamed ''El Matador'', Velásquez started his professional career with Olimpia and he would not play for any other Honduran team during his career. He made his debut on 1 November 1990 against Platense and scored his first goal on 23 January 1992 against city rivals

Motagua The Motagua River () is a river in Guatemala. It rises in the western highlands of Guatemala where it is also called Río Grande, and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The final few kilometres of the river form part of the ...

. He did play for other teams though, with Concepción in Chile, Sport-Recife in Brazil and

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 ...

in Mexico but was not very successful with all of them. In 2005, Velásquez was crowned one of the ''Top Goalscorers in the World'' by the

International Federation of Football History and Statistics The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

. He made 15 goals with both 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 ...

and his club, Olimpia, finishing second only behind Brazilian player

Adriano Leite Ribeiro Adriano Leite Ribeiro (born February 17, 1982), commonly known simply as Adriano, is a Brazilian former professional footballer. He played as a striker and was known for his long range left footed strikes. Adriano had four prolific seasons in ...

, who scored 18 goals. He has won 12 titles of the Honduran League, all of them with Olimpia. In December 2008 he announced he would retire after the 2009 Clausura. He has scored 318 goals in competitive games, 258 of them for Olimpia.

International career

Velásquez made his debut for Honduras in an April 1997 UNCAF Nations Cup match 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 ...

in which he famously scored four goals. He has earned a total of 47 caps, scoring 35 goals. He has represented his country in only 2

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 1997, 2005 and 2007 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the 1998, 2003 and 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cups.CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 2005 - Full Details
- RSSSF His final international was a February 2007 UNCAF Nations Cup match against

Nicaragua Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...

, in which he again scored four goals.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours and awards

Club

;CD Olimpia *

Copa Interclubes UNCAF The UNCAF Club Tournament was an annual international football competition held in the UNCAF region (Central America). The competition was open to the leading domestic club teams in the region. The winners of each national league qualified automa ...

(2): 1999, 2000 * Honduran Super Cup (1): 1996–97 *

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 * Lig ...

(13): 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2000–01 A, 2002–03 A, 2003–04 C, 2004–05 C, 2005–06 A, 2005–06 C, 2007–08 C, 2008–09 C, 2009–10 C *

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): 1995

Individual

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 A ...

Top Goalscorer (3): 1997, 2005, 2007 * Top goalscorers in Liga Nacional de Honduras (4): 1997–98 A, 1997–98 C, 1999–00 A, 2007–08 C *All-time Top Scorer of

Liga Nacional 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 ...

: 196 goals *All-time Top Scorer of

Club Deportivo Olimpia Club Deportivo Olimpia is a professional Honduran football club based in Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán. The club is the nation's most successful team both in the domestic league and in international club competitions. History Olimpia was f ...

: 196 goals * CONCACAF Gold Cup Best XI: 2005 *

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 ...

Top Goalscorer: 2005

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Velasquez, Wilmer 1972 births Living people People from Tela Men's association football forwards Honduran footballers Honduras men's international footballers 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players C.D. Olimpia players Sport Club do Recife players Deportes Concepción (Chile) footballers Atlas F.C. footballers Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Honduran expatriate footballers Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Chile Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Brazil Expatriate footballers in Chile Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football