Carlos Alberto Pavón Plummer (born 9 October 1973) is a Honduran 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, rugb ...

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. Most prominently affiliated with

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 ...

, he has made over 200 appearances for ''Los Aurinegros'' in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras, and is Honduras' all-time leading national team goalscorer.

Club career

Born in El Progreso,

Yoro Yoro, with a population of 25,560 (2020 calculation), is the capital city of the Yoro Department of Honduras and the municipal seat of Yoro Municipality. It is notable for a local event known as Lluvia de Peces, where it is claimed that strong ...

, to Blanca Nieves Pavón Macedo and Costa Rican footballer Allard Plummer, Pavón began his career at the age of 18 in his native Honduras with

on 30 May 1992 against Platense in the 1992 Honduran Cup, the final score was 1-1. While with Real España, Pavón won four Honduran league championships, as well as leading the league in scoring.

Mexican years

Pavón then played in Mexico for seven successive years, except for a short stint in Spain. He played for

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid) is a city and municipal seat of the municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. The city is in the Guayangareo Valley and is the capital and lar ...

in the Mexican Primera División, winning the 2000 Clausura with the club. He has also played for

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. With a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census, Toluca is the fifth most populous city in Mexico. The city ...

, San Luis, Correcaminos,

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Compan ...

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul or simply Cruz Azul () is a professional football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in the Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Because "azul" means "blue" in Spanish, the club has traditionally ...

, and

Celaya Celaya (; ) is a city and its surrounding municipality in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, located in the southeast quadrant of the state. It is the third most populous city in the state, with a 2005 census population of 310,413. The municipality f ...

, where he led the Mexican Second Division in scoring.

Europe

He has played in Italy in

Serie A The Serie A (), also called Serie A TIM for national sponsorship with TIM, is a professional league competition for football clubs located at the top of the Italian football league system and the winner is awarded the Scudetto and the Cop ...

for both

Udinese Udinese Calcio, commonly referred to as Udinese, is a professional Italian football club based in Udine, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, that currently plays in Serie A. It was founded on 30 November 1896 as a sports club, and on 5 July 1911 as a ...

and Napoli from 2001 to 2003 and in Spain's first division with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid () or Valladolid, is a professional football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León, Spain that competes in La Liga, the top tier of the Spanish league system. The club c ...

(1995).

Major League Soccer

On 19 June 2007, he signed a deal to play for the

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 ...

He scored twice in the away match against New York Red Bulls on 18 August 2007, both coming from

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending ...

assists. The match attracted 66,000 fans, the highest attendance ever recorded for a Bulls game. Pavón was waived at the end of the season. Despite other offers from MLS teams, he went back to Real Club España in Honduras for 2008. After being released, he signed on with the struggling

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Compa ...

of the

Primera División de México The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in al ...

. He made his debut for

on 1 March 2009 after only one training session with the club. He started the match and assisted both goals in their 2–2 draw with Club Santos Laguna. After trying his luck at Club Necaxa he returned to Real España and retired after the 2012 Clausura to become assistant coach at the club as well as a football commentator.

Career statistics

International career

Pavón 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 July

1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the second edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean ( CONCACAF). The format of the tournament stayed the same as in 1991: eight teams were broken up in ...

match against the USA and has earned a total of 101 caps, scoring a Honduran record 57 goals. He has represented his country in 37

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

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

and in only 1 game at the

2010 FIFA World Cup , image = 2010 FIFA World Cup.svg , size = 200px , caption = ''Ke Nako. (Tswana and Sotho for "It's time") Celebrate Africa's Humanity'It's time. Celebrate Africa's Humanity'' (English)''Dis tyd. Vier Afrika se mensd ...

. He also played at the

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

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

and 2009 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the

1993 File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

and 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cups. His final international was a June

match against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the eas ...

. After participating in the World Cup through pain, it was discovered Pavón had a

hernia A hernia is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. Various types of hernias can occur, most commonly involving the abdomen, and specifically the groin. Groin her ...

. His future in football was in limbo, as a result of the injury.

International goals

Honours and awards

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 ...

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

Honduran Cup The Honduran Cup was the top knock-out football tournament in Honduras. The first tournament was played in 1968, four years later the second tournament took the name ''Copa Presidente'' ( en, President's Cup) in honor of Dr. Ramón Cruz; later, G ...

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment building in Amsterdam after two of its engin ...

Monarcas Morelia *

Liga MX The Liga MX, officially known as the Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional football division in Mexico, holding 2 tournaments per year. The league is considered the strongest in North America, and among the strongest in a ...

: Invierno 2000 Honduras * Copa Centroamericana:

Individual * Mexico Primera División A top scorer: Verano 1997 (shared with Ángel Lemus) * Honduran Footballer of the Year: 2009 *

IFFHS 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 ...

Personal life

He is the son of Costa Rican Allard Plummer, who played for Marathón in the 1970s and Blanca Nieves Pavón Macedo. He is married to Emy Diana James de Pavón and they have two sons, Carlos and André. His son Carlos Alberto Plummer James was enlisted by Real España in 2011. Pavón also tried his luck on the music scene, but without major success. He was selected by

UNICEF UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to c ...

to for their campaign to prevent violence against women.Pavón y las Naciones Unidas contra violencia de la mujer
- La Tribuna

References

External links

* *
World Cup profile – FIFA
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavon, Carlos 1973 births Living people People from Yoro Department Association football forwards Honduran footballers Honduras international footballers 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 UNCAF Nations Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers of Honduras 2009 UNCAF Nations Cup players 2010 FIFA World Cup players Real C.D. España players Deportivo Toluca F.C. players San Luis F.C. players Real Valladolid players Correcaminos UAT footballers Club Necaxa footballers Atlético Morelia players Udinese Calcio players S.S.C. Napoli players Deportivo Cali footballers Cruz Azul footballers Comunicaciones F.C. players LA Galaxy players Honduran expatriate footballers Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Italy Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Guatemala Honduran expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Italy Expatriate footballers in Colombia Expatriate footballers in Guatemala Expatriate soccer players in the United States Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Liga MX players La Liga players Serie A players Serie B players Major League Soccer players Categoría Primera A players FIFA Century Club Copa Centroamericana-winning players Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football