José Enrique Gutiérrez Cardona (27 February 1939 - 30 January 2013), more commonly known as ''Cardona'' or ''Indio Cardona'' or ''Coneja Cardona'', was a 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, rugby ...

Early career

Cardona was born in

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

, Honduras. In 1957 he was National Football Champion and Top Scorer. A year later, he was transferred to Portuguese club

Lusitano The Lusitano, also known as the Pure Blood Lusitano or PSL (''Puro Sangue Lusitano''), is a Portuguese horse breed. Horses were known to be present on the Iberian Peninsula as far back as 20,000 BC, and by 800 BC the region was renowned fo ...

. In 1959 he was acquired by

Valencia CF Valencia Club de Fútbol (, ca-valencia, València Club de Futbol ), commonly referred to as Valencia CF (or simply Valencia) is a professional football club based in Valencia, Spain, that currently plays in La Liga, the top flight of the Spa ...

but because it had reached its maximum allowance of foreign players, Cardona was lent to Spanish club

Elche Elche ( ca-valencia, Elx) is a city and municipality of Spain, belonging to the province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. According to 2014 data, Elche has a population of 228,647 inhabitants,top flight Top Flight (April 15, 1929 – 1949) was an American U.S. Hall of Fame Thoroughbred racehorse. She was the leading American filly of her generation at two and three years of age. Background Bred in Kentucky by the very prominent horseman Harry ...

of the Spanish League for the first time in their history. He made his debut on September 13, 1959 against Real Oviedo, and stayed for 5 seasons, playing 89 games and scoring 24 goals in the first division. In the season 1959, Cardona was the top scorer in the Spanish second division with 22 goals (the same number of goals made by first division top scorer

Alfredo Di Stéfano Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxon name Alfred and a common Italian, Galician, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. People with the given name include: *Alfredo (born 1946), Brazilian footballer born as Alfredo Mostarda Fil ...

that season). In 1964 he transferred to Atlético Madrid, who that season came second in the league championship and won the

Copa del Generalísimo The Campeonato de España–Copa de Su Majestad el Rey, commonly known as Copa del Rey or simply La Copa and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–36) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–76), is an annual knockout footb ...

(now known as ''La Copa del Rey''). Cardona scoring the winning goal in the final against

Real Zaragoza Real Zaragoza, S.A.D. (), commonly referred to as Zaragoza, is a football club based in Zaragoza, Aragon, Spain, that currently competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish league system. Zaragoza holds its home games at L ...

. The following year he played 10 times in Atlético's championship-winning season. Cardona, playing with Valencia C.F., scored the first goal in the first nightly game in the

Estadio Azteca Estadio Azteca () is a multi-purpose stadium located in Mexico City. It is the official home of Association football, football clubs Club América and Cruz Azul as well as the Mexico national football team. The stadium sits at an altitude of a ...

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

against Necaxa on June 5, 1966. The final score was 3-1 in favor of Valencia C.F.

International career

Cardona played internationally with Honduras, but never qualified for a

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

finals. He represented his country in 3 FIFA World Cup qualification matches.

Later life

Cardona retired at the end of the 1968–69 season, by which time he had played a total of 141 games in the Primera División, scoring 44 goals. He died, aged 73, in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, of a heart attack.

Honours and awards

Club

Elche * Segunda Division: 1958-59 Atlético Madrid *

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

: 1965–66, 1969–70 *

: 1964–65

References

External links

*
España le hace un homenaje a la Coneja Cardona
- El Heraldo {{DEFAULTSORT:Cardona, Jose 1939 births 2013 deaths People from Cortés Department Association football forwards Honduran footballers Honduras international footballers Elche CF players Atlético Madrid footballers Real C.D. España players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Primeira Liga players La Liga players Honduran expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Portugal Expatriate footballers in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain