Rónald Gómez Gómez (born 24 January 1975 in Puntarenas) is a retired

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

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 ...

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 ...

and manager. He is the current manager for

Liga Nacional 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 ...

club Santa Lucía. An important player on the Costa Rica national football team during the 1990s and 2000s, Gómez is regarded as one of Costa Rica's best forwards, known for his rocket shots and top dribbling. Gómez is, along with Paulo Wanchope, the top scorer for Costa Rica in the FIFA World Cup with three goals.

Club career

Early years

Born in Puntarenas as the 12th child of Francisca Gómez, he was raised in the village Pilas de Canjel in Guanacaste Province. Nicknamed ''La Bala'' (The Bullit), Gómez started his career at Carmelita and scored his first league goal on 20 September 1992 against

Saprissa Deportivo Saprissa is a Costa Rican sports club, mostly known for its football team. The club is based in San Juan de Tibás, San José, and play their home games at the Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá. The team's signature colours are purple ...

.Rónald Gómez debuta como técnico carmelo
- Nación He then scored 45 goals for Alajuelense before moving abroad.

Years abroad

He has played in 6 different countries: in Spain with Sporting Gijón and Hercules of

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in th ...

, in

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

with Municipal, in Greece with OFI Crete, in Kuwait with Al Qadsia, in Mexico with Irapuato and in Cyprus with

APOEL APOEL FC ( el, ΑΠΟΕΛ; short for Αθλητικός Ποδοσφαιρικός Όμιλος Ελλήνων Λευκωσίας, ''Athletikos Podosferikos Omilos Ellinon Lefkosias'', literally "Athletic Football Club of Greeks of Nicosia") ...

where he won the Cypriot First Division.

Saprissa

With Saprissa, he has won 4 national championship; and 1 CONCACAF Champions Cup, and was part of the team that played the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship Toyota Cup where

finished third behind São Paulo and Liverpool. He scored the winning goal in the final minutes of the game that

won in order to achieve the third place of the tournament against

Al-Ittihad Al-Ittihad (Arabic: الاتحاد "The Union"), sometimes transliterated as Al-Etihad or Al-Ettihad may refer to: Sports Football Libya *Al-Ittihad Club (Tripoli), a football club based in Bab Ben Gashier * Al Ittihad Gheryan, a football club bas ...

. His goal was considered among the best of the cup.

Return from retirement

In June 2009, Gómez came out of playing retirement for a final season at Santos after he was relegated to the second division as manager of Carmelita. After the season, he became manager of Santos.

International career

Gómez made his debut for

in a February 1993

UNCAF Nations Cup 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 Am ...

qualification match against Nicaragua and earned a total of 93 caps, scoring 26 goals. He represented his country in 27

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 figured at the

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

and

2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

World Cups. He also played 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 peace ...

and

2001 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2001 UNCAF Nations Cup was played in Honduras. Participating teams Squads Venues First round Group 1 ---- ---- Group 2 ---- ---- Final round ---- ---- Champions *''Guatemala national football team, Guatemala ...

s as well as at the

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 ...

and

2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the sixth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The tournament was once again held in the United States, in Miami and Pasadena. The format ...

and the

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

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

, and

2004 Copa América The 2004 Copa América was the 41st edition of the Copa América, the South-American championship for international association football teams. The competition was organized by CONMEBOL, South America's football governing body, and was held in P ...

. His final international was a March 2008 friendly match against Peru.

International goals

:''Scores and results list. Costa Rica's goal tally first.''

Managerial career

He made his debut as manager of Carmelita in January 2009. In October 2010 he was dismissed by

Santos de Guápiles Santos may refer to: People *Santos (surname) *Santos (DJ) (born 1971), Italian DJ * Santos Benavides (1823–1891), Confederate general in the American Civil War * Santos Balmori Picazo (1899–1992), Spanish-Mexican painter * Santos (footballer ...

and he later managed second division sides Deportivo Cartagena and Juventud Escazuceña. In September 2013, he took charge of Guatemalan side Halcones and in May 2014 he returned to Costa Rica to take charge at Limón.

Personal life

He is married to Gina Soto and they have two sons, Esteban and Daniel.Ronald Gómez con su primer trofeo europeo La Bala no sigue en Chipre
- Nación

Honours

* Primera División de Costa Rica (3): **1995-96, 2005–06, 2007–08 * Copa Interclubes UNCAF (1): **1996 *

CONCACAF Champions' Cup The CONCACAF Champions League, known officially as the Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons, is an annual continental club football competition organized by CONCACAF. The tournament is contested by clubs from North Ameri ...

(1): **

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

* Cypriot First Division (1): ** 2006–07

References

External links

*
2006 World Cup profile
- Nación {{DEFAULTSORT:Gomez, Ronald 1975 births Living people People from Puntarenas Association football forwards Costa Rican footballers Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Spain Costa Rica international footballers 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2006 FIFA World Cup players 1997 Copa América players 2001 Copa América players 2004 Copa América players 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players A.D. Carmelita footballers L.D. Alajuelense footballers Sporting de Gijón players Hércules CF players C.S.D. Municipal players OFI Crete F.C. players Irapuato F.C. footballers Qadsia SC players Deportivo Saprissa players APOEL FC players Santos de Guápiles footballers Liga FPD players Super League Greece players La Liga players Cypriot First Division players Costa Rican expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Expatriate footballers in Guatemala Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in Kuwait Expatriate footballers in Mexico Expatriate footballers in Cyprus Costa Rican football managers Expatriate football managers in Guatemala Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Guatemala Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Costa Rican expatriate sportspeople in Greece Kuwait Premier League players