Ricardo Peláez Linares (born 14 March 1963) is a Mexican 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 ...

and former Director of Football for

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 ...

club

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( , ) is a metropolis in western Mexico and the capital of the state of Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population of 1,385,629 people, making it the 7th largest city by population in Mexico, while the Guadalaj ...

. As a player, Peláez made his debut with Club América in 1985, before moving to

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 ...

in 1987 and becoming a mainstay for the club, making over 300 appearances and scoring 138 goals, making him the club's all-time leading goalscorer. He had a second stint with América in 1997, and transferred a year later to

before retiring in 2000. Peláez also represented the

Mexico national team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...

at the

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the football world championship for men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 12 July 1998. The country was chosen as the host nation by FIFA for t ...

. Following his retirement, Peláez became a commentator for

Televisa Deportes TUDN (formerly Televisa Deportes) is a division of the Mexican television broadcaster Televisa that produces sports programming for Las Estrellas, Canal 5, Nueve, Foro TV and the TUDN TV channel. On July 20, 2019, Televisa Deportes was re ...

. In November 2011 he became Sporting President for Club América. From October 2013 to July 2014 he was the Sporting Director of the Mexico national team, returning to América immediately following the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament has ...

in Brazil. He left his position as sporting president in April 2017.

Club career

Ricardo Peláez Linares started his career as an accountant. After finishing his studies in accounting, Ricardo started to work doing public accountancy which he believed was something extremely boring and tiresome. Football being his hobby and passion, he decided to go for trials at Club América. He was 23 when the club headhunters recognized his talents and decided to place him in the first team. He scored his first goal for America in the 1985 Prode Final, in which America won. He has claimed to be a boyhood fan of América, and

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 ...

. He is the leading scorer in Necaxa's history with 138 goals made during his tenure with the team from 1987 to 1997. Peláez returned to América for one year after which he joined

in the winter of 1998. In 2000, he was forced into retirement due to knee injuries at age 35. Peláez scored 172 goals and registered 40 assists during his career. He was commemorated in Necaxa's new facilities in

Aguascalientes Aguascalientes (; ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Aguascalientes), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and with an average altitude of a ...

when a training field was named after him.

International career

Peláez was part of the Mexico national team at the

, scoring two goals in the tournament. Peláez scored the equalizer against

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in a 3–1 win. Peláez scored his second goal of the tournament in a 2–2 draw against the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Overall Peláez capped 43 times for Mexico and scored 16 goals.

International goals

Executive

Club América

On 8 November 2011, following the departure of Michel Bauer as president, it was announced that Peláez was named the new Sporting President of

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América or simply América, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier ...

as part of a complete organizational restructuring. His first act as president was the signing of

Miguel Herrera Miguel Ernesto Herrera Aguirre (born 18 March 1968), popularly referred to by his nickname "Piojo" (Spanish for "louse"), is a Mexican former professional footballer and current manager. He is the head coach of Liga MX club Tijuana. A former ...

as the club's new manager. Under Peláez's presidency, América has qualified to the playoffs every season, reaching the

league League or The League may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Leagues'' (band), an American rock band * ''The League'', an American sitcom broadcast on FX and FXX about fantasy football Sports * Sports league * Rugby league, full contact footba ...

final four times (winning the 2013 Clausura and 2014 Apertura tournaments), as well as winning the

CONCACAF Champions' League 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 Americ ...

twice (winning the 2014–15 and 2015–16 editions).

Cruz Azul

Peláez was announced as Director of Football for

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 ...

on 7 May 2018, replacing

Eduardo de la Torre Eduardo "Yayo" de la Torre Menchaca (born 4 December 1962) is a Mexican former professional Association football, footballer and manager. In December 2010 he was appointed as one of the assistant managers to his cousin José Manuel de la Torre ...

. Peláez signed a two year contract with the club and was presented on 9 May 2018. In his first season with Cruz Azul, the team reached the

Copa MX The Copa MX (formerly called Copa Tower Monterrey, Copa Eliminatoria, Copa México and Copa Corona MX (for sponsorship reasons)) was a Mexican football cup competition that was established in 1907. After a lengthy hiatus that began in 1997, it wa ...

final, defeating

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is ancho ...

2–0 to win the cup.

Guadalajara

Following much speculation, Peláez was announced as

's new Director of Football beginning in the 2020 Clausura. On October 11 2022 Chivas terminated the contract of sporting director Ricardo Pelaez after a 5-4 loss on penalties to Puebla in the first round of the Liga MX playoffs.

Outside football

In 2004, Peláez became a commentator for football matches on Mexican television station

Televisa Grupo Televisa is a Mexican multimedia mass media company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April 2021, Televisa and Univision Communications announce ...

. Pelaez has also lent his voice alongside Enrique Bermúdez to be the

Spanish language Spanish ( or , Castilian) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from colloquial Latin spoken on the Iberian peninsula. Today, it is a global language with more than 500 million native speakers, mainly in the ...

commentators for the

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

videogames. From September 2017 until May 2018, he worked as an analyst for

ESPN Deportes ESPN Deportes (, ''ESPN Sports'') is an American multinational Spanish-language pay television sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which owns a controlling 80% stake) and Hearst Communications ( ...

and ESPN Mexico.

Honours

América *

Mexican Primera División 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 ...

: Prode-85 Necaxa *

: 1994–95, 1995–96 *

Copa México The Copa MX (formerly called Copa Tower Monterrey, Copa Eliminatoria, Copa México and Copa Corona MX (for sponsorship reasons)) was a Mexican football cup competition that was established in 1907. After a lengthy hiatus that began in 1997, it was ...

: 1994–95 * CONCACAF Cup Winners' Cup:

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

Campeón de Campeones ''Campeón de Campeones'' ( es, Champion of Champions) is an annual Mexican football competition established in 1942. In its current form, the winner of the Apertura season faces the winner of the Clausura season, for both Liga MX and Liga MX Feme ...

: 1995 Mexico *

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 ...

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone o ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelaez, Ricardo 1963 births Living people Mexican footballers 1998 FIFA World Cup players Club América footballers Liga MX players CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players Mexico international footballers Association football forwards 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players