Rommel Fernández Gutiérrez (15 January 1966 – 6 May 1993) was a

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 Co ...

nian

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 striker. The second Panamanian to play in Europe, he spent almost his entire professional career in Spain, amassing

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' ...

totals of 104 games and 32 goals – 162/56 both major levels combined – in representation of four teams. In 1993, he died in a car accident, at the age of just 27.

Club career

Fernández was born in the

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

neighborhood of

El Chorrillo El Chorrillo is a corregimiento within Panama City, in Panamá District, Panamá Province, Panama with a population of 18,302 as of 2010. History It was founded April 29, 1915, and was originally populated by immigrants working on the construct ...

. In 1987 the 21-year-old signed for

CD Tenerife Club Deportivo Tenerife, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Founded in 1912, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez Lóp ...

in Spain from Alianza, scoring a career-best 18 goals in his second season as the Canary Islands side was promoted to

for the second time in its history; in the following years he also netted in double digits as the club retained its top division status – in the 1989–90 campaign he was named Best South American Player (sic) in the Spanish League and, the following year, was voted best

Ibero-America Ibero-America ( es, Iberoamérica, pt, Ibero-América) or Iberian America is a region in the Americas comprising countries or territories where Spanish or Portuguese are predominant languages (usually former territories of Portugal or Spain). ...

n player in the competition by news agency

EFE Agencia EFE, S.A. () is a Spanish international news agency, the major multimedia news agency in Spanish language and the world's fourth largest wire service after the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. EFE was created in 1939 ...

, receiving the

Trofeo EFE Trofeo EFE is an annual football award given by the EFE news agency since the 1990–91 season to the best Latin-American player in Spanish football. Recipients are selected based on assessments from the agency's sports editors. The inaugural wi ...

. Nicknamed "The

Panzer This article deals with the tanks (german: panzer) serving in the German Army (''Deutsches Heer'') throughout history, such as the World War I tanks of the Imperial German Army, the interwar and World War II tanks of the Nazi German Wehrmacht ...

", Fernández moved to

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 ...

in 1991, but was used mostly as a backup in his only season, scoring just two goals. Subsequently he joined

Albacete Balompié Albacete Balompié is a Spanish football team based in Albacete, in the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Founded on 2 August 1940, it currently plays in Segunda División, the second tier of Spanish football, holding home matches ...

on loan, helping the Castile-La Mancha team retain its first division status in its second season ever and scoring his 50th league goal in the process, against former club Tenerife.

International career

Fernández represented

numerous times, making his debut in the late 80's. In 1986, during a trip with the national team to Spain to participate in the Mundialito de la Emigración, a tournament where Tenerife played a select squad of players with Spanish ancestry, he played well enough to be offered a contract by the hosts. Fernández's last match with Panama was a 1–5 defeat in Costa Rica for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

qualifiers, on 23 August 1992.

Death

On 6 May 1993, after returning from a meal with his Albacete teammates, Fernández died in a car accident just outside

Albacete Albacete (, also , ; ar, ﭐَلبَسِيط, Al-Basīṭ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the ...

, after losing control of his car and hitting his head on a tree. His cousin Ronny Rojo was also travelling with him, but emerged unharmed.

Legacy

Estadio Revolución was renamed Estadio Rommel Fernández, in Fernández's honour.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Rommel 1966 births 1993 deaths People from Panamá District Panamanian people of Spanish descent Panamanian footballers Association football forwards La Liga players Segunda División players CD Tenerife players Valencia CF players Albacete Balompié players Panama international footballers Panamanian expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Panamanian expatriate sportspeople in Spain Road incident deaths in Spain