Alexander Amílcar Erazo Meléndez (born July 28, 1980 in

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

) is a former

Salvadoran Salvadorans (), also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smalle ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player who last played for

Juventud Independiente Club Deportivo Juventud Independiente, also commonly known as Juventud Independiente, is a professional Salvadoran football club, based in San Juan Opico, La Libertad, El Salvador. Founded on 7 September 1943, holding home matches at Complejo ...

in the

Primera División de Fútbol de El Salvador The Primera División de Fútbol Profesional de El Salvador (First Division of Professional Football of El Salvador), more commonly known as La Liga Mayor or La Primera, also known as Liga Pepsi for sponsorship reasons, is the top professional ...

Club career

Nicknamed ''el Paleta'', Erazo started his career at third division side Los Angeles from

San Luis Talpa San Luis Talpa is a municipality in the La Paz department of El Salvador. It is close to Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport, which itself is about eight kilometers from the capital, San Salvador San Salvador () i ...

and joined premier division side Alianza three years later. In 2005, he moved to rivals Águila where he became joined top goalscorer and won a championship medal when he scored twice in the final of the 2006 Clausura. He returned to Alianza in 2009 only to leave them for

Luis Ángel Firpo Luis Ángel Firpo (October 11, 1894 – August 7, 1960) was an Argentine boxer. Born in Junín, Argentina, he was nicknamed ''The Wild Bull of the Pampas''. He was the first Latin American in history to challenge for the world heavyweight titl ...

a year later.

International career

Erazo made his debut with El Salvador national team on August 30, 2003 in a friendly against MLS side

D.C. United D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. Domestically, the club has won four MLS Cups (league championships), four Supp ...

. At the time, El Salvador was coached by

Juan Ramón Paredes Juan Ramón Paredes Zelaya (born 23 May 1950) is a former Salvadoran professional football player and currently the manager of Cangrejera FC of the Tercera Division. Coaching career Alianza Paredes became the coach of Alianza at the beginning ...

, and this game was used as a way to test players that had previously not played for the national team. It was not registered by FIFA as a full international friendly. Erazo 46 minutes before being substituted for

Ludwig Meraz Ludwig may refer to: People and fictional characters * Ludwig (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Ludwig (surname), including a list of people * Ludwig von Koopa, a character in Mario (the game) Arts and entertai ...

. His official debut came on April 28 the following year, when he was part of a friendly match against

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

that was played at

Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, commonly known as RFK Stadium and originally known as District of Columbia Stadium, is a defunct multi-purpose stadium in Washington, D.C. located on East Capitol Street near the Anacostia River. Opened in 1 ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. After a couple of years of being overlooked by national team management, Erazo was finally once again given a chance to prove himself under new head coach

Carlos de los Cobos Carlos de los Cobos Martínez (born 10 December 1958) is a Mexican former professional football player and manager who last managed El Salvador. Playing career As a player, de los Cobos spent the majority of his playing career in his native Me ...

on November 15, 2006 in a friendly against

Bolivia Bolivia, officially the Plurinational State of Bolivia, is a landlocked country located in central South America. The country features diverse geography, including vast Amazonian plains, tropical lowlands, mountains, the Gran Chaco Province, w ...

. In this game Erazo scored a brilliant goal, and impressed many with his great speed, athleticism and play off the ball. After this game, Erazo became somewhat of a key player for the national team and started every game. In February 2007, El Salvador hosted the

UNCAF Nations Cup The Copa Centroamericana () was an association football competition organized by UNCAF as its top regional tournament for men's senior national teams from Central America. The tournament was held from 1991 to 2017, every two years in the years be ...

, and it was no surprise to anyone to see Erazo was selected in the team.UNCAF (Qualifying Tournament for Gold Cup) 2007 Squad Lists
- RSSSF Controversially, before the tournament even started, Erazo stated that he would score a minimum of five goals during the event. This was seen by many as a bad move considering that at the time, the national team had a lot of problems with scoring. But considering that El Salvador had two games against traditionally weaker teams like

Nicaragua Nicaragua, officially the Republic of Nicaragua, is the geographically largest Sovereign state, country in Central America, comprising . With a population of 7,142,529 as of 2024, it is the third-most populous country in Central America aft ...

and

Belize Belize is a country on the north-eastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a maritime boundary with Honduras to the southeast. P ...

, it was not seen as impossible for Erazo to achieve what he intended. As the event began, Erazo was played from the offset in the starting 11, but as the games went on and he did not score,

began to look at other alternatives and Erazo began to get subbed early in the games. When the event ended, Erazo finished with zero goals, and although he showed various glimpses of great play, many fans and officials asked for

to look for other players in his position. As a result, Erazo has not played again with the national team since that last game in the

against

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

on February 18, 2007. Many feel that this is because he failed to live up to the hype that he put on himself, while many other believe that his ego had a negative effect on the team.

International goals

:''Scores and results list El Salvador's goal tally first.''

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Erazo, Alex 1980 births Living people Footballers from San Salvador Men's association football forwards Salvadoran men's footballers 21st-century Salvadoran sportsmen El Salvador men's international footballers Alianza F.C. (El Salvador) footballers C.D. Águila footballers C.D. Luis Ángel Firpo footballers C.D. Juventud Independiente players