Carlos Alberto Pavón Plummer (born 9 October 1973) is a Honduran 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, rugby lea ...

who played as a striker. He is regarded as one of the best Honduran footballers in history, and by most as the nation's greatest player ever. Most prominently affiliated with Real España, he has made over 200 appearances for ''Los Aurinegros'' in the

Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras Liga (Spanish and Portuguese: ''League'') or LIGA may refer to: Sports Basketball * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga Femenina de Baloncesto, women's professional basketball league in Spain Football Latin Amer ...

, and is Honduras' all-time leading

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

goalscorer.

Club career

Born in

El Progreso El Progreso () is a city, with a population of 120,600 (2023 calculation), and a municipality located in the Honduran Departments of Honduras, department of Yoro (department), Yoro. Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport of San Pedro Su ...

Yoro Yoro, with a population of 101,849 (2022 calculation), is the capital city of the Yoro Department of Honduras and the municipal seat of Yoro Municipality. It is notable for a local event known as Lluvia de Peces, where it is claimed that strong ...

, to Blanca Nieves Pavón Macedo and Costa Rican footballer Allard Plummer, Pavón began his career at the age of 18 in his native Honduras with Real España on 30 May 1992 against Platense in the 1992 Honduran Cup, the final score was 1-1. While with Real España, Pavón won four Honduran league championships, as well as leading the league in scoring.

Mexican years

Pavón then played in Mexico for seven successive years, except for a short stint in Spain. He played for

Morelia Morelia (; from 1545 to 1828 known as Valladolid; Otomi language, Otomi: ) is a city and municipal seat of the municipalities of Mexico, municipality of Morelia in the north-central part of the state of Michoacán in central Mexico. It is both th ...

in the Mexican Primera División, winning the 2000 Clausura with the club. He has also played for

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. Toluca has a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Grea ...

, San Luis, Correcaminos,

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

Cruz Azul Club de Futbol Cruz Azul S.A. de C.V., commonly referred to as Cruz Azul, is a professional association football, football club based in Mexico City, Mexico. It competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football league system, Mexican footba ...

, and

Celaya Celaya (; Otomi: ) is a city and its surrounding municipality in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, located in the southeast quadrant of the state. It is the third most populous city in the state, with a 2005 census population of 310,413. The muni ...

, where he led the Mexican Second Division in scoring.

Europe

He has played in Italy in

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

for both Udinese and

Napoli Naples ( ; ; ) is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its province-level municipality is the thir ...

from 2001 to 2003 and in Spain's first division with

Real Valladolid Real Valladolid Club de Fútbol, S.A.D., or simply Real Valladolid (), is a Spanish professional List of football clubs in Spain, football club based in Valladolid, Castile and León that will compete from the 2025–26 season in the . The club ...

(1995).

Major League Soccer

On 19 June 2007, he signed a deal to play for the

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

He scored twice in the away match against New York Red Bulls on 18 August 2007, both coming from

David Beckham Sir David Robert Joseph Beckham ( ; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Primarily a right winger and known for his range of passing, cross ...

assists. The match attracted 66,000 fans, the highest attendance ever recorded for a Bulls game. Pavón was waived at the end of the season. Despite other offers from

MLS Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanctioned by the United ...

teams, he went back to

Real Club España Real Club España, A.C., simply known as Real España or Club España, is a Mexican sports club based in Mexico City. The club hosted a large variety of sports and other activities such as aerobics, basque pelota, cue sports, billiards, canoein ...

in Honduras for 2008. After being released, he signed on with the struggling

Club Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Club Necaxa, is a Mexican professional Association football, football club based in Aguascalientes (city), Aguascalientes. It competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican ...

of the

Primera División de México Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divi ...

. He made his debut for

on 1 March 2009 after only one training session with the club. He started the match and assisted both goals in their 2–2 draw with

Club Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V., simply known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club based in Torreón, Coahuila. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Founded in 1983 as Club Santos IM ...

. After trying his luck at Club Necaxa he returned to Real España and retired after the 2012 Clausura to become assistant coach at the club as well as a football commentator.

Career statistics

International career

Pavón made his debut for

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

in a July 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup match against the USA and has earned a total of 101 caps, scoring a Honduran record 57 goals. He has represented his country in 37

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a set of competitive matches that a national association football team plays in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the men's FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments ar ...

matches and played at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

and in only 1 game at the

2010 FIFA World Cup The 2010 FIFA World Cup was the 19th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams. It took place in South Africa from 11 June to 11 July 2010. ...

. He also played at the

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

1999 1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons. Events January * January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers. * January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...

2001 The year's most prominent event was 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. The United States led a Participan ...

and 2009 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the

1993 The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as: * International Year for the World's Indigenous People The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for Lunar water, frozen water, in soil i ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

and 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cups. His final international was a June

match against

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. After participating in the World Cup through pain, it was discovered Pavón had a

hernia A hernia (: hernias or herniae, from Latin, meaning 'rupture') is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. The term is also used for the normal Devel ...

. His future in football was in limbo, as a result of the injury.

International goals

Honours and awards

C.D. Real Espana * Liga Profesional de Honduras: 1993–94, 2003–04 A, 2006–07 C, 2010–11 A *

Honduran Cup The Honduran Cup was the top knock-out Association football, football tournament in Honduras. The first tournament was played in 1968 Honduran Cup, 1968, four years later the second tournament took the name ''Copa Presidente'' () in honor of Dr. R ...

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

Monarcas Morelia *

Liga MX Liga MX, also known as Liga BBVA MX for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Mexico and the highest level of the Mexican football league system. Formerly known as Liga Mayor (1943–1949) and also as Primera Divis ...

: Invierno 2000 Honduras * Copa Centroamericana:

Individual * Mexico Primera División A top scorer: Verano 1997 (shared with Ángel Lemus) * Honduran Footballer of the Year: 2009 *

IFFHS The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) is an organisation that chronicles the history and records of association football. It was founded in 1984 by Alfredo Pöge in Leipzig. The IFFHS was based in Abu Dhabi for so ...

Personal life

He is the son of Costa Rican Allard Plummer, who played for Marathón in the 1970s and Blanca Nieves Pavón Macedo. He is married to Emy Diana James de Pavón and they have two sons, Carlos and André. His son Carlos Alberto Plummer James was enlisted by Real España in 2011. Pavón also tried his luck on the music scene, but without major success. He was selected by

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

to for their campaign to prevent violence against women.Pavón y las Naciones Unidas contra violencia de la mujer
- La Tribuna

References

External links

* *
World Cup profile – FIFA
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pavon, Carlos 1973 births Living people Footballers from Yoro Department Men's association football forwards Honduran men's footballers Honduras men's international footballers 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Footballers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Olympic footballers for Honduras 2010 FIFA World Cup players Real C.D. España players Deportivo Toluca F.C. players San Luis F.C. players Real Valladolid players Correcaminos UAT footballers Club Necaxa footballers Atlético Morelia players Udinese Calcio players SSC Napoli players Deportivo Cali footballers Cruz Azul footballers Comunicaciones F.C. players LA Galaxy players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Mexico Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Italy Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Guatemala Honduran expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Colombia Expatriate men's footballers in Guatemala Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Liga MX players La Liga players Serie A players Serie B players Major League Soccer players Categoría Primera A players FIFA Men's Century Club Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football