Juan Carlos García Barahona (8 March 1988 – 8 January 2018) was a Honduran 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

left-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

. He began his career at Marathón and later went on to Olimpia. He signed for

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the EFL League One, the third level of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, they have p ...

in 2013, where he made one appearance in the

Football League Cup The English Football League Cup, often referred to as the League Cup and currently known as the Carabao Cup for sponsorship reasons, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout competition in men's domestic football in England. Orga ...

. He also had a loan spell at

Tenerife Tenerife ( ; ; formerly spelled ''Teneriffe'') is the largest and most populous island of the Canary Islands, an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Spain. With a land area of and a population of 965,575 inhabitants as of A ...

in which he did not play a match. A full international from 2009 to 2014. García earned 39 caps 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, ...

. He was included in their squads for three

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup () is an association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its top continental tournament for men's senior national teams from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. The tournament is held every two ...

s and the

2014 FIFA World Cup The 2014 FIFA World Cup was the 20th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for list of men's national association football teams, men's national Association football, football teams organised by FIFA. It took place in Brazil fr ...

Club career

Marathón

García came through the youth ranks of and started his senior career with C.D. Marathón.

Olimpia

On 12 July 2010, it was announced García would move on a free transfer to CD Olimpia. He made his first appearance for the club 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 ...

against

Hispano The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly applie ...

in a 2–0 victory. García was heavily criticized by the club's followers in the two finals of the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Honduras in which he played. On 11 December 2010, in the second leg final against

Real España Real may refer to: Currencies * Argentine real * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Nature and science * Reality, the state of things as they exist, rath ...

in the

Apertura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is ...

, Juan Carlos García was sent off in the 78th minute of the game after head butting Mario Martinez, which led to

winning 2–1 in extra time. On 15 May 2010, in the second leg final against CD Olimpia in the

Clausura The ' () and ' () tournaments is a split season format for Spanish-speaking sports leagues. It is a relatively recent innovation for many Latin American football leagues in which the traditional association football season from August to May is ...

Amado Guevara Amado Guevara (born 2 May 1976) is a Honduran former professional footballer and manager. He was the coach of Puerto Rico from 2018 to 2019. A former midfielder, he is the second all-time cap leader for the Honduras national team seconded by ...

had at shot at goal from outside of the area deflected by Juan Carlos García with a header that ended up in his own goal, which meant Motagua won the championship with a 3–1 victory.

Wigan Athletic

On 26 July 2013, García signed a three-year contract with Wigan Athletic. He made his debut for the club on 24 September, starting in a 5–0 away defeat in a

third round match against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

. García made no further appearances that season, his only time named in the matchday squad was as a substitute was for a

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

match on 6 October, a 2–1 home win over

Blackburn Rovers Blackburn Rovers Football Club is a professional football club based in Blackburn, Lancashire, England, which competes in the , the second level of the English football league system. They have played home matches at Ewood Park since 1890. Th ...

. On 10 August 2014 García moved to Spanish

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

side

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 1922, the club plays in the Segunda División, holding home matches at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodríguez L� ...

, on a

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

-long loan. Two weeks later he was included in a matchday squad for the only time, a 1–0 defeat away to

SD Ponferradina Sociedad Deportiva Ponferradina, S.A.D. is a Spanish football team based in Ponferrada, in the El Bierzo region, in the autonomous community of Castile and León. Founded on 7 June 1922, it plays in Primera Federación - Group 1, holding home ma ...

on the opening day. He returned to Wigan on 8 January 2015, after making no appearances for the club. He was released by Wigan at the end of the 2015–16 season and subsequently retired.

International career

García made his debut for

in a July

2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the tenth edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the twentieth soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was played from July 3 to 26, 2009 in the United Stat ...

match against

Grenada Grenada is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean Sea. The southernmost of the Windward Islands, Grenada is directly south of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and about north of Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and the So ...

, coming on as a sub for Carlos Palacios. He also represented his country in 4

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 2011 UNCAF Nations Cup, as well as at the

and

2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the 11th edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup competition, and the 21st CONCACAF regional championship overall in CONCACAF's 50 years of existence. The United States was the host nation. The competition started on Jun ...

s. On 3 June 2011, García was included by Luis Fernando Suárez in Honduras' 23-man squad for the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup due to an injury to defender

Emilio Izaguirre Emilio Arturo Izaguirre Girón (; born 10 May 1986) is a Honduran former professional association football, footballer who played as a left-back. He is currently the sporting director of F.C. Motagua, Motagua. Izaguirre started his career at Mo ...

. On 6 February 2013, Garcia scored his lone international goal, a

bicycle kick In association football, a bicycle kick, also known as an overhead kick or scissors kick, is an acrobatic strike where a player kicks an airborne ball rearward in midair. It is achieved by throwing the body backward up into the air and, before ...

to equalise in a 2–1 home win against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during World Cup qualifying. It was the first time in 24 years that the United States had lost their first game of a World Cup qualification campaign. He made one appearance at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil as Honduras exited in the group stage, replacing Izaguirre at half time in a 2–1 defeat to

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Southern Brazil. The city's population was 1,773,718 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the larg ...

on 21 June.

International goals

Illness and death

On 16 February 2015, it was announced that García had been diagnosed with

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

. He died on 8 January 2018.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Juan Carlos 1988 births 2018 deaths Footballers from Tela Men's association football defenders Honduran men's footballers 21st-century Honduran sportsmen Honduras men's international footballers 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2013 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2014 FIFA World Cup players C.D. Marathón players C.D. Olimpia players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Wigan Athletic F.C. players CD Tenerife players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in England Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Honduran expatriate sportspeople in England Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Spain Deaths from leukemia Deaths from cancer in Honduras