Julio César de León Dailey (; born 13 September 1979) is 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 currently plays for Olancho in the

Honduran Liga Nacional de Ascenso Liga de Ascenso (Promotion League) is the Honduran football league system, second division of Honduran association football, football; it was founded on 17 December 1979 as ''Segunda División'' (Second Division) and renamed ''Liga de Ascenso'' (P ...

as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

. He is known for being a free-kick specialist and was an important key for the

Honduras national football team The Honduras national football team () represents Honduras in men's international football. The team is governed by the Federación de Fútbol de Honduras (). They are nicknamed ''Los Catrachos'', ''La Bicolor,'' or ''La H''. Honduras has qu ...

Club career

Early career

Nicknamed ''Rambo'', he made his debut for C.D. Platense in 1996 against

Real Maya Real Maya was a Honduran football club. History The club was founded on 7 April 1985. They played in first division many season with many different names, Real Maya being the most used. In the 2002/2003 season they took the place of Real Com ...

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

, scoring his first National Soccer League goal. His last goal in the Honduras National League was playing for Olimpia on 26 May 2001 against Club Broncos of Choluteca. Earning a good reputation in Honduras, de León moved abroad to Mexico's First Division, where he played for Atletico Celaya. After the season was over, Atletico Celaya did not renew his contract, so he returned to Honduras and became part of C.D. Olimpia of Tegucigalpa. Once he finished his one-year contract with Olimpia, he left for

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

where he played shortly for

Deportivo Maldonado Club Deportivo Maldonado is a football club from Maldonado, Uruguay. They currently play in the Uruguayan Segunda División following their relegation from the Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American ...

Reggina

From there, de León moved to Reggina of

Serie B The Serie B (), officially known as Serie BKT for sponsorship reasons, is the second-highest division in the Italian football league system after the Serie A. It has been operating for over ninety years since the 1929–30 season. It had b ...

in Italy. De León started off very well for his new club. With his goals and assists, "Rambo" helped his team to regain a place in the Italy's

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 ...

. Once in the first division, de León's participation was intermittent, partly due to the acquisition of the Japanese international Shunsuke Nakamura. De León was relegated to the bench, playing on and off as a substitute player. The following seasons in Italy proved to be frustrating for "Rambo". He was sent on loan back to

where he played for a number of teams, including

Fiorentina ACF Fiorentina, commonly referred to as Fiorentina (), is an Italian professional Association football, football List of football clubs in Italy, club based in Florence, Tuscany. The original team was founded by a merger in August 1926, while ...

Teramo Teramo (; ) is a city and ''comune'' in the Italian region of Abruzzo, the capital of the province of Teramo. The city, from Rome, is situated between the highest mountains of the Apennines ( Gran Sasso d'Italia) and the Adriatic coast. Th ...

and

Catanzaro Catanzaro (; or ; ), also known as the "City of the two Seas" (), is an Italian city of 86,183 inhabitants (2020), the capital of the Calabria region and of its province and the second most populated comune of the region, behind Reggio Calabr ...

. His lack of playing time continued to such degree, that he was sent to the third division or

Serie C1 Serie C1 was the third highest football league in Italy. It consisted of 36 teams, divided geographically into two divisions. History Before the 1978–79 season, there were only three professional football leagues in Italy, the third being Se ...

, where he played for Sambenedettese. In 2006, "Rambo" was requested by coach Mazzarri to come back to Reggina. De León was given a new chance, and he took it. For a while de León was considered the team's most valuable player.

Genoa

However, on 16 January 2007, de León was transferred by Reggina again, this time in a permanent deal to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

of Serie B, for €3.2 million,Genoa CFC Report and Accounts on 31 December 2008 along with Filippo Carobbio (co-ownership), hoping that his services would help the team to regain a spot in Serie A. The fans of Reggina disapproved of the sale of de León, in a time when the team really needed his talent. But the president of the team, Lillo Foti, justified the sale with economic reasons: "The offer was good and it was something that we could not refuse.". On 10 June 2007, de León's new team, Genoa, did regain a spot in Serie A, tying at home with

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 ...

0–0. After this, his last game of the season, and some subsequent celebrations, de León quickly traveled to

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

where the Honduras national team would play

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

on 13 June 2007. He helped Honduras reach the quarter-finals of the

2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the ninth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF), and was won by the United States over Mexico. It was contested in the United States from J ...

Parma

He was awarded the 'Player of the Season' award by Genoa. but eventually sold to

Parma Parma (; ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, Giuseppe Verdi, music, art, prosciutto (ham), Parmesan, cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,986 inhabitants as of 2025, ...

of Serie B for €2.9 million,; Parma player Andrea Gasbarroni (€2M) and Magnus Troest (50% rights for €1.5M) moved to opposite side as part of the deal. His Genoa team-mate

Alessandro Lucarelli Alessandro Lucarelli ( born 22 July 1977) is an Italian former professional association football, footballer who last played for Parma Calcio 1913, Parma as a Defender (association football), defender. Playing career Alessandro Lucarelli starte ...

(€1.2M) also joined the

Emilia–Romagna Emilia-Romagna (, , both , ; or ; ) is an administrative region of northern Italy, comprising the historical regions of Emilia and Romagna. Its capital is Bologna. It has an area of , and a population of 4.4 million. Emilia-Romagna is one of ...

side. He scored his first goal for the team on 28 November 2008 after a perfectly executed free kick to the corner. Then, he made his second and third goals against

Grosseto Grosseto () is a city and a ''comune'' in the central Italian region of Tuscany, the capital of the province of Grosseto and the main city of the Maremma region. The city lies from the Tyrrhenian Sea, at the centre of an alluvial plain on the ...

on 14 February 2009 in Parma's 4–0 victory. He scored his fourth goal for the club on 17 March 2009 against A.C. Mantova in the 82nd minute to put Parma up 1–0 and eventually win the match. His fifth goal was a long-range free kick effort against Pisa F.C. to make the match 2–0 and almost guarantee promotion for Parma into Serie A. On 16 May 2009, Julio César de León celebrated the fifth promotion of his career, this time with Parma. He finished the season with a total of six goals and also contributed several assists, which proved vital for their return to Serie A. After having not played for Parma in the first two games, on 28 August 2009, he was loaned to

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

in Serie B along with Manuel Coppola, as part of Nicola Amoruso deal. He missed the promotion playoffs of Toro due to international call-up.

From Shandong Luneng to Messina to Real Sociedad

At the start of

2010–11 Serie A The 2010–11 Serie A (known as the Serie A TIM for sponsorship reasons) was the 109th season of top-tier Italian football, the 79th in a round-robin tournament, and the 1st since its organization under a league committee separate from Serie B ...

he was sold to

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Jinan, Shandong, that competes in . Shandong Taishan plays its home matches at the Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium, located within Lixia District. Their c ...

for just €775. In the 2011–2012 season he has played for F.C. Motagua. In 2012, he played for

Messina Messina ( , ; ; ; ) is a harbour city and the capital city, capital of the Italian Metropolitan City of Messina. It is the third largest city on the island of Sicily, and the 13th largest city in Italy, with a population of 216,918 inhabitants ...

in the Italian Serie D and then moved to newly promoted C.D. Real Sociedad in Honduras.

International career

De León played at the 1999 World Youth Cup and made his senior 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 May 1999

friendly match An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sport, sporting event whose prize money and impact on th ...

against

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

. As of December 2012, he has earned a total of 83 caps, scoring 14 goals. He has represented his country in 34

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

2003 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2003 UNCAF Nations Cup was an association football tournament. It was held in two venues in Panama in February 2003, and was played in a Round-robin tournament, round robin tournament, each of the 6 teams playing each other once. Costa Rica ...

as well as at the

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 ...

2003 2003 was designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Fresh water, Freshwater. In 2003, a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition 2003 invasion of Iraq, invaded Iraq, starting the Iraq War. Demographic ...

and

s., De León also competed for Honduras at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games () or the 13th Pan American Games and commonly known as Winnipeg 1999, were a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Ma ...

and

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

. and he also was part of the memorable squad in 2001 that defeated Brazil 2–0 and came third in the

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

. On 20 August 2008 he scored an excellent goal against

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

to make the score 1–0 for Honduras in the first half of the match, but this goal wasn't enough to draw Pável Pardo's two goals that he scored later in the game. However, shortly after, in October 2008, "Rambo" was excluded from the squad by head coach

Reinaldo Rueda Reinaldo Rueda Rivera (born 16 April 1957) is a Colombian football coach who currently serves as a manager for the Honduras national team. When he was the coach of the Colombia U-20 team, they finished 3rd at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Cham ...

due to injury. Julio César de León announced he was returning to Italy shortly after arriving in

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

to join the national team for the match against Canada. Upon arrival, he lashed out against the National Team for being inadequately equipped to treat an injury that he had suffered in Italy. The coach had a discussion with him in the hotel and he was sent back on another plane shortly after. After long amounts of speculation, he returned to the squad in February, 2009 where he was not reported to have any later problems. De León was originally named in the 23-men final

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. ...

squad, but on 15 June, one day before the opening match of Honduras, had to pull out due to injury and was replaced by

Jerry Palacios Jerry Nelson Palacios Suazo (; born November 1, 1981) is a Honduran former footballer who played as a striker. Club career Palacios made his senior debut for Olimpia for whom he played 7 successive years except for a season at F.C. Motagua ...

, who he was given the opportunity to play alongside his two brothers.

International goals

:''Scores and results list Honduras' goal tally first.''

Honours

Club

C.D. Platense *

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 ...

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...

Shandong Luneng *

2010 Chinese Super League The 2010 Chinese Super League season (also known as Pirelli Chinese Super League for sponsorship reasons) was the seventh season since the establishment of the Chinese Super League, the seventeenth season of a Professional sports, professional asso ...

Notes

References

External links

Profile
(archived copy 22 January 2013) - FIFA * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leon, Julio Cesar 1979 births Living people Footballers from Puerto Cortés Men's association football midfielders Honduran men's footballers 21st-century Honduran sportsmen Honduras men's international footballers 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 Copa América players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Olympic footballers for Honduras Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Pan American Games silver medalists in football Pan American Games silver medalists for Honduras Footballers at the 1999 Pan American Games Platense F.C. players C.D. Olimpia players Deportivo Maldonado players AS Reggina 1914 players ACF Fiorentina players US Catanzaro 1929 players US Sambenedettese players US Avellino 1912 players SSD Città di Teramo players Genoa CFC players Parma Calcio 1913 players Torino FC players Shandong Taishan F.C. players F.C. Motagua players C.D. Real Sociedad players ACR Messina players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Honduran Liga Nacional de Ascenso players Serie A players Serie B players Chinese Super League players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Uruguay Expatriate men's footballers in Italy Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in China National Premier Soccer League players Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games