Milton Omar Núñez García (born October 30, 1972) is a retired Honduran

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 ...

. Nuñez played a few seasons in Honduras before moving abroad to play for Comunicaciones in Guatemala and for Nacional in Uruguay. He then briefly appeared for PAOK in the

Superleague Greece The Super League Greece 1 ( el, Ελληνική Σούπερ Λιγκ 1), or Super League 1, is the highest professional association football league in Greece. The league was formed on 16 July 2006 and replaced ''Alpha Ethniki'' at the top of ...

and for Sunderland in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

Club career

Early career

Born in Sambo Creek, Honduras, Nuñez played a few seasons in Honduras with

Deportes Progreseño Deportes Progreseño was a Honduran football club, based in El Progreso, Honduras. The club played in the Honduran Liga Nacional for two seasons from 1993 to 1995. History Deportes Progreseño obtained promotion to Liga Nacional on 28 March 1 ...

and

Real España Real may refer to: Currencies * Brazilian real (R$) * Central American Republic real * Mexican real * Portuguese real * Spanish real * Spanish colonial real Music Albums * ''Real'' (L'Arc-en-Ciel album) (2000) * ''Real'' (Bright album) (201 ...

before moving abroad to play for Guatemalan side Comunicaciones and for Uruguayan club Nacional.

PAOK

In 1999, Nuñez joined Greek club PAOK.

Sunderland

In March 2000, Nuñez signed for

side

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

. The transfer fee paid to former club Nacional was reported as £1.6 million plus a possible further £1 million in bonuses. One theory surrounding his signing is that

Peter Reid Peter Reid (born 20 June 1956) is an English football manager, pundit and former player. A defensive midfielder in his playing days, Reid enjoyed a long and successful career. He built his reputation as one of England's brightest midfield ta ...

, who was the manager when Núñez was brought to the Stadium of Light, thought that he had signed Núñez's strike partner at PAOK,

Adolfo Valencia Adolfo José Valencia Mosquera (born 6 February 1968) is a Colombian retired footballer who played as a striker. Nicknamed ''El tren'' (train) due to his powerful physique, he played in seven countries – having one-year spells in Germany and ...

, and not Núñez himself. Núñez himself claimed in an interview that Sunderland had thought that Valencia and Nunez's international team-mate

Eduardo Bennett José Eduardo Bennett (born 11 September 1968, in La Ceiba) is a Honduran former footballer. He is currently manager of UPNFM. Club career Born in La Ceiba, Bennett played in the youth teams of local side Victoria and moved to Tegucigalpa aged ...

, both of whom were a similar height and build, were the same player, and had watched both of them play for PAOK and Honduras respectively assuming they had seen the same player twice. In the confusion, they had ended up signing Núñez by mistake, with the diminutive forward being the only Honduran player at PAOK. Sunderland later went to court over the transfer as Nunez was owned by Uruguayan third tier team Uruguay Montevideo at the time of his move to Wearside, although he never played for them. Nunez stayed in England for two years before returning to Nacional, after playing just once for Sunderland against Wimbledon in the league and

Luton Town Luton Town Football Club () is a professional association football club based in the town of Luton, Bedfordshire, England, that competes in the EFL Championship, Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1 ...

in the

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

. He later played for

Pachuca Pachuca (; ote, Nju̱nthe), formally known as Pachuca de Soto, is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Hidalgo. It is located in the south-central part of the state. Pachuca de Soto is also the name of the municipality of whi ...

and

Necaxa Impulsora del Deportivo Necaxa S.A. de C.V. (); often simply known as Necaxa, is a Mexican professional football club in Liga MX based in the city of Aguascalientes. It plays in the Estadio Victoria. History Foundation (Light and Power Comp ...

Back in Honduras

Núñez returned to his native Honduras in 2004 and he signed for Olimpia in summer 2007 and in June 2008 he rejoined Marathón before moving abroad again.

Guatemala

In 2009, Núñez crossed the border to play for Guatemalan side

Jalapa Xalapa or Jalapa (, ), officially Xalapa-Enríquez (), is the capital city of the Mexican state of Veracruz and the name of the surrounding municipality. In the 2005 census the city reported a population of 387,879 and the municipality of which ...

and then joined USAC for the 2010 Clausura championship, along with Selvin Motta and former national team goalkeeper

Paulo César Motta Paulo César Motta Donis (born 29 March 1982) is a Guatemalan football goalkeeper. Club career He represented club CSD Municipal in the tournament of Copa Interclubes UNCAF 2006. Finding it hard to become the number one goalkeeper behind Panam ...

. In June 2010, he rejoined Comunicaciones before joining

Universidad SC Universidad SC or, more commonly known as, ''USAC'' or just ''Universidad'' is a Guatemalan football club that represents the Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala. They currently compete in the Primera División, the second division in the nat ...

the following year. In February 2013, a historic fine was imposed on a Guatemalan football club after fans of Heredia racially abused USAC's black striker Núñez. Núñez left USAC in 2017 before joining third tier team

Deportivo Ayutla Deportivo Ayutla is a football club from Ayutla, San Marcos, Guatemala. It currently plays on the Segunda División de Ascenso The Second Division of ascent or Second Division of Guatemala is an institution of professional sports character founde ...

in September 2018.

Victoria

In June 2019, Nunez signed a contract with Victoria, where he would play alongside his son, also named Milton.

International career

''Tyson'' made his debut for Honduras in a May 1994

Miami Cup Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at the ...

match against

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de 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 ...

and has earned a total of 86 caps, scoring 33 goals, making him third on Honduras' national team's all-time goalscorers list. He has represented his country in 24

FIFA World Cup qualification The FIFA World Cup qualification is a competitive match that a national association football team takes in order to qualify for one of the available berths at the final tournament of the (men's) FIFA World Cup. Qualifying tournaments are hel ...

matches and played at the

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The Great Hanshin earthquake strike ...

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school s ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia disaster, disintegrated during reentry into Atmosphere of Earth, Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an 2002– ...

and 2005 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 800, causing the plane to crash and killing everyone on b ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

and

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the football championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). It was contested in the United States in July 2005. The United States emerged victorious ...

s. His final international was an October 2008

match against

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispan ...

Personal life

Nuñez received the nickname ''Tyson'' due to his resemblance to former heavyweight boxing champion

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is con ...

Career statistics

Club

Sources:

International goals

Source:

Honours and awards

Club

Comunicaciones *

Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala ''Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala'' (National Football League of Guatemala), formerly known as Liga Mayor "A" (Major League "A") is a professional football division in Guatemala, the highest one in the country. It is sanctioned by the '' Fe ...

(3): 1994–95, 1996–97, 1997–98 Nacional *

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , en, First Division Professional League, local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional football league in Uru ...

(2):

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 frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

Marathón *

Liga Profesional de Honduras Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga ...

(2): 2004–05 A, 2008–09 A Real Espana *

: 2006–07 C Olimpia *

: 2007–08 C

Country

Honduras *

Copa Centroamericana The Copa Centroamericana (, Spanish for "Central American Cup") was the main association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ''Unión Centroamericana de Fútbol'' ( UNCAF), the sport's Central A ...

Individual

Top Goalscorer: 1994-95

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nunez, Milton 1972 births Living people People from Atlántida Department Association football forwards Honduran footballers Honduras international footballers 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2001 UNCAF Nations Cup players 2003 UNCAF Nations Cup players 2005 UNCAF Nations Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Real C.D. España players Comunicaciones F.C. players Club Nacional de Football players PAOK FC players Uruguay Montevideo players Sunderland A.F.C. players C.F. Pachuca players Club Necaxa footballers C.D. Marathón players C.D. Olimpia players Deportivo Jalapa players Universidad de San Carlos players Deportivo Ayutla players C.D. Victoria players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Uruguayan Primera División players Super League Greece players Premier League players Liga MX players Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala players Honduran expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Guatemala Expatriate footballers in Uruguay Expatriate footballers in Greece Expatriate footballers in England Expatriate footballers in Mexico Copa Centroamericana-winning players Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football