Saúl Asael Martínez Álvarez (; born 29 January 1976) is a Honduran former

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 ...

forward who last played for Marathón.

Club career

Nicknamed ''Speedy'', Saúl Martínez was born in Colón,

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 started his career at Honduran second division side Melgar before moving abroad to play for American outfit Long Island Rough Riders. He was assigned to

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, 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 sanc ...

team

Miami Fusion Miami Fusion F.C. was an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team played from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one ...

in 1999. His first game in Liga Nacional was on 10 December 2000 with Olimpia against Broncos.

China

Martínez first attracted the attentions of

Shanghai Shenhua Shanghai Shenhua Football Club () is a Chinese professional football club based in Shanghai, that competes in . Shanghai Shenhua plays its home matches at the Shanghai Stadium, located within Xuhui District. The owner of Shanghai Shenhua is ...

when he scored four goals against Slovenia during the

Lunar New Year Cup The Lunar New Year Cup, previously known as the Carlsberg Challenge or the Carlsberg Cup, is an annual invitational association football, football tournament organised in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) since 1908. It is usua ...

in Hong Kong in early 2002. Shenhua quickly signed him and afterwards, Martinez became one of the most important players in the Shenhua team. He would end up playing in Asia for five years, winning the 2003 Chinese league title with Shanghai Shenhua; that title was however taken away from the club in 2013 due to its part in a match-fixing scandal. He also won the 2003 Golden Boot Award with Shanghai. In January 2008, Martínez joined Costa Rican side Herediano for three months after a move to F.C. Motagua did not materialise. He then had a couple of seasons at Marathón. He made a remarkable return from retirement with Victoria in the 2010 Apertura season, topping the goalscoring charts at age 34 and ending the season as runner-up behind Jerry Bengtson with 11 goals. In July 2011 he returned for another spell at Marathón. He retired from football at the end of 2011. In 2013, he returned to playing and joined compatriot Érick Vallecillo at newly formed Miami United of the

National Premier Soccer League The National Premier Soccer League (NPSL) is an American men's association football, soccer league. The league is officially affiliated to the United States Adult Soccer Association (USASA) and has automatic qualification for the U.S. Open Cup. ...

International career

Martínez made his debut for

in a July 2001

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

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 ...

, in which he immediately scored a goal, and has earned a total of 35 caps, scoring 16 goals. He has represented his country in 11

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

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and 2009 UNCAF Nations Cups His international breakthrough however came during the 2001 Copa América, when Honduras surprisingly ended third and Martínez scored the second goal in the historic win over World Cup runners-up

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

.Hace 10 años eliminamos a Brasil de Copa América
– La Prensa His final international was a January 2009 UNCAF Nations Cup match against

Panama Panama, officially the Republic of Panama, is a country in Latin America at the southern end of Central America, bordering South America. It is bordered by Costa Rica to the west, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north, and ...

Career statistics

Club

International

International goals

Honours

Nacional Montevideo *

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

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 ...

2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...

Shanghai Shenhua *

Chinese Jia-A League The National Football Jia A League (simplified Chinese: 全国足球甲A联赛), commonly known as Jia-A, was the highest tier of professional football in the People's Republic of China, during 1994 through 2003, operating under the auspices of th ...

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 ...

(revoked due to match-fixing scandal) C.D. Marathón *

Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras, known as Liga Hondubet for sponsorship reasons (''Honduran National Professional Football League'') is the highest division of domestic Association football, football in Honduras. The league seas ...

: 2008–09 (Apertura)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martinez, Saul 1976 births Living people Footballers from Colón Department (Honduras) Men's association football forwards Honduran men's footballers Honduras men's international footballers 2001 Copa América players Long Island Rough Riders players Miami Fusion players C.D. Olimpia players F.C. Motagua players Club Nacional de Football players Shanghai Shenhua F.C. players Chinese Super League players RB Omiya Ardija players C.S. Herediano footballers C.D. Marathón players C.D. Victoria players Major League Soccer players Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players J1 League players National Premier Soccer League players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Japan Honduran expatriate sportspeople in China Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Uruguay Expatriate men's footballers in China Expatriate men's footballers in Japan Expatriate men's footballers in Costa Rica Virginia Beach Mariners players A-League (1995–2004) players Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Uruguay Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Costa Rica