Wilmer Raynel Neal Velásquez (born April 28, 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 lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

. He was regarded as one of the greatest footballers in Honduran soccer for Olimpia, and by foremost as the nation's greatest striker ever alongside

Carlos Pavón Carlos Alberto Pavón Plummer (born 9 October 1973) is a Honduran former professional footballer 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. Mos ...

. He is currently the all-time top goalscorer in the Honduran National Football League with 196 goals, and was the second player to reach 150 goals after

Denilson Costa Denilson Costa (born 10 June 1968) is a Brazilian and naturalized Honduran football coach and former player. He is currently the second all-time top scorer in the Honduran Liga Nacional and was also the first to reach 150 goals. Now he is a t ...

Club career

Nicknamed ''El Matador'', Velásquez started his professional career with Olimpia and he would not play for any other Honduran team during his career. He made his debut on 1 November 1990 against Platense and scored his first goal on 23 January 1992 against city rivals

Motagua The Motagua River () is a river in Guatemala. It rises in the Western Highlands of Guatemala and runs in an easterly direction to the Gulf of Honduras. The Motagua River basin covers an area of and is the largest in Guatemala. The Motagua Rive ...

. He did play for other teams though, with Concepción in Chile, Sport-Recife in Brazil and

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of world map, maps of Earth or of a continent or region of Earth. Advances in astronomy have also resulted in atlases of the celestial sphere or of other planets. Atlases have traditio ...

in Mexico but was not very successful with all of them. In 2005, Velásquez was crowned one of the ''Top Goalscorers in the World'' by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics. He made 15 goals with both 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 ...

and his club, Olimpia, finishing second only behind Brazilian player

Adriano Leite Ribeiro Adriano Leite Ribeiro (born 17 February 1982) is a Brazilian former professional footballer. Adriano had four prolific seasons in Italy with Italian clubs Parma and Inter Milan, being considered one of the best strikers in the world during thi ...

, who scored 18 goals. He has won 12 titles of the Honduran League, all of them with Olimpia. In December 2008 he announced he would retire after the 2009 Clausura. He has scored 318 goals in competitive games, 258 of them for Olimpia.

International career

Velásquez 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 an April

1997 UNCAF Nations Cup This page details the 1997 UNCAF Nations Cup, played in Guatemala. Squads :For a complete list of all participating squads see ''UNCAF Nations Cup 1997 squads'' Preliminary round Participating teams 6 Central American Football Union, UNCA ...

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 ...

in which he famously scored four goals. He has earned a total of 47 caps, scoring 35 goals. He has represented his country in only 2

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

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 ...

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

and

2007 UNCAF Nations Cup The 2007 UNCAF Nations Cup was the ninth version of the biennial association football, football tournament for the CONCACAF national teams of Central America. The event took place in San Salvador, El Salvador from February 8 to February 18, 2007. I ...

s as well as at the

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 ...

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

2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the eighth edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer 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 i ...

s.CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 2005 - Full Details
- RSSSF In 2009, he qualified with Honduras to the 2010 fifa world cup (an achievement not done by the Honduran Football team since 1982) scoring the tie-break goal against El Salvador that qualified his team to the world cup. His final international was a June-July FIFA World cup 2010 match against Switzerland national football team.

Career statistics

Club

International goals

Honours and awards

Club

;CD Olimpia *

Copa Interclubes UNCAF The UNCAF Interclub Cup was an annual international football competition held in the UNCAF region (Central America). The competition was open to the leading domestic club teams in the region. The winners of each national league qualified automatic ...

(2):

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 ...

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 ...

* Honduran Super Cup (1): 1996–97 *

Liga Profesional 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 Ameri ...

(13): 1992–93, 1995–96, 1996–97, 1998–99, 2000–01 A, 2002–03 A, 2003–04 C, 2004–05 C, 2005–06 A, 2005–06 C, 2007–08 C, 2008–09 C, 2009–10 C *

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 ...

(1):

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 ...

Individual

Copa Centroamericana The Copa Centroamericana () was an association football competition organized by UNCAF as its top regional tournament for men's senior national teams from Central America. The tournament was held from 1991 to 2017, every two years in the years be ...

Top Goalscorer (3):

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 ...

* Top goalscorers in Liga Nacional de Honduras (4): 1997–98 A, 1997–98 C, 1999–00 A, 2007–08 C *All-time Top Scorer of

Liga Nacional 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 Ameri ...

: 196 goals *All-time Top Scorer of

Club Deportivo Olimpia Club Deportivo Olimpia is a professional association football in Honduras, Honduran football club based in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Tegucigalpa, Francisco Morazán Department, Francisco Morazán. The club is the nation's most successful team both ...

: 196 goals * CONCACAF Gold Cup Best XI: 2005 *

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 ...

Top Goalscorer:

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Velasquez, Wilmer 1972 births Living people Footballers from Tela Men's association football forwards Honduran men's footballers Honduras men's international footballers 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players C.D. Olimpia players Sport Club do Recife players Deportes Concepción (Chile) footballers Atlas F.C. footballers Liga Nacional de Fútbol Profesional de Honduras players Honduran expatriate men's footballers Honduran expatriate sportspeople in Chile Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico Expatriate men's footballers in Brazil Expatriate men's footballers in Chile Central American Games gold medalists for Honduras Central American Games medalists in football