Wilmer Velásquez

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Neal and the second or maternal family name is Velásquez.

Wilmer Raynel Neal Velásquez (born April 28, 1972) is a retired Honduran footballer who played as a forward. 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.

Wilmer Velásquez

Portrait of Wilmer Velasquez.
Personal information
Full name	Wilmer Raynel Neal Velásquez
Date of birth	(1972-04-28) April 28, 1972 (age 52)
Place of birth	Tela, Honduras
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Position(s)	Striker
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1991–1995	Olimpia	35	(12)
1996	Concepción	19	(8)
1996–1998	Olimpia	78	(48)
1999	Sport-Recife	8	(1)
1999–2000	Olimpia	61	(32)
2001	Atlas	13	(1)
2001–2009	Olimpia	287	(120)
Total		489	(222)
International career^‡
1994–2007	Honduras	47	(35)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 2007 ‡ National team caps and goals, correct as of 26 June 2008

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.

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.^[1] He did play for other teams though, with Concepción in Chile, Sport-Recife in Brazil and Atlas 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 and his club, Olimpia, finishing second only behind Brazilian player Adriano Leite Ribeiro, who scored 18 goals.^[2]

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.^[3] He has scored 318 goals in competitive games, 258 of them for Olimpia.^[4]

International career

Velásquez made his debut for Honduras in an April 1997 UNCAF Nations Cup match against Panama in which he famously scored four goals. He has earned a total of 47 caps, scoring 35 goals.^[5] He has represented his country in only 2 FIFA World Cup qualification matches^[6] and played at the 1997,^[7] 2005^[8] and 2007 UNCAF Nations Cups^[9] as well as at the 1998,^[10] 2003^[11] and 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cups.^[12] In 2009, he quualified 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

Club	Season	League		Cup		League Cup		CONCACAF		Other^[nb 1]		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Olimpia	1990–91	2	0
	1991–92	8	2
	1992–93	4	1
	1993–94	10	3
	1994–95	11	6
	1996–97	17	9
	1997–98 A	24	19
	1997–98 C	20	15
	1998–99	4	4
	1999–2000 A	19	12
	1999–2000 C	19	12
	2000–01 A	18	9
	2001–02 A	12	7
	2001–02 C	19	10
	2002–03 A	19	6
	2002–03 C	18	4
	2003–04 A	18	6
	2003–04 C	7	2
	2004–05 A	19	9
	2004–05 C	16	6
	2005–06 A	16	5
	2005–06 C	15	3
	2006–07 A	17	9
	2006–07 C	14	6
	2007–08 A	11	2
	2007–08 C	18	10
	2008–09 A	15	5
	2008–09 C	18	6
	2009–10 A	17	8
Total		400	196

International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	December 11, 1994	Fullerton, California, USA	United States	1–1	Draw	Friendly
2.	April 16, 1997	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Panama	5–0	Win	1997 UNCAF Nations Cup
3.	April 16, 1997			5–0	Win
4.	April 16, 1997			5–0	Win
5.	April 16, 1997			5–0	Win
6.	April 18, 1997	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	El Salvador	3–0	Win
7.	April 18, 1997			3–0
8.	January 21, 1998	Estadio Chorotega de Nicoya, Nicoya, Costa Rica	Costa Rica	4–1	Win	Friendly
9.	January 21, 1998			4–1
10.	January 29, 1998	San Salvador, El Salvador	El Salvador	1–1	Tie
11.	November 17, 1999	Estadio Imperio del Sol Naciente, Tegucigalpa, Honduras	Trinidad and Tobago	3–2	Win
12.	March 8, 2000	Estadio Casa Blanca, Quito, Ecuador	Ecuador	3–1	Win
13.	November 14, 2000	Arnos Vale Stadium, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	7–0	Win	World Cup 2002 Qualifier
14.	April 25, 2003	Stade En Camée, Rivière-Pilote, Martinique	Trinidad and Tobago	2–0	Win	2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifier
15.	April 27, 2003	Stade d'Honneur de Dillon, Fort-de-France, Martinique	Martinique	4–2	Win
16.	April 27, 2003			4–2	Win
17.	June 7, 2003	Orange Bowl, Miami, United States	Venezuela	1–2	Loss	Friendly
18.	June 29, 2003	Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano, San Pedro Sula, Honduras	El Salvador	1–1	Tie	Friendly
19.	February 19, 2005	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Nicaragua	5–1	Win	2005 UNCAF Nations Cup
20.	February 19, 2005			5–1
21.	February 19, 2005			5–1
22.	February 21, 2005	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Belize	4–0	Win
23.	February 23, 2005	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Guatemala	1–1	Win
24.	February 25, 2005	Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala	Panama	1–0	Win
25.	July 2, 2005	Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada	Canada	2–1	Win	Friendly
26.	July 10, 2005	Orange Bowl, Miami, United States	Colombia	2–1	Win	2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup
27.	July 10, 2005			2–1
28.	July 16, 2005	Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, United States	Costa Rica	3–2	Win
29.	September 7, 2005	Miyagi Stadium, Miyagi, Japan	Japan	4–5	Loss	Friendly
30.	September 7, 2005			4–5
31.	September 7, 2005			4–5
32.	February 15, 2007	Estadio Cuscatlán, San Salvador, El Salvador	Nicaragua	2–0	9–1	2007 UNCAF Nations Cup
33.	February 15, 2007			3–0
34.	February 15, 2007			4–1
35.	February 15, 2007			5–1

Honours and awards

Club

CD Olimpia

• Copa Interclubes UNCAF (2): 1999, 2000
• Honduran Super Cup (1): 1996–97
• Liga Profesional de Honduras (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 (1): 1995

Individual

• Copa Centroamericana Top Goalscorer (3): 1997, 2005, 2007
• 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: 196 goals
• All-time Top Scorer of Club Deportivo Olimpia: 196 goals
• CONCACAF Gold Cup Best XI: 2005
• CONCACAF Gold Cup Top Goalscorer: 2005

Notes

1. Includes other competitive competitions, including the FA Community Shield, UEFA Super Cup, Intercontinental Cup, FIFA Club World Cup

References

1. El primer y último grito de Wilmer Velásquez - El Heraldo (in Spanish)
2. "The World's Top Goal Scorer (2005)". IFFHS. 2005.
3. Wilmer Velásquez anuncia retiro - Diez (in Spanish)
4. Desafíe a Ismael - La Prensa (in Spanish)
5. Luis Fernando Passo Alpuin. "Wilmer Raynel Neal Velasquez - Goals in International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
6. – FIFA competition record (archived)
7. UNCAF Tournament 1997 - RSSSF
8. Qualifying Tournament for Gold Cup 2005 - Details - RSSSF
9. UNCAF (Qualifying Tournament for Gold Cup) 2007 - Details - RSSSF
10. CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 1998 - Full Details - RSSSF
11. CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 2003 - Full Details - RSSSF
12. CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 2005 - Full Details - RSSSF

External links

• Wilmer Velásquez at National-Football-Teams.com