Wilmer 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.

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. 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.

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 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. He has represented his country in only 2 FIFA World Cup qualification matches and played at the 1997, 2005 and 2007 UNCAF Nations Cups as well as at the 1998, 2003 and 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cups. 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 Date Venue Opponent Score Result Competition 1. December 11, 1994 Fullerton, California, USA 1–1 Draw Friendly 2. April 16, 1997 Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala 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 3–0 Win 7. April 18, 1997 3–0 8. January 21, 1998 Estadio Chorotega de Nicoya, Nicoya, Costa Rica 4–1 Win Friendly 9. January 21, 1998 4–1 10. January 29, 1998 San Salvador, El Salvador 1–1 Tie 11. November 17, 1999 Estadio Imperio del Sol Naciente, Tegucigalpa, Honduras 3–2 Win 12. March 8, 2000 Estadio Casa Blanca, Quito, Ecuador 3–1 Win 13. November 14, 2000 Arnos Vale Stadium, Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 7–0 Win World Cup 2002 Qualifier 14. April 25, 2003 Stade En Camée, Rivière-Pilote, Martinique 2–0 Win 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifier 15. April 27, 2003 Stade d'Honneur de Dillon, Fort-de-France, Martinique 4–2 Win 16. April 27, 2003 4–2 Win 17. June 7, 2003 Orange Bowl, Miami, United States 1–2 Loss Friendly 18. June 29, 2003 Estadio Olímpico Metropolitano, San Pedro Sula, Honduras 1–1 Tie Friendly 19. February 19, 2005 Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala 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 4–0 Win 23. February 23, 2005 Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala 1–1 Win 24. February 25, 2005 Estadio Mateo Flores, Guatemala City, Guatemala 1–0 Win 25. July 2, 2005 Swangard Stadium, Burnaby, Canada 2–1 Win Friendly 26. July 10, 2005 Orange Bowl, Miami, United States 2–1 Win 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup 27. July 10, 2005 2–1 28. July 16, 2005 Gillette Stadium, Foxboro, United States 3–2 Win 29. September 7, 2005 Miyagi Stadium, Miyagi, 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 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