Juan Carlos Plata

Football player infobox| playername= Juan Carlos Plata
fullname = Juan Carlos Plata
nickname = "Pin", "El Pin", "JCP"
dateofbirth = birth date and age|df=yes|1971|1|1
cityofbirth = Guatemala City
countryofbirth = Guatemala
height = 170 cm
currentclub =CSD Municipal
position = Forward
youthyears =
youthclubs =
years = 1990-
clubs = CSD Municipal
caps(goals) = 513 (392)
nationalyears = 1996-2006
nationalteam = Guatemala
nationalcaps(goals) = 86 [cite web |url=http://www.prensalibre.com.gt/pl/2008/agosto/07/255612.html | author=Barrios, Luis | publisher="Prensa Libre"| title="Fogueo: Guatemala venció a Bolivia" | accessdate=2008-08-09] (35)
pcupdate = 31 December 2007
ntupdate = August 2008

Juan Carlos Plata (born 1 January 1971) is a Guatemalan football striker and the second highest goalscorer in the history of the Guatemala national team behind Carlos Ruiz.

Plata has played all of his professional club career for CSD Municipal and is also the all-time top goalscorer for that club; he has broken virtually every scoring record associated with professional football in Guatemala, and as of March 2008 is the world's leading active goalscorer.

Club career

Plata, born in Guatemala City, made his debut in the "Liga Mayor" (Major League, now Liga Nacional) with Municipal in the 1990-1991 season, in which he won the national title. He has since been a regular for the club, and has helped them win 11 league titles, 5 domestic cups, and 4 Central American championships.

A consistent striker throughout his career, Plata has scored at least 15 goals in 13 different seasons, with his most prolific season in terms of total goals scored being 2005-2006, when he scored 32 goals in total for both the "Torneo de Apertura" and the "Torneo de Clausura".

On 15 February 2008, Plata played his 500th official match with Municipal against Deportivo Zacapa for the domestic league. [Source: http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2008/febrero/16/220761.html]

National Team

Plata has scored 35 international goals in 86 international matches. He has not appeared in any World Cup finals as Guatemala has never qualified to them, but played for the national squad at the World Cup qualification processes of 1998, 2002 and 2006. He scored 7 goals in 27 World Cup qualification matches, including 2 in a 2-1 win against Costa Rica in 5 September 2004 that helped Guatemala advance to the final stage of the 2006 CONCACAF World Cup qualification.

His most famous goal with the national team, however, might be the one he scored in the last seconds of the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup match against Brazil, a header off a corner kick to equalize the score 1-1, a very surprising result considering Brazil were the reigning world champions at the time and fielded stars like Romario, Mauro Silva, Edmundo, Denilson and Taffarel.

He retired from international play in 2006.

Playing style

Plata is not a very physically gifted player, but he is a technical player with a good sense of positioning and playing without the ball. He is not only a good finisher but he can also be a creative playmaker and passer.

Honours

As of January 2008, Plata has scored the most career goals among all active players in the world in top division leagues, [ [http://www.iffhs.de/?b4a390f03be4ac07cda14b45fdcdc3bfcdc0aec7cdee09 "The World's most successful Top Division Goal Scorers among the still active Players"] - www.iffhs.de - IFFHS - retrieved 23 January 2008.] and is among the top 60 goalscorers of all time in the world [ [http://www.iffhs.de/?b4a390f03be4ac07cda17b45fdcdc3bfcdc0aec28d6d18 "The World's most successful Top Division Goal Scorers of all time"] - www.iffhs.de - IFFHS - retrieved 31 October 2006.] according to the International Federation of Football History & Statistics.

League champion:
*1991-1992
*1993-1994
*2000 Clausura
*2000 Apertura
*2001 Apertura
*2003 Clausura
*2003 Apertura
*2004 Apertura
*2005 Clausura
*2005 Apertura
*2006 Clausura

Top scorer:
*1996
*2005

Biography on film

Juan Carlos Plata's career received a tribute with the release in Guatemala of his biographic documentary film "321: Juan Carlos Plata" on 16 February 2006. The 94-minute film makes emphasis on the scoring of goal 321, which gave Plata the record as top goal scorer in the history of professional Guatemalan football. It also covers his ongoing career as well as non-sport related subjects, such as family and business. The premiere took place at the Centro Cultural Miguel Angel Asturias (national theatre), with over 2000 people in attendance. The documentary and other additional features, are included in a DVD which includes over 200 of his career goals and was released for sale to the public on the night of the film's premiere.

References and footnotes

Further reading

*cite web |url=http://www.prensalibre.com/pl/2006/enero/09/131800.html | author=Barrios, Antonio; Castro, Claudia | publisher="Prensa Libre"| title="Un goleador especial" ("A special goalscorer") | accessdate=2006-12-20

External links

* [http://www.juancarlosplata.com/ Dedicated web site]
* [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/jcplata-intlg.html International appearances and goals] - by Dick Holstein, RSSSF.
* [http://www.rojos.com/~csdm/aficionados/plata/index.htm Player page at Municipal's official web site]
* [http://www.terra.com.gt/especiales/jcplata/portada.htm Terra.com - Player profile]