Edgar Eladio Estrada Solís (born November 16, 1967), popularly known as "El Gato" (The Cat), is a Guatemalan former

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

goalkeeper In many team sports that involve scoring goal (sport), goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie, or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or i ...

for several clubs in Guatemala's top division. He was

capped In sport, a cap is a player's appearance in a game at international level. The term dates from the practice in the United Kingdom of awarding a cap to every player in an international match of rugby football and association football. In the e ...

71 times for the Guatemala national team.

Club career

"El Gato" started his professional career at

Aurora F.C. Aurora Fútbol Club is a Guatemalan professional Association football, football club. They are based in Guatemala City and play their home matches in the ''Estadio Cementos Progreso''. Once one of the most powerful teams in the country and a tra ...

, winning the domestic league title in the 1992-93 season. He remained there until 1996, when he joined

CSD Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, is a professional football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football. One of the most popular a ...

. He helped that club win four consecutive league titles. In 2001, he signed with

CSD Municipal Club Social y Deportivo Municipal, also known as Municipal or ''Los Rojos'' (the Reds), are a Guatemalan professional football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional, the top tier of Guatemalan football, and play their h ...

, where he won two more titles. He then had a second stint with Comunicaciones. On May 11, 2003, he scored his first career goal via a

penalty kick A penalty shot or penalty kick is a play used in several sports whereby a goal is attempted during untimed play. Depending on the sport, when a player commits certain types of penalties, the opposition is awarded a penalty shot or kick attempt. ...

. He repeated such action one year later, against his former club Aurora. After having retired due to a

spine Spine or spinal may refer to: Science Biology * Spinal column, also known as the backbone * Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite * Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants * Spine (zoology), ...

injury, he surprisingly returned to play in 2005 for Comunicaciones. He then joined Deportivo Suchitepéquez, of whom he was a member until the end of 2006. As of the 2008 ''Clausura'' tournament, he was playing for Club Petapa, which he joined in 2007. He retired after that season but in June 2008 it was said he would perhaps continue his career at Deportivo Zacapa. Estrada was the leading goalkeeper in terms of

goals against average Goals against average (GAA), also known as average goals against (AGA), is a statistic used in field hockey, ice hockey, lacrosse, soccer, and water polo that is the mean of goals allowed per game by a goaltender or goalkeeper (depending on spo ...

in 11 consecutive league tournaments.

International career

Estrada defended the Guatemala national team between 1995 and 2003, appearing in 80 international matches and becoming the most capped player ever for the country, until

Juan Carlos Plata Juan Carlos Plata (born 1 January 1971), nicknamed El Pin or Pin Plata, is a Guatemalan professional football manager and former player who played as a striker. He is the highest-scoring player in the history of Guatemala's top division. As of ...

surpassed his mark in 2005. Estrada participated in the qualification processes for 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 ...

and

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 ...

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

, receiving 25 goals in 20 matches. In January 2001, after allowing 5 goals in a defeat against

Costa Rica Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America. It borders Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, as well as Maritime bo ...

, which eliminated Guatemala from the 2002 World Cup qualifying campaign, he was highly criticised, to the extent of receiving

death threat A death threat is a threat, often made anonymously, by one person or a group of people to kill another person or group of people. These threats are often designed to intimidate victims in order to manipulate their behaviour, in which case a d ...

s. He would not play any other official international matches that year. He appeared in three more official matches for Guatemala, before retiring from the national team in 2003. Estrada played in three editions of the

UNCAF Nations Cup 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 ...

and in five editions of the

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 ...

. He has represented his country in 20

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.Record at FIFA Tournaments
- FIFA

External links

- by Luis Fernando Passo Alpuin,

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (''RSSSF'') is an international organisation dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estrada, Edgar 1967 births Living people Footballers from Guatemala City Men's association football goalkeepers Guatemalan men's footballers Guatemala men's international footballers Aurora F.C. players Comunicaciones F.C. players C.S.D. Municipal players C.D. Suchitepéquez players 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Deportivo Petapa players 20th-century Guatemalan sportsmen