Martín Alejandro Machón Guerra (born 4 February 1973) is a Guatemalan former professional

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 ...

. He played mostly in the

midfield In many sports, midfield is the part of a sports field that is near the line that is equally far from the end lines. That is, in American football it is the part of the field near the 50-yard line; in association football (soccer) and field hoc ...

for local club

Comunicaciones Comunicaciones Fútbol Club S.A., better known as Comunicaciones F.C. or Comunicaciones, is a professional association football, football club based in Guatemala City. They compete in the Liga Nacional de Fútbol de Guatemala, Liga Nacional, th ...

and

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a professional Association football, soccer league in North America and the highest level of the United States soccer league system. It comprises 30 teams, with 27 in the United States and 3 in Canada, and is sanc ...

clubs

Los Angeles Galaxy The Los Angeles Galaxy are an American professional Association football, soccer club based in the Greater Los Angeles area. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Western Conference (MLS), Western Conference. The Gal ...

and

Miami Fusion Miami Fusion F.C. was an American professional soccer club based in the Miami metropolitan area. The club competed in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team played from 1998 to 2001. Announced in 1997 as one ...

, and also became a member of the Guatemala national team, which he represented during three World Cup qualification processes.

Club career

Born in Santa Catarina Pinula, Machón was scouted by top-level club ''Galcasa FC'', now defunct, and debuted in the '' Liga Mayor'' with them in the 1990–91 season, scoring twice in his first match against Xelajú MC.Source: http://www.deguate.com/artman/publish/personajes_deportistas/Mart_n_Alejandro_Mach_n_739.shtml He then joined

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 ...

, and while at that team, he was first called up to the national team. In 1993, he had a call-up from Spanish ''

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commonly known as Segunda División or La Liga 2, and officially known as LaLiga HyperMotion for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spa ...

'' team

CD Badajoz Club Deportivo Badajoz is a Spanish football team based in Badajoz, in the autonomous community of Extremadura. Founded in 1905, it currently plays in , and holds home games at '' Estadio Nuevo Vivero'', with a 15,198-seat capacity. History Fo ...

, where he trained for a brief period but did not go on to play-officially. After his return from Spain, Machón spent another year at Aurora, and in 1994 he joined

, where he had a successful time as he helped the team win league titles in the 1994–95 and 1996–97 seasons.

Years abroad: MLS and Mexico

In 1997, Machón became the second Guatemalan footballer after Jorge Rodas to sign for a team of the U.S.

, when

brought him to their roster. He played the 1997 and 1998 seasons at Galaxy, and during the latter, he scored 6 goals and made 14 assists, which earned him participation at the 1998

MLS All-Star Game The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially adopted a traditional all ...

. He also helped the team reach the playoffs in both seasons. Machón was loaned in December 1998 to México Primera División side

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V., simply known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club based in Torreón, Coahuila. The club competes in Liga MX, the top division of Mexican football. Founded in 1983 as Club Santos I ...

, where he played for one year before returning to the MLS, this time to play for

, where in spite of his team's struggles he had a positive 2000 season, making 16 assists in 24 matches. The following year he had his second stint with a Mexican club, joining

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 ...

and spending two seasons there.

Later playing years and retirement

After his second period playing in Mexico, Machón re-joined his former team

, where he remained until 2006. During the 2004–05 season and part of the 2005 Apertura tournament, he could not play due to a knee injury. He retired at the end of the 2006 ''Apertura'' season, and in February 2007 he was one of several former players to participate in a friendly match in Guatemala City to honor

Diego Maradona Diego Armando Maradona Franco (30 October 196025 November 2020) was an Argentine professional association football, football player and manager. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport, he was one of the two ...

. As of January 2008, he was a radio commentator and entrepreneur. He also has been working with the organization DGEF in Guatemala. DGEF is an organization that helps young children get physically active. What he does helps children do physical activities and complements their academic training.

International career (1992–2006)

Machón made his debut for

Guatemala Guatemala, officially the Republic of Guatemala, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico, to the northeast by Belize, to the east by Honduras, and to the southeast by El Salvador. It is hydrologically b ...

in a May 1992 friendly match against

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and has earned a total of 60 caps, scoring 5 goals. Machón represented the Guatemalan team in the qualification rounds for the World Cups of 1994, 1998, and 2002. He also was part of the national squads that competed at 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 ...

s of 1996, 1998, 2000, and 2003. At the 1998 Gold Cup, his

corner kick A corner kick, commonly known as a corner, is the method of restarting play in a game of association football when the ball goes out of play over the goal line, without a goal being scored and having last been touched by a member of the defe ...

provided the assist in Juan Carlos Plata's goal against

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

on which Guatemala achieved a surprise draw with the then world champions. Machón played his last international match in February 2006 against the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

International goals

:''Scores and results list. Guatemala's goal tally first.''

Honors

Individual *

MLS All-Star The Major League Soccer All-Star Game is an annual Association football, soccer game held by Major League Soccer featuring selected players from the league against an international club or selected players from another league. MLS initially ado ...

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 ...

References

External links

Weltfussball.de – career summary
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Machon, Martin 1973 births Living people People from Guatemala Department Guatemalan men's footballers Guatemalan expatriate men's footballers Guatemala men's international footballers Aurora F.C. players CD Badajoz players Comunicaciones F.C. players LA Galaxy players Santos Laguna footballers Miami Fusion players Atlas F.C. footballers Major League Soccer players Liga MX players Expatriate men's soccer players in the United States Expatriate men's footballers in Mexico 1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup players Major League Soccer All-Stars Miami Fusion draft picks Men's association football midfielders C.S.D. Galcasa players