The Legend of El Lobo (Part 1)
A conversation with Amado Guevara
I had the opportunity to connect with Amado “El Lobo” Guevara recently. We discussed the origins of his nickname, his playing career, his endeavors on the other side of the touchline as a manager, and much more. For many of you, Amado is a household name and a player you watched regularly. I think you will enjoy discovering new insights from his legendary career. For others, you may not know much about him or have just heard his name. I hope that you will have a newfound respect for Amado and his importance in the Concacaf region. This is part one of a two-part series - stay tuned for the next one!
An unlikely beginning
Amado comes from a footballing family. Two of his uncles played professionally for Motagua (a grande in Honduras’ Liga Nacional) and were even called into the Honduran national team, La Selección, on several occasions. He told me, “I grew up seeing their image and wanting to be the same or better than them.” Knowing this, you may wonder why I titled this section an unlikely beginning.
Despite coming from a family of great players, he didn’t grow up playing for any youth academies or any teams for that matter. He had to stick to playing with his brothers and playing pickup (potras) in the neighborhood. Because of this, Amado told me, “My chances of being in the national team were almost zero.” His mother wanted him to focus on his studies - and for him, this was not a problem, but it meant the likelihood of a footballing career was slim.
When Amado was 13, a good friend of his, who was part of the youth national team setup, invited him to go watch their training. It just so happened that on that day, they needed more players to scrimmage against - so his friend invited him to the pitch. When the coach asked him what position he played, Amado told him “Where do you want to put me?” because the truth was he didn’t play for a formal team, he was just playing potras. The coach decided to put him at striker…he scored 3 goals that game.
After that training, the coaching staff took notice and asked if he was interested in continuing with the team. Amado told them, “Look, it will be difficult for my mom to give me permission because of my studies, but I am going to ask her.” In the end, he was permitted to continue with the team and was given a spot in the team without even asking for it. Some might say it was a coincidence, and others could say it happened by accident, but this was the first of many moments I heard from Amado in his life that seemed much more like divine intervention.
At age 13, he began playing with the U-17 squad and he was the youngest there. A few months later, at age 14, Amado was called into the team to go to Trinidad and Tobago for the 1991 Concacaf U-17 tournament to determine who would go onto the U-17 World Cup. There was just one problem…his friend who invited him to train on that fateful day did not make the squad. This weighed on Amado. He talked to the coach and said, “Look, I’m here because of an invitation from my friend, so it’s better for him to go and not me.” The coach laughed a little and explained it didn’t work like that and reassured Amado that he earned a position in the team and that he had to go.
He made his debut for the U-17 team at that tournament, but in the end, they did not advance. From there he continued to appear with the U-17, U-19, and U-20 teams. Throughout this time, he still didn’t have a club team and was only playing for youth national teams. Because of his performances, three of the four grandes of Honduran futbol were interested in signing him. In the end, there was one team he was most interested in…as Amado put it “el equipo de mis amores.”
Dreams come true
Futbol Club Motagua is one of the most storied clubs in Honduras and Central America as a whole. When I asked Amado about debuting for the club, he explained “Well, first of all, it was a fulfilled dream. Since I was born, I've always been a fan of Motagua. In some games, I used to go out as a mascot with the players. Seeing that I could defend and wear that shirt was a real privilege and an honor…it was a great blessing from God.”
At just 18, Amado’s career was on an upward trajectory. He was playing for his dream club, and he was part of the Honduran team that was preparing to qualify for the 1995 U-20 World Cup in Qatar. How could it get any better? On May 3rd, 1994, the day after his 18th birthday, the phone rang.
He was being called into La Selección for the first time. Honduras was taking part in the 1994 Miami Cup (a tournament featuring Honduras, El Salvador, Colombia, and Peru). He was an emergency selection - two or three of the players in the team could not get their visas sorted out in time for the games and since Amado had one, he was able to go. About the whole situation, Amado explained, “When God has a purpose, He has it.”
A few days later, Amado saw that he was named in the starting XI to make his debut in the third-place game against Peru. He told me that at first, it didn’t feel real. As he remembered that night, a lot of sweet memories came to his mind. The himno nacional playing in pregame, the referee blowing the opening whistle, and his first touch. He explained, “I wanted to run everything, I wanted to go all over the field, I wanted to enjoy that game and never finish.” In the end, they were victorious over a very strong Peru team 2-1.
On what it meant to make his debut, Amado said “I think representing Honduras was a real honor, a real privilege for me. That shirt means a lot to me. I've always dreamed of it since I was a kid…so the truth is that it was unforgettable. That first game with the national team was unforgettable…it was a dream come true and I thank God because it was a great blessing.” This was just the beginning for him as he would go on to have 137 more caps (second most all-time for La H)…but we will get to more of those in a bit.
The legend of “El Lobo” is born
Just a few months after making his debut for the senior team, Amado was back with the U-20 team as they entered the 1994 Concacaf U-20 tournament in which the top two teams would qualify for the U-20 World Cup. Honduras were the hosts and expectations were high - they had a good squad and home-field advantage. In the group stage, they won all 3 games and qualified for the final phase.
Honduras were playing one of their rivals, El Salvador, in the first game of the final phase. While they would still have two more games after this, it felt like a must-win to the team and the fans. Amado would never forget that night - he scored two goals and added an assist which led to a 4-2 victory. In addition to his play, that game birthed the nickname he still carries to this day. When you talk with many Honduran fans, they still refer to him as “El Lobo” or “The Wolf”.
The night of that game, there was a full moon. Amado also had a howl at one point during the match according to a journalist. Those factors paired with his stellar performance made the nickname easy to come up with and it stuck. He explained that after that game a journalist in Honduras had baptized him as “El Lobo”. As with any nickname, once it sticks with the masses, you can’t get rid of it. Los Catrachos would go on to beat both Canada and Costa Rica to finish first in the tournament and qualify for the 1995 U-20 World Cup in Qatar. This further cemented the legacy of his nickname and the fans knew it was only a matter of time before El Lobo would do great things for the senior team.
A rising star
Although Honduras was eliminated in the group stage at the U-20 World Cup, Amado scored goals against both Portugal and Argentina. His great play with the national team and at Motagua turned into a move overseas with Real Valladolid. At the time, the owners of the club had a vision to sign young players, form them, and try to stay in the first division. This was a new level of futbol - in just 5 years, Amado had gone from playing potras to playing in one of the best leagues in the world. He explained, “At 18 I find myself playing against the great players, the monsters of that time, against Real Madrid, against great teams like Barcelona, Atlético, Valencia, and Sevilla. They were powerful teams.”
Amado wasn’t just playing against legends, but he had a legend in the making as his manager. Rafa Benítez (who would later go on to win the Champions League, Club World Cup, and Europa League among other accolades) had just come from an extended season of managing Real Madrid’s reserves. He had a knack for developing young talent, even then. Under Benítez, Amado was a regular in the team and was enjoying his futbol. Unfortunately, the results weren’t enough on the field and Rafa was sacked after 23 games. With the new coaching staff, everything changed.
Under the new manager, the younger players were getting a lot less playing time. He explained, “I wanted to play, I enjoyed playing, I fought for it, I gave everything to play, and I felt that I deserved to keep playing, but it wasn't enough for the coach. So when the season ended, I talked to him, to the owners, I told them that I was going to go back to Honduras and that I wasn't going to play, and in the end, I decided to go back to Honduras.”
While this stop in Spain was short-lived, it was not wasted. Amado told me that it was a year of growth - both personally and in football. Being able to compete on the field and play in that league was such a valuable experience. He told me, “That gave me confidence and gave me that security that through working I could get to bigger things.” He brought this confidence back to Motagua with him and it showed.
Going into the 1997 Apertura, Motagua had gone 6 years without a league title, and before that, they had not won the league since the 1970s. Their fortune would turn around in the late 90s with Amado running the midfield. He was developing a reputation as a complete footballer. He was a very creative 10 but could play box-to-box in the midfield. He also had a nose for goal, especially from long distance. This was on display during the 1997 final against Real España, when Amado buried a shot from outside the box to help seal the title 5-1 on aggregate.
The 1998 Clausura was tightly contested between Motagua and their arch-rival Olimpia, with both clubs finishing tied atop the regular season table. As fate would have it, they met in the playoff final. The first leg ended in a 0-0 draw and after 90 minutes into the second leg, they were still deadlocked. In extra time, Motagua had a dangerous free-kick opportunity. Amado stood over the ball, while his teammate Reinaldo Clavasquín ran in and struck it perfectly to seal the 1-0 victory. It was back-to-back titles for Motagua, and Amado finished tied for the Golden Boot with 15 goals!
This was the beginning of a great run for El Lobo and Motagua as they would go on to win 3 more trophies (1999 Supercup, 1999 Apertura, 2000 Clausura) with the two league titles coming against arch-rival Olimpia again. It was time for a new challenge for Amado - and it came in the form of a move to Mexico where he played with both Toros Neza and Zacatepec. After a few seasons in Mexico, he returned to Central America to play for the Costa Rican giant Saprissa. In all of those stops, he continued to prove himself as one of the most creative and dangerous players on the pitch. Before we go any further…there was something historic that happened during his time in Mexico. It wasn’t with either of his clubs there but with the La Selección.
Catrachos at Copa América
It was the summer of 2001 and Copa América (the most prestigious tournament in the region) was fast approaching. Colombia was set to host, but there were rising security concerns in the country. After several meetings, CONMEBOL canceled the tournament on July 1st. A few days later, however, they announced that the tournament was back on and that it would begin as originally scheduled on July 11th. Because of the back and forth, Canada dropped out and was replaced by Costa Rica to represent Concacaf alongside Mexico. The day before the tournament was set to begin, Argentina pulled out as well citing death threats they were receiving from terrorist groups. The organizers decided to invite another team less than 24 hours before the tournament began…and that team was Honduras.
Los Catrachos were set to begin their tournament on July 13th and they needed to put a team together. I asked Amado what those days were like preparing for the tournament and he began to chuckle. He explained, “I laugh a little because when you ask me how those days went…there weren't days, it was just one.” He was still playing Mexico at the time when he got a call from manager Ramon Maradiaga (whom Amado describes as the most important coach he ever had). Maradiaga told him he needed to get a flight back to Honduras the next day because they would be traveling to take part in Copa América. He was shocked…not only because Honduras was invited, to which he said “That's not normal in our country, it had never happened,” but also because they were on such a tight timeline.
When he arrived in Tegucigalpa the next day, a Colombian military aircraft was already waiting to escort the team to the tournament. Because everything was arranged at the last minute, there were a lot of new players called into the team, and household names like Carlos Pavón and Tyson Nuñez, among others, were not able to make it. Amado even recalls people asking the names of the other players on that flight. The manager informed Amado that he would be captaining the team for the first time in his career during the tournament. The team didn’t get to their hotel until 3 a.m. the next day and had to face Costa Rica in their opening game that night.
As the captain, I asked Amado about that responsibility, the team’s expectations, and what his message was to the other players. On the expectations, he said, “Honestly, the expectations were to go and play the three games, do our best, and then return.” As I talked with him, it seemed that because there weren’t high expectations, it allowed the team to play more freely. His message to the team, which was supported by the coaching staff, was to go out and enjoy it. He explained, “If God had given us that opportunity, we would enjoy every moment, we would play without any pressure. Everything was a gain for us. Everything we did was going to be a gain because nobody could demand anything from us.”
After little sleep and no preparation, they faced off against regional rival Costa Rica. After a tightly contested first hour, they gave up a goal in the second half and ended up losing 1-0. The team was not demoralized though, in fact, it was the opposite. Amado told me “We felt that we could do more, we were ready for more, and we had that confidence.” The team viewed that first game as their training. They took everything day by day. The technical staff didn’t correct mistakes in training with the same intensity as usual and they supported the players. The players were given more downtime to check out the city and meet people. Amado explained that everything was atypical but they were enjoying every moment.
In their second game, they faced off against Bolivia and everything started to click. After a solid first half, La H turned it up a notch in the second. In the 53rd minute, Amado fired home a shot from outside the box to give them a 1-0 lead. Just a few minutes later, a poor clearance from the keeper fell into his path and he took a strike from 30+ yards that found the back of the net (you can find those highlights below). El Lobo bagged his brace and led Honduras to their first-ever, victory at a Copa América. The team was flying high and knew they could keep improving.
In their final group stage game they faced Uruguay. To advance to the knockout round, they just needed a tie but Amado explained to me, “We wanted to win, we wanted to continue making history.” Honduras did just that as they were able to beat Uruguay 1-0 thanks to a beautiful give-and-go move started and finished by Amado. The team felt unstoppable as they were making history. Amado recalled this moment, “After the game, I remember that we arrived at the dressing room and celebrated, euphoric and everything…and then we realized that the opponent we had was Brasil.”
In recent years, Brasil has remained a team that nobody wants to face…but in the late 90s and early 2000s, they were a nightmare opponent. Coming into the 2001 tournament, the Seleção were back-to-back Copa America champions and were champions at the 1994 World Cup (their 4th title) and runner-up at the 1998 World Cup. Despite all of this recent success, they were struggling in World Cup qualifying and brought in the legendary Luiz Felipe Scolari to turn things around. They lost their first group game to Mexico but followed that up with convincing wins over Peru and Paraguay. The quarterfinal game was set and other than the 1982 World Cup, it was the biggest stage that La H had ever been on.
Amado and the team knew it was going to be a tough test, but they did not back down. They were surprisingly able to maintain a lot of the ball and had several chances in the first half. Despite not playing their usual futbol, Brasil had three very quality chances that required big saves from Noel Valladares to keep Honduras level. Coming out of the break, Los Catrachos had all the momentum and in the 57th minute, Rambo de León played a perfect ball to Saúl Martínez who directed a header toward the goal…it bounced off the post, deflected off a defender into the net…1-0 Honduras! Just minutes later, they struck again with a beautiful near-post finish…but the referee incorrectly called the ball out of play before it was crossed. It makes you wonder what these games would have been like with VAR!
This momentary setback inspired Honduras even more and Brasil couldn’t seem to slow them down and get control of the game. La H continued to dominate the game into added time while only holding a 1-0 lead. Despite the momentum, this Brasil team was dangerous enough that they just needed a half-chance to potentially tie the game. In the 94th minute, Amado cut off the Brasileiro attack and ran down the field where a teammate picked up the ball, entered the final third, and played to Saúl Martínez who beat the keeper to seal the game for Honduras 2-0! This was the greatest achievement in Honduran futbol history - to beat the region’s, and arguably the world’s, most successful team was an unimaginable achievement. Do yourself a favor and check out the highlights of that game here.
Rather than trying to explain what that moment was like for Amado and the team, I want you to hear it in his own words. He explained to me that until the pandemic, he hadn’t watched the replay of the game, but that moment and those feelings seemed just as fresh over 20 years later.
After the shock of that victory and the celebrations had ended, Honduras found themselves in the semifinals against the host country Colombia a few days later. They played the hosts in a tight game but ultimately weren’t able to capitalize in and around the box and they fell 2-0. This resulted in a rematch versus Uruguay in the 3rd place game, which still left all to play for Los Catrachos. Going into that game, no team from Concacaf outside of Mexico had ever finished in the top 3 of this legendary tournament and they had another chance to make history.
Honduras opened the scoring early in the game and Uruguay responded in kind. Late in the first half, Honduras took a 2-1 lead off of a beautiful set-piece delivery from Amado. Uruguay responded just a few minutes later. They entered the second half tied at 2-2 and that scoreline would hold through the end of the game…penalties would decide the winner. Noel Valladares saved the second Uruguayan attempt and Júnior Izaguirre finished off the game with the final penalty. Honduras placed third and made history! Watch the highlights here.
After captaining the underdogs Honduras to a third-place finish, scoring 3 goals and adding a few assists, Amado Guevara was named into the Best XI and received the MVP award of the entire tournament. He was and still is, the only player from Concacaf to receive this prestigious honor, and his name is cemented alongside the other winners such as Pelé, Carlos “El Pibe” Valderrama, O Fenômeno Ronaldo, Luis Suárez, and of course…Lionel Messi. Recently, Amado received a photo of all of the Copa America MVPs and he told me, “I often wonder how I achieved that. And my answer was only God. He had that special gift for me and my family…the truth is that it is something very beautiful…I see it as it is, that it was a blessing from God.”
Part Two Preview
Amado had just led Honduras to their greatest footballing achievement and was playing the best futbol of his life. The work was far from over though, as Honduras would soon be in the thick of qualifying for the 2002 World Cup with their “golden generation”. In part two, we will explore that qualification journey along with his move to play in MLS, playing in a World Cup, his transition to the other side of the touchline as a manager, and his recent move to High Point, NC to join the staff at Carolina Core FC. Stay tuned!
As we end the year, I am extremely thankful for all of you who have supported ConcaCorner. 2024 will be a huge year for the sport, especially in this region. I look forward to bringing you compelling stories, competition previews/updates, and interviews in the coming year!