FIFA.com sharpshooters Marcel Hernandez Cuban Club: CS Cartagines Costa Rica

 

Marcel Hernandez

Nationality: Cuban
Club: CS Cartagines (Costa Rica)
Age: 31
2020 record: 31 goals in 40 matches

Although he finished the calendar year behind Ronaldo and Lewandowski, Hernandez was nevertheless the official top scorer in world football in season 2019/20. By September 2020, he had scored 26 goals for Costa Rican outfit CD Cartagines. Since then, the Havana-born forward has netted five more times, lifting himself into third place for the entire year.

After coming through the ranks at FC Ciudad de La Habana and starring for the team in the Cuban League, Hernandez played in Antigua and Barbuda and the Dominican Republic. Having arrived in Cartagines in 2018, the rangy striker found his feet in the Costa Rican League, eventually bagging a sensational haul of 31 goals – a tally that does not include a single penalty kick – in 2020, forcing fans from outside the island of his birth to sit up and take notice of him.

Many Cubans are now wondering if Hernandez’s scoring exploits will persuade him to come out of international retirement – in 2013, he had announced his decision to no longer make himself available for his country after being omitted from the CONCACAF Gold Cup squad. With important qualifiers for Qatar 2022™ on the horizon, might we again see the 31-year-old represent the Leones del Caribe, for whom he recorded eight goals in 24 appearances between 2010 and 2013?

Did you know?
In 2017, Hernandez was on the verge of packing his bags for Europe, but his transfer to Kosovan side Trepca’89 fell through due to administrative reasons.