Armando Dely Valdés

Armando Dely Valdés
Personal information
Full name Armando Javier Dely Valdés
Date of birth (1964-01-05)January 5, 1964
Place of birth Colón, Panama
Date of death August 17, 2004(2004-08-17) (aged 40)
Place of death Colón, Panama
Position(s) Striker
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1981–1983 Técnica y Deportes 276 (121)
1983–1988 Argentinos Juniors 245 (18)
1988 Instituto de Córdoba
1989 San Martín
1989–1990 Maccabi Tel Aviv
1990–1991 Beitar Tel Aviv
1991 Peñarol
1992 Liverpool MVD 12 (2)
1995 Plaza Amador
International career
1984–1995 Panama 34 (13)
Managerial career
1996 Plaza Amador
Árabe Unido
1996–2001 Panama (assistant)
Panama U-20
*Club domestic league appearances and goals
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Dely and the second or maternal family name is Valdés.

Armando Javier Dely Valdés (5 January 1964 – 17 August 2004) was a Panamanian footballer who played as a forward. He was the elder brother of the twins Julio Dely Valdés and Jorge Dely Valdés.

Club career

He started his playing career with Técnica y Deportes in Panama.

In 1983, he was signed by Argentinos Juniors and went on to win a number of major titles with the club. They were back-to-back league champions in the Metropolitano 1984 and the Nacional 1985. They went on to win the Copa Libertadores in 1985 and the 1985 Copa Interamericana, and played in the Copa Intercontinental against Juventus of Italy.[1]

Nicknamed Pelé, Dely Valdés left Argentinos Juniors for another Argentine team, Instituto de Córdoba. He went on to play for San Martín de Tucumán in Argentina, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Beitar Tel Aviv in Israel, Peñarol and Liverpool in Uruguay.[2]

International career

Dely Valdés represented his country in 4 FIFA World Cup qualification matches[3] His final international was a December 1995 UNCAF Nations Cup match against Guatemala.

Retirement and death

After retiring as a player he worked as the assistant manager of the Panama national team between 1996 and 2001 and became the coach of the Panama Under-20 team in 2001. He also managed Plaza Amador and Árabe Unido.[1]

On May 29, 2001, Daly Valdés suffered a heart attack which left him in a coma from which he never recovered. He was left in a permanent vegetative state in which he suffered sepsis and lung infections amongst other complications. He died in the Manuel Amador Guerrero Hospital in Colón in 2004.[4] After his death, the Panamanian Football Federation renamed the Árabe Unido football stadium to Estadio Armando Dely Valdés.

Honours

Argentinos Juniors

References

  1. ^ a b Pele Dely”, un colonense que reinó en Argentina Archived June 11, 2015, at the Wayback Machine - Somos Lasele (in Spanish)
  2. ^ "Murió el ex delantero panameño Armando Dely Valdés" - El Observador (in Spanish)
  3. ^ Armando Dely Valdés – FIFA competition record (archived)
  4. ^ "Murió Armando Dely Valdéz, jugador de Argentinos Jrs., hermano mayor de Julio César y Jorge Dely Valdéz" - Mediotiempo (in Spanish)