Gabriel Gómez

In his early career, Panama City-born Gómez – nicknamed Gavilán (Hawk)– rarely settled with a club, playing in both his country and Colombia. In 2007, he moved to Portugal and signed for C.F. Os Belenenses initially on a one-year loan, from Independiente Santa Fe whom he had joined in December 2005. Gómez made his Primeira Liga debut on 20 August 2007 in a 1–1 draw at Associação Naval 1º de Maio, being relatively used during his three-year stint as the Lisbon side were eventually relegated at the end of the 2009–10 season. In the last minutes of the following summer transfer window, he moved to Cyprus and signed with Ermis Aradippou FC, reuniting with former Belenenses teammate Wender. In August 2011, after a spell back in Colombia with La Equidad alongside countrymen Gabriel Torres and Román Torres, Gómez teamed up with compatriot Blas Pérez at Mexican Ascenso MX side Indios de Ciudad Juárez. He signed for the Philadelphia Union of Major League Soccer on 21 December 2011, scoring his first league goal in the season opener against the Portland Timbers (3–1 away loss). Gómez returned to Colombia in December 2012, to play for Atlético Junior. He continued changing clubs and countries in quick succession in the following years, representing San Francisco F.C. and C.S. Herediano.

Gómez represented the Panamanian under-20 team at the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates. He made his debut for the full side in a game against El Salvador in the 2003 UNCAF Nations Cup, and went on to play for his country on more than 140 occasions, including in 27 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. Gómez was named in the 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. He made his debut in the competition on 18 June at the age of 34 years and 20 days, playing the entire 3–0 defeat to Belgium in the group stage; later that month, he announced his retirement from international play.

Club

As of 10 May 2018

International

Scores and results list Panama's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Gómez goal.

During his career, Gómez played mainly for hometown side Atlético Nacional, representing the club in eight professional seasons, in two different spells, and helping the team to three first division titles. Incidentally, in 1989, when Atlético won the Libertadores Cup, he played for city neighbours Independiente Medellín, having signed from Club Deportivo Los Millonarios. After returning to Nacional in 1991, Gómez retired four years later, at the age of 36. After he retired from playing, Gómez became a football coach. He has managed Envigado, Atlético Nacional, Unión Magdalena and Atlético Bucaramanga in Colombia, Deportivo Quito in Ecuador and Caracas FC in Venezuela.

During nearly one full decade, Gómez was capped 49 times for Colombia, scoring twice. He represented the nation in two FIFA World Cups, 1990 and 1994, and three Copa América tournaments: 1987, 1989 and 1993. In the World Cup, Gómez started in all four of his country's matches in 1990, as Colombia were ousted in the round of 16 by Cameroon. In the 1994 World Cup, in the United States, the team received death threats from unknown people prior to the second group stage match against the hosts, saying the entire team would be killed if Gómez were to appear in the match. Coach Francisco Maturana pulled Gómez from the roster and he did not play in the match. The team subsequently lost the match 1-2, with one of the two goals for the USA being an own goal scored by Colombian defender Andrés Escobar. The team was eliminated from the tournament, and six days later Andrés Escobar was murdered in Medellín.

Gómez married former model Ingrid González, sister of former international goalkeeper Donaldo González, fathering two children.