Mauricio Alonso Rodríguez

Club career

Nicknamed Pipo, Rodríguez played soccer at high school level for the Colegio Externado San José. He began playing professionally for Atlante San Alejo in 1962. He was signed, on a one-year loan basis, by C.D. FAS. Rodriguez permanently signed and played out his soccer career at Universidad from 1963 to 1972. Universidad was a professional soccer club that played in the top "A" professional league in El Salvador. The Universidad Club was owned by the Salvadoran National University, where "Pipo" studied and graduated with a civil engineer degree. During his playing career, he was a goal scoring machine. At the age of 20, he became the joint (with Panamanian Oscar Tapia) top scorer in the professional league with 23 goals during the 1965–66 season. He was best known for making acrobatic sideways shots and difficult scissor kicks.

International career

When he was 16, Rodríguez was selected to play for the El Salvador national under-17 football team and he was selected to play for the senior El Salvador, at the age of 17, in 1963. He helped the national team qualify and play in the 1968 Olympics. He scored a goal in the Olympic Games in tie against Ghana. Later, he helped the El Salvador national team qualify for the World Cup. In the run-up he has represented his country in 8 FIFA World Cup qualification matches. El Salvador lost 1–0 in the first game in Honduras in their best two out of three matches. El Salvador won the next game 3–0 at home to…