For a little more than nine years, Guatemalan Carlos Ruiz stood at the summit of an international football mountain top. His 39 goals in 47 FIFA World Cup™ qualifying matches over the better part of two decades ranked as No1. It finally took one of the most-decorated players the sport has ever seen, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, to usurp the player affectionately known as ‘El Pescadito’ (The Little Fish).
The longevity and consistency with which Ruiz played in World Cup qualifying is astounding. Eight goals in nine games in the cycle for Korea/Japan 2002, was followed by ten goals in 14 matches on the road to Germany 2006. In each of the preliminaries for South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014, Ruiz notched six goals in seven matches, before finishing with a flurry by tallying nine goals in ten matches in qualifying for Russia 2018.
But there is no doubt the 46-year-old would trade any personal achievement to see Guatemala feature on the biggest stage of all. Head coach Luis Fernando Tena’s men are third in Group A of the third round of Concacaf qualifying for the FIFA World Cup 26™, but just a single point behind both Suriname and Panama. As fate would have it, both of those teams visit Guatemala during the November window to close out qualifying, Wins in both contests would mean a World Cup ticket.
In a recent interview with FIFA, Ruiz spoke about Ronaldo breaking his record, Guatemala’s World Cup hopes and how qualification could forever change the Central American country’s football setup.
Carlos Ruiz: I think previously Ali Daei had the record, I don’t know for how many years, because it’s a record that many people don’t know about. The recognition of being the all-time goalscoring leader in World Cup qualifying depends on who has it. Obviously now that Cristiano Ronaldo has this record, it has a lot more value than, say, Ali Daei or Carlos Ruiz, no? But I am proud for having been No1 for nine years, and that two of football’s giants, Cristiano and Lionel Messi, were pursuing my record. To be in the middle of both Cristiano Ronaldo and Messi isn’t so bad, right?
For me, the biggest achievement I could have as a footballer was wearing my country’s colours and singing the Guatemalan national anthem. That’s why I wanted to be on the national team for such a long time. Then, if you add the goal of seeing Guatemala play in the World Cup, it meant that in every qualifying cycle we tried to achieve the dream that all Guatemalans want, which is Guatemala in the World Cup.
Playing five World Cup qualifying campaigns is not easy. You have to be at a competitive level, and then avoid injuries, because in five qualifying campaigns you are talking about playing 20 years at a national team level. I think what helped me was playing so many years abroad and being in a competitive rhythm, so that when I arrived to the national team, that same competitive rhythm I had playing abroad was the one I played with in the national team.
Choosing a goal I had with the national team is impossible. I remember just about all of the goals I scored with Guatemala, 68 overall, 39 in qualifying. My first goal was against El Salvador in a Copa UNCAF in Costa Rica and my final goal was against USA. It’s difficult for me to decide which goal is the most wonderful or which goal means the most, because all of the goals I scored with the national team are an accomplishment. Scoring a national team goal is very difficult because you are playing against the best from another country.
Tena has done a great job. He’s committed. Over the course of our history, Guatemala have had many high-profile names in charge of the national team, but many of them did not have the commitment that Tena has now, which is understanding the Guatemalan footballer, understanding his idiosyncrasies, seeing all of the problems that a Guatemalan footballer goes through. Tena has understood this and has joined a group of players that, for me, are the best at their positions. I think the opportunity is there, not just for how they play, but the mentality that they have.
I don’t have any doubt. It’s true that none of the teams in the group have won at home, but it’s all there to be able to win those two matches. We face a Panama team that was destined to be one of the best teams in Concacaf but has surprisingly been below their level, and then we play Suriname, who have been a surprise in a good way. They are two tough matches and we have to win no matter what.
It would be so much euphoria and joy. We all want Guatemala to qualify for the World Cup. I don’t talk about it that much on social media because I don’t want to deflect attention away from what the boys are doing. But I communicate with some of them and they know perfectly well that I am supporting everything that they are doing and that I’m wishing them the best.
They have the opportunity to change Guatemalan football history, and I think Guatemala deserve it. Honduras went to a World Cup, El Salvador went to a World Cup, Costa Rica went to a World Cup, Panama went to a World Cup, and incredibly, Guatemala is the best-paying league in Central America but we still haven’t been to a World Cup. In football, nothing is deserved, only earned, but Guatemala have been pushing for a very long time to be in a World Cup.
Oh, yes. There are so many Guatemalans in the United States that I don’t have the slightest doubt that Guatemala would play as the home team. Wherever Guatemala play, including Canada or in Mexico, we will fill the stadiums. Nobody will want to miss seeing the national team in the World Cup for the first time.
That is a very good question. Each national team that qualifies for the World Cup gets a strong economic boost, so the million-dollar question is what to do and where to place that money? How do you grow the foundation of Guatemalan football, and invest in the U-17, U-20 and U-23? I think we need to look at other teams that qualified for the World Cup and what they did afterwards.
Panama is an example. Panama invested a lot in their training facilities and infrastructure and their football began to grow. Almost 90 per cent of their national team players play abroad. I think that should be the goal of the Guatemalan Football Federation.
They need to start convincing domestic clubs that they have to sell talent, even if they are young; start exporting talent and improve the infrastructure. The coaches will then know what they are dealing with and the footballers called to the national team will have the right conditions and infrastructure, and that when they come to the national team, they play in an environment exactly like how they play in their clubs.
