Luis Gabelo Conejo

Luis Gabelo Conejo Jiménez (born 1 January 1960) is a Costa Rican retired footballer who played as a goalkeeper.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Conejo and the second or maternal family name is Jiménez.

Luis Conejo
Personal information
Full name Luis Gabelo Conejo Jiménez
Date of birth (1960-01-01) 1 January 1960
Place of birth San Ramón, Costa Rica
Height 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in)
Playing position(s) Goalkeeper
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1980–1988 Ramonense ? (5)
1989–1990 Cartaginés
1990–1992 Albacete 69 (0)
1993–1994 Albacete 12 (0)
1996 Herediano
1997 Ramonense
Total 263± (5±)
National team
1987–1991 Costa Rica 29 (0)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

He played mainly for Ramonense and Albacete, during a 17-year professional career. In 2009, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics named him the 34th best goalkeeper of the world for the period 1987–2008, and the seventh in Latin America.[1]

Conejo appeared for Costa Rica at the 1990 World Cup.

Club career

Born in San Ramón, Alajuela Province, Conejo made his professional debut for Asociación Deportiva Ramonense, playing his first game in the Primera División on 27 November 1981 against C.S. Herediano[2] and managing to score five league goals during his eight-year spell.[3] He left in 1989 to sign for C.S. Cartaginés, and subsequently joined Spanish club Albacete Balompié, quickly becoming an idol as the Castile-La Mancha side reached La Liga for the first time ever in 1991;[4][5] he made his debut in the competition on 1 September 1991 in a 0–2 away loss against CA Osasuna,[6] and finished the season with 33 appearances for a final seventh place.

After one year as a backup at Albacete, Conejo returned to Costa Rica with C.S. Herediano in 1996, retiring the following year after one season with Ramonense, aged 37. He had retired two times earlier, not playing in the 1992–93 and 1994–95 campaigns,[7] and his final league match occurred on 2 April 1997 against Puntarenas FC.[2]

International career

Conejo made his debut for Costa Rica in a 1987 friendly match with South Korea, and earned a total of 29 caps.[2] He appeared for his country in ten FIFA World Cup qualification matches,[8] and represented it at the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup.[9]

Conejo received international recognition during the 1990 FIFA World Cup: featuring in three matches and conceding only twice, his heroic saves against Scotland, Brazil and Sweden helped the nation reach the second round. He was replaced by Hermidio Barrantes in the round-of-16 encounter against Czechoslovakia because of an injury, and his team was eliminated; he still managed to be selected as one of the two best goalkeepers in the tournament, the other being Argentina's Sergio Goycochea.[10]

Conejo's final international was a 1991 Gold Cup match against Mexico.[2] Subsequently, he worked with the national team as goalkeepers' coach.[11]

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References
  1. All-Time World Goalkeeper Ranking; at IFFHS
  2. Buzón de Rodrigo – Carrera deportiva de Gabelo Conejo (Rodrigo's mailbox – Sporting career of Gabelo Conejo); La Nación, 30 June 2008 (in Spanish)
  3. Porteros ticos con más de dos años sin goles (Tico goalkeepers with more than two years without goals) Archived 3 August 2014 at Archive.today; La Nación, 8 April 2007 (in Spanish)
  4. Conejo, the Tico talisman; FIFA.com
  5. El Albacete hace historia (Albacete make history); Mundo Deportivo, 10 June 2001 (in Spanish)
  6. Urban apuntilla al Albacete (Urban finishes Albacete); Mundo Deportivo, 2 September 1991 (in Spanish)
  7. Luis Gabelo Conejo Jiménez; La Nación, 26 September 1999 (in Spanish)
  8. Luis Conejo – FIFA competition record
  9. CONCACAF Championship, Gold Cup 1991 – Full Details Archived 16 October 2013 at the Wayback Machine; at RSSSF
  10. 1990 – Italy; at World Cup Brazil
  11. Luis Gabelo Conejo confiaba en que Keylor Navas sería el mejor de la Liga Española (Luis Gabelo Conejo had confidence that Keylor Navas would be the best in Spanish League); La Nación, 26 February 2014 (in Spanish)
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