José Cardona

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**José Cardona**
Player Statistics

Origin:	Potrerillos, Honduras
Date of Birth:	February 27, 1939 (age 68)
Height:	? meters
Weight:	? kilograms
Preferred foot:	Right
Position:	Forward
Number of International Games:	?
Start Date:	?
Retired:	1969
Goals:	44 (Primera división)
Nickname:	Indio (The Indian) or Conejo (Rabbit)

José Enrique Gutiérrez Cardona, more commonly known as Cardona or Indio Cardona or Coneja Cardona, was a professional soccer player born on February 27th, 1939 in Potrerillos, Honduras.

In 1957 Cardona was National Football Champion and Top Scorer. A year later, he was transferred to Portuguese club Lusitano de Ebora.

In 1959 he was acquired by Valencia CF but because its maximum number of allowed foreign players was full, Cardona was lent to Spanish club Elche, who a year later was promoted to the top flight of the Spanish League for the first time in their history. He made his debut on September 13th, 1959 against Real Oviedo, and stayed for 5 seasons, playing 89 games and scoring 24 goals in first division.

In the season 1959, Cardona was the top scorer in Spanish second division with 22 goals (the same number of goals made by first division top scorer Alfredo Di Stéfano that season).

In 1964 he transferred to Atlético Madrid, who that season came second in the league championship and won the Copa del Generalísimo (now known as La Copa del Rey). Cardona scoring the winning goal in the final against Real Zaragoza.

The following year he played 10 times in Atlético's championship-winning season. He retired at the end of the 1968-69 season, by which time he had played a total of 141 games in Primera división, scoring 44 goals.

Cardona playing with Valencia C.F. scored the first goal in the first nightly game in the Estadio Azteca in Mexico City against Necaxa on June 5, 1966. The final score was 3-1 in favor of Valencia C.F.