José Manuel "El Moyo" Contreras (born 19 January 1986) is a Guatemalan football midfielder who plays for club Centro Atletico Fenix in the Uruguyan 1st division. He is also a member of the Guatemalan national team.

[edit] Career

Having begun his career at Comunicaciones in the top division, Contreras briefly played in the Primera División (second level) with Deportivo Achuapa^[1], then returned to Comunicaciones where he played until July 2008, when he joined Arsenal de Sarandí.

Contreras' debut match for the Guatemala senior side was against Haiti in August 2006, where he made an assist to Mario Rodríguez in a 1-1 draw. He scored his first international goal in the match versus El Salvador in the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup.

In 2008, Contreras played for the U-23 national team of Guatemala in the qualification rounds to the 2008 Olympic tournament, where he led the team to a 1-0 victory against Haiti and an upseting 2-1 victory against Mexico. The Guatemalan team ended the group stage in first place earning a semifinal berth against Honduras in which they came short of qualifying, losing 6-5 on penalty kicks. After his performances throughout the tournament, he was named one of the "eleven best" in the tournament alongside teammate Carlos Castrillo.

He made his debut for Arsenal on August 27, 2008 against Boca Juniors for the second leg of the Recopa Sudamericana, a game that ended 2-2 ( 3-5 aggregate in favor of Boca Juniors ). He came in at the beginning of the second half in substitution of Luciano Leguizamón, who came out injured at the end of the first half.

In 2009 Contreras joined Gimnasia de Jujuy of the Argentine 2nd division.

[edit] References

1. ^ PrensaLibre.com - José Contreras promete

[edit] External links

• (Spanish) Argentine Primera statistics

v • d • e Guatemala squad – 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Foster • 2 Noriega • 3 Melgar • 4 Flores • 5 Medina • 6 Cabrera • 7 Albizuris • 8 Contreras • 9 Villatoro • 11 Ávila • 12 Figueroa • 13 Martínez • 14 R. Gómez • 15 Swisher • 16 de Matta • 17 Pezzarossi • 18 Quiñónez • 19 Rodríguez • 20 Ruiz • 22 Molina • 23 Sandoval • 25 Motta • 27 Arreola • Coach: H.D. Gómez

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