José Fajardo, the Panamanian whose goals led 9 de Octubre FC to an international tournament after 37 years, says goodbye to the Guayaquil club

Until before this season, the year 1985 had been the last of the 9 de Octubre club in an international tournament, the Copa Libertadores, as runner-up in Ecuador (1984), in whose first division soccer contest he appeared until 1995. Twenty-six years passed –Between series B and second category– and in 2021 the Guayaquil team returned to compete in series A, achieving in the end to qualify for the South American 2022, a goal that emerged along the way and that had among its promoters the scorer José Fajardo. The Panamanian said goodbye to the institution this Thursday.

“Thank you, Super 9! Today I want to officially say goodbye to what has been my home in recent months. I arrived with the illusion of being able to enjoy, know and score many goals for this beautiful and historic club. Thank you for opening the door for me and making me feel at home”Fajardo published on social networks.

The international with the Panama team was announced on October 9 in December 2020 for the 2021 campaign. According to the statistics page of the Professional League (LigaPro), The 28-year-old striker played 27 games (2,331 minutes) this season, 26 as a starter. He scored twelve goals, which placed him as the fifth top scorer in this edition of Serie A, with the same record as Francisco Fydriszewski (Aucas).

The relevance of the Central American was such that, in September, the Guayaquil club asked the football leaders of Panama and the authorities of that country not to continue “unnecessarily retaining” Fajardo, who had joined their national team for the dates. FIFA and was subject to protocols against COVID-19.

In November, the Panther scored one of the goals with which 9 de Octubre beat (1-3) for the first time at the Monumental Banco Pichincha stadium against Barcelona Sporting Club, on the twelfth day of the second round of the national championship.

Juan Carlos León’s pupils fought the qualification for Libertadores 2022 until the last date of the Ecuadorian tournament, but with the fall (3-0) against the Catholic University they had to settle for the ticket to the South American, his first international participation in 37 years.

Nine finished fifth in the accumulated classification of Serie A.

“The goal was to save the category (series). We knew it was a team that had just risen. We are now psyched up in the Libertadores or Sudamericana ”, declared Fajardo in November. (D)