Marco Etcheverry

Marco Antonio Etcheverry Vargas (born September 26, 1970 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra) is a former Bolivian football midfielder, considered as one of the best Bolivian players of all time.

Career

Etcheverry, nicknamed El Diablo, joined D.C. United of Major League Soccer in its inaugural season of 1996, and led the team to three MLS Cups and was named MLS MVP in 1998. In eight years with the team, Etcheverry played 191 league games, scoring 34 goals and registering 101 assists (the games and assists are DC records). He retired at the end of the 2003 season. In 2005, he was named to the MLS All-Time Best XI.

Etcheverry was trained at Bolivia's Tahuichi Academy, after which he played professionally with Bolivian sides (Destroyers, Bolivar, Oriente Petrolero), Spain (Albacete), Chile (Colo-Colo), Colombia (América de Cali) and Ecuador (Barcelona, Emelec).

On September 23, 2006, Etcheverry was honored at a home game against the New York Red Bulls. During halftime he was put up on the "D.C. United Tradition of Excellence" sign in the stadium. The only other person on that wall is John Harkes. After all of this Etcheverry walked over to the La Barra Brava part of the stadium and did his trademark clap in front of them, he would do after every game win or lose.

On October 20, 2007, Etcheverry was honored with a tribute match at RFK Stadium, prior to United's regular-season finale versus Columbus. Etcheverry is the first United player to be so honored....
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