Luis Tejada

Luis Tejada is a professional footballer from Panama who plays as a striker. In his 9-year long playing career, Tejada has been transferred 13 times to become the epitome of the average travelling footballer. Tejada began his playing career at local side Tauro FC, in 2001, and made a strong impression on his team with 9 goals in 21 games. He moved to Plaza Amador before moving to Colombia to play with Deportes Tolima, a team in the Colombian second division.

After just 2 games in the entire season with Tolima, he moved to the first division to play with Envigado Futbol Club, in 2004. It was due to his performance at the Gold Cup that Al Ain FC from the UAE came for his signature in 2005.

Tejada’s middle-east experience wasn’t as good as the Gold Cup, getting only 4 goals in 15 appearances, leading to a return to Panama to play with Plaza Amador. Over two seasons with Plaza, Tejada played 30 games and scored 19 goals, gathering enough attention to move to Once Caldas.

However, Tejada was always out of the team because of his poor fitness and even picked up the nickname “El Gordito” or fatty.

However at Once Caldas, it was due to disciplinary issues that he was fired from the club after just 3 games. Tejada moved to the USA to join Real Salt Lake in the Major League Soccer structure. A single game later, he was released and forced to return to Tauro in 2007.

His second stint at Tauro was extremely short, lasting just 4 games, but he did manage to score four goals before being signed by Colombian side America de Cali.

Throughout 2007-08, Tejada played 30 games for the club, scoring 15 goals before moving onto Millonarios as the top scorer for America de Cali at the Torneo Iniciacion 2008, with 12 goals.

At Millonarios, in 2008-09, Tejada was part bought primarily because America could not afford his salary and price. Therefore, Millonarios, one of the biggest teams in Colombia, swooped in and got him on board. Tejada’s stint with Millonarios wasn’t anything special though.

2008-09 saw him score just 4 goals in 30 games, before Tejada returned to Tauro for a third stint. This time, Tejada had another short stay with just 13 games although his 10 goals meant that there was attention from all parts of the South American continent.

Eventually, Peruvian side Juan Aurich signed Tejada, who has already scored 8 goals in 12 appearances for the team.

At the international level, Tejada has been a regular player on the Panamanian national team since 2004, earning 44 caps and scoring 18 goals for the team. His most impressive strike was an overhead kick against Mexico, during a world cup qualifier, which got voted as the best goal of the year by Fox Sports.