PANAMA CITY – On a patch of overgrown, yellowing grass in a crowded San Salvador neighbourhood, 12-year-old Bryan Oliva dreams of becoming a professional footballer.

Hundreds of kilometres away, in a remote Honduran village, 11-year-old Darixon Rivas harbours the same ambition, training on a muddy pitch after finishing his chores on the family farm.

For both boys, the odds are stacked against them in a region where football is struggling to escape the past, starved of investment and increasingly left behind by its rivals.

“You can earn a lot of money (as a football player), but I don’t feel like it’s possible for me,” Bryan told AFP in Zacamil, a densely populated neighbourhood of apartment blocks in the Salvadoran capital.

He dreams of using football to provide for his family, but fears youngsters from humble backgrounds like his have little chance of being spotted by scouts, with the few opportunities available concentrated in wealthier areas.

Poverty affects roughly half of Central America’s population, but the malaise gripping its football runs deeper.

With few exceptions, investment in infrastructure and youth development is woefully inadequate, leaving a once-competitive footballing region struggling to produce new generations of talent.

“We have a long way to go,” Yamil Bukele, president of the Salvadoran Football Federation, recently acknowledged as he spearheaded a plan to strengthen the country’s youth football.

Regression

The consequences of Central America’s footballing decline are plain to see.

Only Panama and Guatemala qualified for the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Nations League, which begin on Nov 12.

Panama was also the only Central American nation to reach the most recent World Cup in North America, where Caribbean sides Curacao and Haiti also represented the CONCACAF region.

For El Salvador, the glory days are an increasingly distant memory.

The country last appeared at a World Cup 44 years ago, when legendary forward Jorge “Magico” Gonzalez – widely regarded as the greatest Central American player of the 20th century – was in his prime.

Over 40 coaches have come and gone since then, with Colombian World Cup veteran Hernan Dario Gomez the latest man charged with reviving the national team.

Honduras, now coached by Spaniard Jose Francisco Molina, are similarly haunted by past achievements, having last appeared at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Costa Rica, meanwhile, have never recaptured the magic of their remarkable run to the quarter-finals of that same tournament.

Guatemala, Nicaragua and Belize have never qualified for a World Cup.

“There has been a regression,” Diego Vazquez, the Argentinian who coached Honduras from 2022 to 2023, told AFP.

“We need to organise the youth leagues, and governments need to invest as well.”

Former Panamanian international Victor Rene Mendieta believes El Salvador, Honduras and Costa Rica have “neglected” the development of new talent.

Wages gap

For a region of nearly 50 million people, the professional game remains remarkably modest.

Central America has approximately 4,400 professional footballers, playing primarily for 68 clubs, according to FIFA figures from 2024.

Its domestic leagues struggle to attract star players or high-profile coaches, and only a handful of footballers earn more than US$5,000 (S$6,400) a month.

Most clubs lack youth academies or dedicated training facilities, while many play in small stadiums with artificial pitches.

The region also suffers from a shortage of players competing in major overseas leagues who might help lift the standards of its national teams.

That contrasts sharply with Caribbean nations such as Haiti, Suriname and Curacao, which can draw on significant numbers of players developed in Europe.

Panama is “doing a better job” of developing players, while “the rest of us are falling behind”, Honduran coach Reynaldo Tilguath said.

For the next generation, the consequences of that neglect are all too visible.

High in the mountains of La Abisinia, a remote village in the northern Honduran department of Colon, Darixon and his friends chase their football dreams on a rough pitch shared with horses and cows.

Their goals are fashioned from rusting metal poles.

One boy wears a Lionel Messi jersey while another sports clothing emblazoned with images of Cristiano Ronaldo, two global superstars whose success seems a world away.

“Honduran football is damaged,” Darixon said. “Just look at this little field; our parents used to come here to play, too.” AFP