“My dream is to play in the Premier League one day. At Chelsea, scoring and driving the stadium crazy”. Alberth Elis told Rely Maradiaga more than three years ago, on this Honduran journalist’s program, with the voice of a child and the eyes of a child as well. As if he didn’t quite believe it. Now Alberth Elis is already a reality.
At 25 years old, the attacker “catracho” already breaks down the door. And he has been with the Girondins de Bordeaux shirt in Ligue 1. Elis accumulates nine goals and an assist in the domestic championship, surpassing the numbers of PSG stars; Messi and Neymar add only six goals between them. The Honduran is in his moment, and they also enjoy him in the National Team, in which he shares a threat with “Choco” Lozano.
Your story deserves to be told. Many of his friends from San Pedro Sula, where he was born, are not by his side. They fell into drugs and some don’t even tell about it, while Elis stuck to soccer. His father is to blame. He instilled in him the passion and commitment to football, and football found in Elis innate conditions to polish. A sprinter who has found refuge in the goal.
At the age of 16, he signed for Olimpia, in Honduras, and his career has been growing as his pace. Steady stride. From Olympia, to Monterrey, and then Houston. Three countries until reaching Europe. The Portuguese Boavista gave him the opportunity and now he takes advantage of it on loan in Bordeaux. With Girondins he has caused a sensation in the new league of stars. But she always with her heart in her roots; Elis actively collaborates with the school that saw her burn stages to help the youngest in her training.
An oasis in the desert for Bordeaux
In his first season in Ligue 1, Alberth Elis has experienced emotions of all colors. The catracho striker has risen, surprisingly, in one of the fundamental pieces of the historical Frenchman, who is not going through a good moment due to the problems he has had on the benchwith Vladimir Petkovic, dismissed a week ago, and with the arrival of David Guion, who has the complicated mission of saving a team that, at the hands of Gerard Lopez last year, avoided bankruptcy and administrative relegation to the Ligue 2 after a disastrous management by the American owners.
Alberth Elis is a tireless attacker on the move. He is a player who takes advantage of spaces like a lynx and leaves little room for decision to rival defenses. While it is true that technically he is not a prodigy far from the area, once he enters the last meters, there his speed is the sum of everything. Only Kylian Mbappé is faster than the Honduran and in a league as physical as the FrenchElis’s top speed is a guarantee for a Bordeaux with enough problems when attacking in transition.
The former Boavista player has extraordinary numbers this season. In 16 games played, Elis has scored nine goals and provided one assist, scoring against teams like PSG and Lille; an oasis in the desert that is Bordeaux. However, injuries have aborted unprecedented growth in French football for a Honduran. Bordeaux recently confirmed an injury to the striker’s meniscus, whose return was not specified, so David Guion fears that he will not be able to count on one of the team’s best players for several weeks this season.
Elis’s intention is to continue at Bordeaux to confirm his rise in European football. In both Portugal and France, the attacker has immediately adapted to two competitions that are far from the rhythm with which he used to play in MLS. A special player who is astonishing in the always underrated Ligue 1, characterized by promoting players who, like the catracho, are quick to space and combine exuberant physical conditions every weekend.
