Palace’s Copa America stars past and present

Club

22 Jun 2024

As the Copa America gets underway in the United States, with three Crystal Palace stars looking to light up the continent, let’s have a look back at a few other former Eagles who graced the biggest of stages…

Jobi McAnuff

McAnuff played for Palace 83 times between 2005 and 2007, scoring 14 goals in the process, before going on to reach the Premier League with Reading in 2012.

While his first cap for Jamaica came in 2002, he rejoined the national side in time for Jamaica to earn an invite to the Copa America in 2015, having previously competed in the Gold Cup against purely North American opponents.

The 2015 tournament, held in Chile, saw Jamaica make their debut in a group of death alongside Argentina and Uruguay, with McAnuff starting all three games and losing all three by just a single goal to nil.

In the 2016 tournament – a special 100th anniversary edition – Jamaica faced Mexico, Venezuela and Uruguay, with McAnuff starting all three games once again.

Gonzalo Sorondo

Sorondo arrived at Selhurst Park on loan from Inter Milan, staying for the 2004/05 season and making 20 Premier League appearances before joining Charlton Athletic on a permanent deal.

He earned 27 caps for Uruguay, including at the 2002 World Cup. In 2001, he was part of the Uruguay side to reach the semi-finals, only to lose out to Mexico in Colombia.

Three years later they reached the last four once again, this time between by world champions Brazil on penalties – but going on to claim third place.

Fernando De Ornelas

A short spell at Palace in 1999 before moving on to Celtic was in character for a career defined by constant movement, but De Ornelas found consistency for his country, making 27 appearances for Venezuela.

He featured at the 2007 tournament as Venezuela topped a group ahead of Bolivia, Uruguay and Peru, before being knocked out by Uruguay in the last eight.

Ivan Kaviedes

Kaviedes made just four league appearances at Palace in 2004, before returning to South America after an unsuccessful spell in Europa at Porto and Celta Vigo.

He earned 57 Ecuador caps in a 16 year international career, travelling to the 2002 and 2006 World Cups, and featuring at the Copa America in 1999, where Ecuador were knocked out of a group including Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay.

Coming up…

Jefferson Lerma, Daniel Muñoz and Chris Richards will all be competing at the Copa America this summer in the United States.

You can keep track of all the latest news from each of our international Eagles on cpfc.co.uk, but for all the latest fixtures and results check out the summary below!

USA - RICHARDS

Sun, 23rd June: United States v Bolivia (23:00)
Thu, 27th June: Panama v United States (23:00)
Tue, 2nd July: United States v Uruguay (02:00)

COLOMBIA - LERMA & MUÑOZ

Mon, 24th June: Colombia v Paraguay (23:00)
Fri, 28th June: Colombia v Costa Rica (23:00)
Wed, 3rd July: Brazil v Colombia (02:00)

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