Porfirio Armando Betancourt - Youth

Youth

Betancourt grew up in a soccer family. His father, Porfirio Betancourt played for Club Deportivo Olimpia and his two uncles played for Club Deportivo Platense. As a youth player, he played for the Honduran Brewery club beginning in 1976. Betancourt graduated from Escuela Internacional Sampedrana. In 1979, he entered Indiana University, in the United States, where he would play men’s college soccer for three seasons (see photo). He scored 20 goals and assisted on 12 more his freshman year, earning first team All American honors. That season, the Hoosiers went to the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament.

Betancourt joined the Honduran Olympic team for the 1980 Summer Olympics qualification tournament. When Honduras joined the U.S.-led boycott of the games, Betancourt returned to Indiana.

For the 1980 collegiate season, Betancourt saw a drop off in his scoring, bagging 17 goals and assisting on 16 others. However, this was good enough to earn him second team All American honors. While Betancourt saw a personal slump, his team made it to the NCAA championship game where it lost to the powerhouse University of San Francisco team. His third season with the Indiana showed Betancourt at the top of his game. He scored 27 goals, assisted on 9 more. He was showered with accolades, earning first team All America, and winning the Hermann Trophy as the best collegiate player that year. While Betancourt left Indiana University after his junior year in order to play for Honduras in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, he is still considered one of the greatest collegiate players ever.

Soccer America Magazine named him the Player of the Decade (1980s) and placed him on its College Team of the Century. In 1992, Indiana University inducted Betancourt into its Hall of Fame.