Cecilio Waterman

Cecilio Waterman's name travelled beyond Panama in 2024/25, when he scored for the national team and sprinted straight to the opposition bench, where Thierry Henry was sitting and embraced him. The clip went viral.

Waterman grew up in Las Acacias, in Panama's Don Bosco district, raised by his father after his mother left the family when he was young. He turned professional in 2010 with Sporting San Miguelito before moving to Uruguay a year later to join Fénix, where he stayed for the best part of a decade, with loan spells at Venados in Mexico, Defensor Sporting and Plaza Colonia.

He signed for Universidad de Concepción in Chile in 2020. In a match against Cobresal that year he suffered a severe injury to his left Achilles tendon, which was left fully exposed, yet he continued playing for the club afterwards. Loan spells at Everton and then Cobresal followed; the move to Cobresal became permanent in 2023, and he finished with 21 goals in 49 appearances there.

A switch to Alianza Lima in Peru in 2024 was met with scepticism in the local press, which cast him as an eternal backup option, but he scored five goals before a serious injury that required surgery ended his season early. He returned to Chile in 2025 with Coquimbo Unido and won the league title, then rejoined Universidad de Concepción in 2026.

For Panama, Waterman made his debut in 2010 against Honduras. By 2026 he had earned 57 caps and scored 15 goals, and was the team's top scorer in 2021 with seven goals in eight matches, including a hat-trick during World Cup qualifying. He was runner-up at the Gold Cup in 2013 and 2023 and at the CONCACAF Nations League in 2024/25, and was named in Panama's squad for the 2026 World Cup.