When thinking of loan players who have walked through the door at Birmingham City, the first names Bluenoses remember are the likes of Joe Hart and Christophe Dugarry.

One that doesn’t come to mind so quickly, however, is Honduras “striker” Carlos Costly.

In late January 2009, Blues were sitting third in the Championship despite scoring just 36 goals from 29 league matches and five in their last eight.

The side was crying out for another goal scorer to partner Kevin Phillips and after a successful trial period, Costly was brought in on loan for the rest of the season from Polish side GKS Belchatow.

At the time the “striker” was held in high regard in his native Honduras where he’d been top scorer at Platense in his first season with the club.

Costly’s big break came with the chance to move to Poland, but the son of Allan Anthony Costly, a defender in Honduras’ 1982 World Cup team, couldn’t settle in Eastern Europe after claiming he was racial abused and wasn’t being played in the correct position before moving to St. Andrews.

The Honduran’s debut came against Burnley as a second- half substitute for Hameur Bouazza in a game that finished 1-1 with Blues chasing the victory.

In his three starts and five appearances from the bench for Alex McLeish’s side, Costly was unable to score for the club and even the rest of the team scored just one goal while he was on the pitch.

The most memorable part of the “striker’s” time at the club were the cheers every time he performed his drag-back and accelerate skill move to try and fool the defender, known as the “Costlynha” over in his home nation.

Not surprisingly, after promotion back to the Premier League McLeish decided not to make the move permanent and went back to Poland before signing for Romanian club FC Vaslui where he scored four goals in 13 games.

But just before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, he sustained a long-term injury which ruled him out of the tournament.

Since then Costly has played for five teams in five different countries, including a brief spell at Houston Dynamos in the U.S.A, before joining Real Espana in his homeland.

As a key member of the Honduran national side, Costly represented his country at the World Cup in Brazil this summer and even scored against Ecuador.

His efforts weren’t enough though as Honduras went home early after failing to pick up a point in the group stage.

With 32 goals in 73 games for Los Catrachos, the “striker” will be looking to move up the countries all-time top scorer rankings before he retires, sitting in fourth currently.

He might not have been memorable for the right reasons at St. Andrews, but he is currently the last former Blues’ player to score at a World Cup, something most Blues fans wouldn’t have expected!

What are your thoughts on Carlos Costly’s time at Birmingham City?

By Oliver Osborn