Juan Carlos Plata (born 1 January 1971) is a Guatemalan professional football manager and former player who played as a striker.

Municipal and is also the all-time top goalscorer for that club; he has broken virtually every scoring record associated with professional football in Guatemala.

His personal-best 33 goals in one season came at age 35, a testament to his reliance on intelligent play instead of pure athletic ability.

He has since been a regular for the club, and has helped them win 14 league titles, 5 domestic cups, and 2 Central American championships.

Some of his most memorable performances include scoring 4 goals in a 9–2 beatdown over rival team CSD Comunicaciones in the Apertura 2004 final.

On 21 January 2002 he scored his 26th goal with the national team, against Mexico at the 2002 Gold Cup, surpassing the record of 25 that had been held by Carlos Toledo since 1953.

Plata's most famous goal with the national team, however, might be the one he scored in the dying seconds of the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup match against Brazil, a header from a corner kick to equalize the score 1–1, a very surprising result considering Brazil were the reigning world champions at the time and fielded stars like Romario, Mauro Silva, Edmundo, Denilson and Taffarel.

The premiere took place at the Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias (national theatre), with over 2000 people in attendance.

On 19 December 2010 Juan Carlos Plata played his last official game as a professional player in Guatemala, as a substitute in the final match for Apertura 2011, a series defining the national championship between CSD Municipal and Comunicaciones.