Julio César de León Dailey (Latin American Spanish: [ˈxuljo ˈsesaɾ ðe leˈon];[a] born 13 September 1979) is a Honduran professional footballer who currently plays for Olancho in the Honduran Liga Nacional de Ascenso as a midfielder.

Earning a good reputation in Honduras, de León moved abroad to Mexico's First Division, where he played for Atletico Celaya.

Once in the first division, de León's participation was intermittent, partly due to the acquisition of the Japanese international Shunsuke Nakamura.

But the president of the team, Lillo Foti, justified the sale with economic reasons: "The offer was good and it was something that we could not refuse.".

[6] On 10 June 2007, de León's new team, Genoa, did regain a spot in Serie A, tying at home with Napoli 0–0.

After this, his last game of the season, and some subsequent celebrations, de León quickly traveled to Houston, Texas where the Honduras national team would play Cuba on 13 June 2007.

He scored his fourth goal for the club on 17 March 2009 against A.C. Mantova in the 82nd minute to put Parma up 1–0 and eventually win the match.

After having not played for Parma in the first two games, on 28 August 2009, he was loaned to Torino in Serie B along with Manuel Coppola, as part of Nicola Amoruso deal.

De León played at the 1999 World Youth Cup and made his senior debut for Honduras in a May 1999 friendly match against Haiti.

Julio César de León announced he was returning to Italy shortly after arriving in Miami, Florida to join the national team for the match against Canada.

De León was originally named in the 23-men final 2010 FIFA World Cup squad, but on 15 June, one day before the opening match of Honduras, had to pull out due to injury and was replaced by Jerry Palacios, who he was given the opportunity to play alongside his two brothers.