A former Cuban football player set a new football head juggling record Saturday, making 146 consecutive touches in 30 seconds, according to event organizers.

Erich Hernandez, 39, broke the mark set in 2003 by Ferdie Adoboe, an American of Ghanaian origin who made 141 consecutive touches with his head in 30 seconds. Adoboe's mark is in the Guinness World Records book.

"I was very confident of my ability to beat the record since I had made 161 touches in a previous attempt, " Hernandez told about 100 people at the exclusive Havana Club, whose guests included British Ambassador John Dew.

Dew handed Hernandez a Guinness certificate recognizing his record for juggling a football 319 times in one minute in December 2004 in Havana. Hernandez is the only Cuban athlete in the records book.

"I will get back to training in January to try to claim all the ball control world records," he said.