Wilson Palacios has revealed for the first time that he came close to quitting football after the death of his younger brother. The midfield player spent many days soul-searching with his family in Honduras after learning in May that Edwin had been killed by his kidnappers.

Wilson and his three brothers, all of whom play professionally in Honduras, lost interest in the game. “I and my brothers were thinking of giving up football,” he said. “I really was. The family comes first. But Edwin would have wanted me to keep on playing and my family had the same view.”

Edwin, also a player, was abducted aged 16 while his parents were tied up by armed assailants at his family’s home in La Ceiba, Honduras’s third largest city, in October 2007.

A £125,000 ransom was reported to have been paid, but police found an unidentified body on May 8 this year, just as Palacios was preparing for Tottenham Hotspur’s match away to Everton. Palacios was informed by a phone call in the middle of the night, but waited until the morning to awake Harry Redknapp, the Tottenham manager. Three weeks later the family’s worst fears were confirmed when DNA revealed that it was the body of Edwin.

Memories of his brother became more pertinent when Palacios spent several hours chatting at a community event in Brentwood, Essex, on Thursday. His enthusiasm for charity schemes has led him to build a school in honour of Edwin. “We plan to do something in his name,” he said. “My brother is always in my thoughts and mind when I go out on the pitch, when I am training, when I do anything.

“Every time I go to Honduras we do something for him as a family. He is an inspiration for me to carry on. With the passage of time, it gets easier to deal with. Answering questions about him becomes easier than it used to be. But every night before I go to sleep, I have a moment of quiet reflection.”

Two of the gang that were implicated in the kidnap and murder were themselves killed after they escaped from prison from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro. They were among 18 men who dug a 15-metre tunnel from the prison to a local house.

“The damage that they did to us was enormous,” Palacios said. “We just left it in the hands of police and God.” Orfilia, his mother, and Eulogio, his father, a former player who coached the children, hope to come to England for Christmas.

Milton, 28, and Jhony, 22, play for Olimpia, and Jerry, 27, for Marathon. Wilson and Jhony are expected to start for Honduras in the World Cup finals this summer, the first time that they have qualified since 1982.

Qualifying was cause for great celebration, and political gain. Roberto Micheletti, the country’s interim President, who took over in a military coup in the summer, required that the squad return to his palace to greet him after defeating El Salvador, although their journey from the airport was held up by throngs of supporters in the streets. “The people were really emotional,” Palacios said. “Honduras has some serious problems but this has raised the spirit of the people.”

• Tottenham Hotspur Soccer Schools run throughout UK for children aged 3 to 14.