A lot of people already knew that Jesus Padilla had Mexican and U.S. citizenship. Yet it's not enough for Club Deportivo Guadalajara to field only Mexican citizens. The standard for the club has long been that all their players had to be Mexican-born. Heritage and naturalization isn't enough. Yet at least two other players have played for the Jalisco club who were not born in the country.
Gerardo Mascareño was one. He played in ten games for the club in 1998 and scored a goal. However, club directors were apparently under tremendous pressure from fan groups not to play Mascareño because of his U.S. birth. He was traded to Pachuca.
An earlier player lasted years with Chivas, though rumors circulated for a long time that he was born in the U.S. Eduardo Fernández de la Garza managed to stay on for four seasons with Guadalajara, though birth records in Texas state he was born there.
Though many people consider Gabriel Caballero to be the first naturalized player for the Mexican national team, Mascareño appeared for El Tri years before. He played the second half of an international friendly versus Ecuador on Oct. 23, 1996, back when Bora Milutinovic ran the squad.
I know this is off-topic, but I'm just marveling at the number of references one could use that includes the words "back when Bora Milutinovic ran the squad."
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the list on the right side of the blog is eerily similar to the "previous employer" section of his resume.
Come on, Luis... I appreciate the work you're putting in here, it's great forum fodder to make fun of the goats, but you have to do you homework.
ReplyDeleteLong before Caballero or Mascareño, there was "El Charro"
This isn't Luis' post, it's mine. His posts are the ones in blue. Mine are the green ones.
ReplyDeleteAh, okay... you guys are confusing me. Point being. There was a player for Tecos, I believe, who played for the national team long before these two. "El Charro" Rodriguez -- old school.
ReplyDeleteI posted something about Mascareno in the "More Mexican Than El Tri" thread. Sorry but I had not seen this thread when I posted there and also didn't realize there would be so many different threads on the same topic!
ReplyDeleteChivas de Guadalajara aren't the only team who have an exclusionary policy of player recruitment.
Athletic Bilbao used to only field Basque players but they've since expanded that to include any player who grew up in the Basque region, apparently there are several African immigrants who grew up in Bilbao in the club's youth system. In addition players from the nearby Spanish provinces of Navarra and La Rioja, which are heavily Basque influenced, are now also permitted to play for Athletic Bilbao. Non Spanish Basques can also play for the club, the most famous was French World Cup winner Bixente Lizarazu, a French Basque.
El Nacional (Quito, Ecuador) is sponsored by Ecuador's army and only fields Ecuadorian nationals. But unlike Chivas they have no problem using naturalized Ecuadorians. Gustavo Figueroa, a US born player of Ecuadorian descent who returned with his family to Ecuador as a child once played for El Nacional.
Atletico Nacional (Medellin, Colombia) used to only use Colombian born players and they won the 1989 Copa Libertadores with an all Colombian team but they've since abandoned that policy and now can sign foreign players.
Andrea stated:
ReplyDelete"Though many people consider Gabriel Caballero to be the first naturalized player for the Mexican national team, Mascareño appeared for El Tri years before."
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Gabriel Caballero was indeed the first naturalized Mexican citizen to play for Mexico. Gerardo had a right to Mexican citizenship through his parents (both were Mexican nationals). He was not naturalized.
Having the right to citizenship doesn't mean one doesn't have to apply for it - you might not think of Gerardo as naturalized, but at the very least, acknowledge that he was not native-born.
ReplyDeleteAndrea,
ReplyDeleteMexican Constitution establishes that while you may not be Mexican born, you are considered "Mexican by birth" if one of your parents is Mexican. So Mascareño, Padilla, Orozco, etc. are all Mexican "by birth" thought not Mexican born. As oppposed to the article in the constitution that establishes which Mexicans are Mexicans by naturalization. Just like Mitt Romney. :D
Having said that, it's true, there was a player before Caballero. I believe he was from Uruguay.
Native-born doesn't mean that "born into the citizenship of a country", it means the country you were actually born in.
ReplyDeleteI'm confused by the Mascareño comment. Anonymous (2/21 7:12am) (and also The Hammer) is pointing out that Mascareño was not naturalized (true), as he is Mexican by birth, which seems to be a correction on Andrea's original post, not on him being "native-born".
ReplyDeleteAndrea, are you just pointing out the "native-born" part? Because I didn't notice that phrase in your original post. I think you just said "naturalized".
To clarify, then, Caballero, (or El Charro) may have been naturalized, but Mascareno was foreign-born. In fact, Mascerno might have been a pioneer in that sense, the first U.S.-born Mexican national team player. Castillo would be the second, unless there's another player I missed.
ReplyDelete