Héctor Castro

Héctor Castro

Personal information
Date of birth	(1904-11-29)29 November 1904
Place of birth	Montevideo, Uruguay
Date of death	15 September 1960(1960-09-15) (aged 55)
Place of death	Montevideo, Uruguay
Position(s)	Attacker
Youth career
1921–1924	Athletic Club Lito
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
1923–1932	Nacional
1932–1933	Estudiantes
1933–1936	Nacional	231	(145)
International career
1923–1935	Uruguay	25	(18)
Managerial career
1939–1943	Nacional
1952	Nacional
1959	Uruguay
Medal record Representing Uruguay Men's football 1928 Amsterdam Team Competition
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Héctor Castro (29 November 1904 – 15 September 1960) was a Uruguayan football player and coach.

Early life

Castro was born in Montevideo. When he was 13, he accidentally amputated his right-forearm while using an electric saw, which gave origin to his nickname, El manco (meaning "the one-armed", or "the maimed").

Playing career

Club career

Castro began his career in 1923/24 with Nacional and was the first player to score in a World Cup game for Uruguay. At Nacional he won three Uruguayan Championships (1924, 1933, 1934), before retiring in 1936.

1933 Uruguayan Championship

In the 1933 Uruguayan Championship, Peñarol player Braulio Castro scored a controversial goal in the championship match where the ball clearly went out of play, but rebounded off a kinesiologist's medicine cabinet back into play in the build-up to the goal. This turned out to be the only goal of the game, and the opposition, Nacional, felt very hard done by, and three of their players were sent off, for assaulting the referee in annoyance at the goal. This meant that the referee, Telésforo Rodríguez, was unable to continue through injury, so one of the assistant referees, Luis Scandroglio, stepped in, and immediately abandoned the match due to bad light, after seventy minutes.

Over two months later, on 30 July, the League Board decided to disallow the goal, and also rescinded one of the three aforementioned sendings-off (that of Ulises Chifflet). They also ruled that the final twenty minutes would be played at Estadio Centenario, but behind closed doors to try to avoid the same controversy which had plagued the original encounter. The match went ahead behind closed doors, and there were no goals in the twenty minutes. In a highly unorthodox move, two sessions of extra-time were played (the usual allowance would be a single session), the score remained goalless. Nacional's fans remember this game as the "9 contra 11" ("9 against 11") since their team played the remaining 20 minutes plus both overtimes (totalling over 80 minutes) with nine players.

A second playoff, which consisted of a standard match, followed once again by two sessions of extra-time, was played on 2 September, but still the deadlock wasn't broken.

A third playoff was contested on 18 November, and Héctor Castro played a vital role in this match, scoring a hat-trick which meant twice equalising as well as scoring the winning goal for Nacional, in a 3–2 win over Peñarol, which finally settled the Uruguayan Championship, almost six months after the controversial first playoff. This controversial playoff also meant that the Uruguayan Championship of 1933 was bizarrely not awarded until November 1934.

International career

Castro made his debut for the Uruguay national football team in November 1923. He played his final match for la Celeste in August 1935 having played 25 times, scoring 18 goals.

1928 Olympics

Playing for Uruguay at the 1928 Olympic Games Castro won a gold medal.

1930 FIFA World Cup

Castro's goal in the World Cup Final helped Uruguay win the first FIFA World Cup in 1930. He also scored the first ever goal at Estadio Centenario, against Perú in that tournament.

South American Championship

Castro played in South American Championship-winning teams in 1926 and 1935.

International goals

Uruguay's goal tally first

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	25 November 1923	Estadio Pocitos, Montevideo, Uruguay	Chile	1–0	2–1	Friendly
2.	8 December 1923	Estadio Racing Club, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Argentina	1–1	3–2	Copa Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores
3.				3–2
4.	17 October 1926	Estadio Sport de Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile	Chile	2–0	3–1	1926 South American Championship
5.	24 October 1926	Estadio Sport de Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile	Argentina	2–0	2–0
6.	1 November 1926	Estadio Sport de Ñuñoa, Santiago, Chile	Paraguay	1–0	6–1
7.				2–0
8.				3–0
9.				5–1
10.	1 November 1927	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru	Peru	4–0	4–0	1927 South American Championship
11.	6 November 1927	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru	Bolivia	6–0	9–0
12.	10 December 1927	Viña del Mar, Chile	Chile	2–2	3–2	Friendly
13.	3 June 1928	Olympic Stadium, Amsterdam, Netherlands	Germany	1–0	4–1	1928 Summer Olympics
14.	20 September 1929	Estadio Gran Parque Central, Montevideo, Uruguay	Argentina	1–0	2–1	1929 Copa Newton
15.	18 July 1930	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay	Peru	1–0	1–0	1930 FIFA World Cup
16.	30 July 1930	Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay	Argentina	4–2	4–2	1930 FIFA World Cup Final
17.	13 January 1935	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru	Peru	1–0	1–0	1935 South American Championship
18.	27 January 1935	Estadio Nacional, Lima, Peru	Argentina	1–0	3–0

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Castro worked as a football coach with Nacional. He won the Uruguayan championship in 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, and again in 1952.

Later life and death

Castro died in 1960 at the age of 55, from a heart attack.

Honours

As a Player

• FIFA World Cup: 1930
• Olympic Games: 1928
• Copa América: 1926, 1935
• Uruguayan Championship: 1924, 1933, 1934

As a Coach

• Uruguayan Championship: 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1952

As an Assistant Coach

• Uruguayan Championship: 1939

Castro was Assistant coach to William Reaside in 1939 but was Coach in the finals for that year's tournament. Therefore he was Nacional's coach at all five years of the Quinquenio de Oro's closing games.