Héctor CASTRO (Patreon)

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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Over two months later, on 30 July, the League Board decided to disallow the goal, and also rescinded one of the three aforementioned sendings-off (that of Ulises Chifflet).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.[3] 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.[3]

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 Peru, in that tournament.

South American Championship

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

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