Guillermo Luis Cantú Sáenz (born 12 January 1968) is a Mexican former

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played at both professional and international levels as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

Playing career

Born in

Torreón Torreón () is a city and seat of Torreón Municipality in the Mexican state of Coahuila. As of 2021, the city's population was 735,340. The metropolitan population as of 2015 was 1,497,734, making it the ninth-biggest metropolitan area in the ...

, Cantú played professionally for

Atlante Atlante or Atlantes may refer to: * Atlas (architecture), a column in the shape of a man * Atlante San Alejo, a Salvadoran football club * Atlante F.C., a Mexican football club * Atlante (private equity fund) * ''Atlante''-class tugboat * Atlante ...

, Club León and Atlético Celaya. He spent the prime years of his career at Atlante. During the 1992–93 season, he worked his way into the starting lineup, scoring six goals from midfield as Atlante won the championship. Cantú continued to start regularly for Atlante during the next two years, but his playing time diminished in subsequent seasons because of injuries. He played his final top-division matches with Celaya in 1998 at the age of 30. He also represented

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

at international level, earning a total of 4 caps. He made two appearances at the

1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup The 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup was the second edition of the Gold Cup, the soccer championship of North America, Central America and the Caribbean (CONCACAF). The format of the tournament stayed the same as in 1991: eight teams were broken up into ...

, playing in an 8–0 victory over

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

and in the 4–0 victory over the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in the final. Although he participated in the Gold Cup success, he was unable to break into the plans of coach

Miguel Mejia Baron --> Miguel is a given name and surname, the Portuguese and Spanish form of the Hebrew name Michael. It may refer to: Places * Pedro Miguel, a parish in the municipality of Horta and the island of Faial in the Azores Islands * São Miguel (disa ...

in time to make the squad for the

1994 FIFA World Cup The 1994 FIFA World Cup was the 15th FIFA World Cup, the world championship for men's national soccer teams. It was hosted by the United States and took place from June 17 to July 17, 1994, at nine venues across the country. The United States ...

Coaching and administration

Since his playing career, Cantú has been active in Mexican soccer administration. He was the director of national selections for the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación from 2004 to 2009, when he resigned after Mexico failed to qualify for the

2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 17th edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, which was hosted by Egypt from 24 September to 16 October 2009. The tournament was initially going to take place between 10 and 31 July. However, the 2009 FIFA Confedera ...

. He also served as president of

Santos Laguna Club Santos Laguna S.A. de C.V. (), commonly known as Santos Laguna or Santos, is a Mexican professional football club that competes in the Liga MX. It is located in northern Mexico and represents the urban area of La Comarca Lagunera, made up o ...

and

Chiapas Chiapas (; Tzotzil language, Tzotzil and Tzeltal language, Tzeltal: ''Chyapas'' ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas), is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, ...

, holding the latter post from 2010 to 2012.MedioTiempo
"Dejó Guillermo Cantú a Jaguares"
10 September 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cantu, Guillermo 1968 births Living people Sportspeople from Torreón Footballers from Coahuila Association football midfielders Mexican footballers Mexico international footballers CONCACAF Gold Cup-winning players Atlante F.C. footballers Club León footballers Atlético Celaya footballers Mexican football chairmen and investors 1993 CONCACAF Gold Cup players