Horacio Casarín Garcilazo (25 May 1918 – 10 April 2005) was a Mexican professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

player and coach who established himself as one of his country's most popular sports figures in the 1940s and 1950s. A symbol for Atlante, the team Casarín served for the majority of his career, the skilled

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People * Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Sm ...

also played for Necaxa, León, Asturias,

Club América Club de Fútbol América S.A. de C.V., commonly known as Club América or simply América, is a professional football club based in Mexico City. Nicknamed ''Las Águilas'' (The Eagles), it competes in Liga MX, the top tier of Mexican football ...

, Real España,

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

and Zacatepec in his country, as well as

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

in Spain and the

Mexico national team The Mexico national football team () represents Mexico in international football and is governed by the Mexican Football Federation (). It competes as a member of CONCACAF. Mexico has qualified to seventeen World Cups and has qualified conse ...

Club career

At age 17, Casarín debuted for Necaxa. Over the course of his career in Mexico, Casarín scored 236 goals at the amateur and professional levels (the Mexican League was founded in the early 1940s) and represented his country at the

1950 FIFA World Cup The 1950 FIFA World Cup was the fourth edition of the FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial international football championship for senior men's national teams and held in Brazil from 24 June to 16 July 1950. The planned 1942 and 1946 World Cups were ...

held in Brazil and scored a goal during the run of the tournament. A well-known anecdote involving Casarín takes place during a 1939 game between Casarin's Necaxa, and Asturias. After scoring a goal in the first few minutes of the game, defenders sought out Casarín and fouled him mercilessly, until the goalscorer was forced to abandon the pitch after only twenty minutes had gone by. The game ended in a 2–2 draw, but outraged Necaxa fans expressed their ire by burning Asturia's wooden stadium. With Atlante, Casarín scored 95 goals and helped the ''Potros'' win the 1946–47 season championship, while cementing his popularity by acting in the football-themed movie, "The sons of Don Venacio". Word of Casarín's role in the film spread, and the movie became a box-office success in Mexico. Casarín played his last game as a professional on 18 November 1956, scoring a goal for CF Monterrey. He scored 174 goals in the Primera División during his career.

International career

Casarín scored 15 goals for the

between 1937 and 1956.Appearances for Mexico National Team
- RSSSF

Managerial career

As a coach, Casarín's biggest achievement was coaching the Mexican U-20 national football team to a second-place finish in the inaugural

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members’ men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 whe ...

in Tunisia in 1977. Casarín's squad lost the final game 9–8 in penalty kicks against the

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

. He also coached Atlante and

Tecos UAG Tecos Fútbol Club (often referred to by its nickname "Tecos") is a Mexican professional Association football, football club associated with the Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara AC. It plays its home games in the ''Estadio 3 de Marzo'' (March ...

Death

Casarín's failing health finally gave out on 10 April 2005, only a few months after his wife, Maria Elena King, had died. He died of complications arising from Alzheimer's disease.

References

External links

* *
Profile
at MedioTiempo {{DEFAULTSORT:Casarin, Horacio 1918 births 2005 deaths Footballers from Mexico City Mexican people of Italian descent Mexican people of Spanish descent Association football forwards Mexico international footballers 1950 FIFA World Cup players Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Mexico Competitors at the 1938 Central American and Caribbean Games Club Necaxa footballers Atlante F.C. footballers FC Barcelona players Real Club España footballers C.D. Veracruz footballers Club Atlético Zacatepec players Club América footballers C.F. Monterrey players Liga MX players La Liga players Mexican expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Spain Mexican expatriate sportspeople in Spain Mexican football managers Tecos F.C. managers Atlante F.C. managers Mexico national football team managers Deaths from dementia in Mexico Deaths from Alzheimer's disease Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in football Mexican footballers