Pablo Zamudio’s father was accused of alleged crimes of kidnapping and drug trafficking, a reason that weighed on the development of his career
Pablo Tostado was the U-17 world champion with Mexico in 2011, the year in which Chivas promoted him to the first team. He had it all, his dreams came true, but the honeys of success only lasted two months. His only sin: surname Tostado.
His father, Pablo Tostado Zamudio, was accused of alleged crimes of kidnapping and drug trafficking until, according to reports, he hanged himself in a cell in Culiacán in 2012, the same way in which the former soccer player’s grandfather died in 2009, but in a Durango jail.
“(The surname) weighed on me both in Chivas and in Tigres, because in Tigres they turned their back on me. I think it weighed on me, my whole career weighed on me. After the World Cup, my entire career fell apart, mostly because of my surname, “Tostado said in an interview with ESPN Digital.
Tostado was the starter in that U-17 World Cup final in which Mexico beat Uruguay at the Azteca Stadium. Chivas awarded him a promotion to the first team, after he was in the Third Division. However, the history of his paternal family, and soccer, gave him his first setback in September 2011, two months after he was at the top of soccer in his category.
“They say that my family member, my father, comes from this, from the other, from acts that the club do not want, they tell me, ‘This, this and this has already been investigated. Maybe you don’t have anything to do with it, but you’re out anyway. ‘ It fell to me like a bucket of water, because I said ‘if I’m doing a story myself, I don’t know why something that I have nothing to do with has to affect me,’ “Tostado said in an interview with ESPN Digital.
Rafael Ortega was in charge of giving him the news on one of the Verde Valle fields. The manager admitted that it was an injustice, but it was an “order from above.”. They terminated the player and released him, but before that they told him that the statement to the media would say that he was discharged because he did not want to study, as it was a version that would not “affect” both parties.
“It was what was good for the club and it is supposed to be what ‘was good’ for me, but it did not favor me at all because I feel that, since then, my career has been downward. They branded me that I did not go to school. Since we actually had concentrations of two months, three months, even four months. The same assists that I had, were the same that my teammates who were in the national team had. ”Tostado exclaimed from his home in Culiacán, Sinaloa, where he is from.
“It gave me feeling and gave me a lot of courage that they ran me that way, through the back door because I feel that I did not deserve it”, are the words of the former player who has marked the way in which the media branded him as donkey, unable to give his version.
Tigres gave a second setback and a withering blow to his career
Chivas fired Pablo Tostado in the middle of the 2011 Apertura, but immediately signed a contract with Tigres under pressure from his representative, who convinced him that it was the best option due to the background of his departure from Guadalajara. However, after a few days he regretted having chosen the felines.
“The note comes out and within hours, or minutes, I begin to receive calls from the so-and-so team, the mengan team, the Zutano team. ‘Come here, here is a First Division contract, you will be given the opportunity’, that is, many doors were opened to me, but it was already signed. I couldn’t anymore ”.
Tigres registered him for the Clausura 2012 and trained with the first team commanded by Ricardo Ferretti, but everything changed in February 2012 with the death of his father. They gave him days to attend the funeral. They also offered him a psychologist, but Tostado turned him down. That semester ended and the cats told him that he would be out of loan.
“They tell me ‘we’re going to send you to a team, so you can catch the game’ and that’s when I go out. I felt that, instead of having the support, on the contrary, it was that ‘this person is already stained, this is already there, that is already there. Let’s see how we’re going to open it. ‘
His departure from Tigres led him to another ordeal. He was on loan for a year with Roadrunner. He tried to return to the set of Nuevo León, but the answer was: “find a team, the loan is free”. No longer representative, get the chance to go to Queretaro, but the cats, contrary to what they had said, asked for money in exchange, a situation that led him away from the Roosters.
Over time, due to the closing of the transfer window, he decided to accept going to a Second Division team in Cancun, with the agreement that Tigres would take over 50 percent of the salary, but a week later he declined, as the The board of his new team announced: “Tigres is not going to be responsible for the other half, but we want you to stay.”
Knee injury and Tigres refusal about his letter withdrew it
Tostado spent the last years as a footballer, he lived them between Murcielagos and Irapuato, but always tied to Tigres, a team that repeatedly asked for his letter to be able to negotiate with other teams, but they never gave it to him, nor did they support him when he was injured at the beginning of 2016 when he was in the First A with the Sinaloa squad.
Murcielagos does not want to take responsibility for the operation. I speak to Tigers, ‘They don’t want to operate on me, I belong to you, operate me or help me’ and Tigres tells me that no, they are not going to be in charge either because I don’t injure myself with them ”.
Pablo decides to retire, but begins the rehabilitation of his injury and six months later he has the opportunity to do preseason with Dorados de Primera A. The Big Fish asks for the letter to register him and he comes across a new and final refusal from Tigres.
“I go to Tigres, when I get there ‘I’m not playing anymore, give me my card, to see what I can do’ and they told me no, that they are not going to give me the card anyway. Dorados tells me that he can’t do anything and that’s when I retire. “
Frustration was the feeling that invaded Tostado when he decided to end his career: “I feel like I didn’t retire, they retired me”. With the help of his mother, he always sought to write a different story than that of his paternal family with whom he had a “distant relationship during his childhood.
Now, at 26 years of age, Pablo, already a father of a family, has left those resentments behind. He does not hold a grudge and even says grateful. Soccer continues as an important part of his life, he closely follows Liga MX and, despite the fact that he has not operated on his knee, he plays at least twice a week at an amateur level.
“Maybe I wouldn’t want my children to go through what I happened, that my last name hurt me. I believe that this is already forgotten, it is a closed topic ”.