The May 18, 2007 unprecedented news shook the mexican soccer. Salvador Carmona was suspended for life from professional football. His team, Blue Cross, decided to line him up in the first leg against Pachuca for the semifinals of the tournament Closure. He did so despite the knowledge of the player’s repeat doping.
Carmona had been suspended for a year for testing positive for norandrosterone during the 2005 Confederations Cup. In the midst of his sanction, in January 2006, the player tested positive again (stanozolol), and decided to appeal to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) He ended up taking over the case and, after reviewing it, he made the decision: Carmona would not play soccer professionally again.
The TAS made public the suspension of the Mexican defender after the match against Pachuca, but Cruz Azul already had knowledge of the situation and still decided to line him up. The club’s argument was that it had filed an appeal to have Carmona in that match. There was no going back: the Federation punished Machine with a suspension game, equivalent to losing the second leg on the table.
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The Tuzos they ran over the team of Isaac mizrahi 3-1 in the first leg played in the Azu Stadiuml. The series was practically defined. However, the coup shook all levels of the club The Ferris Wheel. Cruz Azul entered that Liguilla as a contender, but the first leg against Pachuca blurred hopes of reaching the final. Then, Cruz Azul already had almost 10 years without winning a championship. The criticisms were strong, but not yet at the level that would become known later.
The Confederations 2005, the beginning of the problem
After serving the year of sanction, Carmona returned to the courts in the summer of 2006 with relative normality. The episode seemed to be in the past. He was a starter throughout the Apertura tournament, in which Cruz Azul was eliminated in quarter-finals at the hands of Chivas. Although his level was certainly similar to what he had stated prior to the suspension, Hugo Sanchez did not take it into account for his first calls at the head of the Mexican team.
In the 2005 Confederations Cup, Carmona played the first matches against Japan and Brazil. The participation of the Mexican National Team deserved multiple praise from the international press due to the style of play displayed by the team commanding by Ricardo La Volpe. Chava he seemed to be living the best moment of his career. At 29, he was the undisputed starter in the Tri and in Machine, where he was also one of the captains.
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The joy for the victory (1-0) against him Ronaldinho’s Brazil it soon turned into tension. The Mexican Federation announced that Salvador Carmona and Aarón Galindo they were separated from the team. At first there was talk of indiscipline. The lack of clarity on the part of the FMF gave rise to endless rumors. It was finally made public that the reason for their separation was a positive a norandrosterone, anabolic substance.
Both players missed the World Cup Germany 2006. Both Carmona and Galindo had ample possibilities to attend, since they were part of Ricardo La Volpe’s base. Precisely the Argentine coach has been one of the names indicated by Carmona. In 2010, the former player declared that the federation and the coaching staff were aware of his positive and even so they made him play knowing the problems that this could generate.
A lawsuit and exile
Carmona filed a lawsuit against Femexfut in 2009, which ruled against him in 2010. In the appeal he requested reparation for moral and patrimonial damages. The former player requested compensation of USD 5 million.
For Carmona, there was no choice but to accept the sanction and the social stigma. On several occasions he has let it be known that behind his case there was a tangle of complicities that he found in him to a scapegoat.
His career found the highest points in Toluca, where he was part of the golden generation that won everything from the hand of Jose Saturnino Cardozo. It all ended in the most abrupt way possible. Salvador Carmona has participated in matches of legends on various occasions. He also continued to play amateur soccer. Time continues to run since that fateful May 18, the day that Mexican soccer met the ghost of doping like never before.
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