Winning the World Cup is the pinnacle of any player’s career. So few get the chance to even play in the competition, let alone win it, that the feeling is preserved just for the rarefied few, whose magic has lit up the global game. But only one side can claim the be the first World Cup winners, and when Uruguay romped to the title (scoring 15 goals in just four games), their final goal was scored by a one-armed man.
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Hector Castro had been born into abject poverty in the early years of the twentieth century, and in the overcrowded melting pot of Montevideo that meant he had to get a job early. South America was beginning to industrialise, and Castro found employment in Uruguay’s burgeoning heavy industries at the tender age of just ten. It was at 13 that he would suffer his life-changing injury, as an electric saw severed his right forearm. The end of a promising young football career in most cases, but for El Divino Manco – The Maimed God – it was just the beginning.
After a long recovery, and coming to terms with his injury, Castro decided to focus on his feet. At 17, he began his footballing career at Athletic Club Lito, a small amateur team that had just been promoted to the top flight of Uruguayan football, and Castro started showing his stuff. A tough, combative forward, it would be easy to assume he drew the eye because of his injury, but little Lito made quite a splash in their short stay in the First Division (they disappear from the Uruguayan Championship records in 1928, though various attempts to restart them continued beyond the Second World War). In 1922, defender Jose Nasazzi was snapped up by ambitious and monied new club Bella Vista, and a year later Castro was poached by giants Nacional who had already won their first ten titles in the 21 years of the Uruguayan league. Pedro Cea, an Inside Left who played just behind Castro, would manfully stay on at Lito until 1927, before following Nasazzi to Bella Vista. All three loom large in the history of Uruguayan football.
Castro was an immediate hit at Nacional, helping the club to an 11th title in his first season and making his international debut, as well as scoring his first international goal, against Chile. He was disappointed not to be selected for the 1924 Olympic team – the World Cup before the World Cup had been invented – and watched former teammates Nasazzi and Cea win gold in Paris. But Castro had practice at overcoming adversity, and doubled down in four goal-laden, successful seasons to ensure he couldn’t be left out of the 1928 side that went to Amsterdam. Uruguay beat the hosts in the first round, and a dangerous Italian side in the Semi-Final, to set up the gold medal match against perennial rivals Argentina. 250,000 people applied for tickets to the final, and Argentina had added an extra edge to the game by questioning Uruguay’s 1924 victory – Argentina having not participated in those games. Hard-fought, the first match ended in a draw, leading to a replay. Everything was finely balanced until Hector Scarone, Castro’s teammate at Nacional, fired home on 73 minutes. Uruguay held on to take gold for the second time, but bigger fish were on the horizon.
On the face of it, FIFA’s decision to host the very first World Cup in Uruguay makes footballing sense. They had shown themselves to be the best team in the world in the 1920s. They were celebrating the centenary of their independence from Spain. But, probably more importantly, the Uruguayan government had offered to underwrite every side’s travelling expenses. But for Castro there was a bigger problem. His place in the side was under threat from Peregrino Anselmo, the Penarol forward who is often believed to be the first False 9. Castro doubled down again, but Anselmo wasn’t going to let his chance slide either, and by 1930 both were still in contention.
Castro was given the honour of starting the first game of Uruguay’s home World Cup campaign against Peru, and scored the only goal in a tense affair. But Romania presented a different problem and Anselmo was considered the answer. He took his chance too, scoring in a comfortable 4-0 romp that threatened to spell the end of Castro’s short World Cup career. It was Anselmo who got the nod in the semi-final too, and backed up Pedro Cea’s hat-trick against Yugoslavia with two goals of his own, and all but sealed his place in the final. However, before the end of the game, he picked up a knock, opening the way for Castro again. The other semi-final saw their great rivals thrash the United States 6-1, setting up another fiery final against Argentina.
Relations between the two sides had, if anything, disintegrated since the 1928 Olympics. Before the game, some reports claim, Uruguay were offered significant sums of money to throw the game, and threatened with death if they refused. As the two teams lined up, neither were willing to play with a ball supplied by the other side, fearing tampering and giving away an advantage. FIFA eventually had to step in, declaring that the first half would be played with am Argentinian ball, and the second half with a Uruguayan ball. All tempestuous excuses put aside, the game kicked off in front of, officially, 68,000 at the Estadio Centenario (though South American football struggled to keep out ‘unofficial’ fans on top).
Uruguay started the brighter, with Pablo Dorado giving the hosts a 12th minute lead, and the South American football hierarchy looked secure. But Argentina were determined to avenge their 1928 final defeat, and Carlos Peucelle’s powerful shot levelling things up on 20 minutes. Guillermo Stabile, the tournament’s top scorer, then took matters into his own hands and fired past Enrique Ballestrero in the Uruguayan goal to give Argentina a half time lead.
Clearly there was nothing in the ball-tampering fears of either side, but the psychological impact of playing with a ball they had provided was the boost the home side needed, and they exploded into the second half. It took a little over 10 minutes for Pedro Cea to level things up again, and Santos Iriate gave Uruguay the lead in the 68th minute. As the nerves set in, the fans got restless and Montevideo’s police readied themselves for violence and riots whatever happened. And then Castro put the game beyond doubt. Wheeling away in the 89th minute to celebrate, not many player’s careers could ever hit the spectacular high of that moment. The Maimed God had made the journey from tragically disabled child to the top of the world.
Uruguay declined to defend their title in 1934, and Castro eventually retired in 1936. His tally of 108 goals makes him the 7th highest goal scorer in the history of the Uruguayan league. He finished his career with two Copa America’s to add to his Olympics and World Cup, and embarked on a successful managerial career that saw him return to the national side in 1958.
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