“There’s some really good young players in the Azteca FC team too,” added Castillo, now 38, but who once shared the field, during a 15-year professional career, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi and Brazilian legend Ronaldinho. “You’d be surprised at the level.”
Castillo, born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was just 16 when he got the chance – along with 400 other kids – to try out for Liga MX club Santos Laguna in the Mexican city of Torreon. “It’s my mom and dad’s favorite team and out of those hundreds of kids, it was only me and my brother who got picked.
“Everything changed that day,” admitted Castillo.
From New Mexico to Old Mexico
The year was 2005 and it was the start of a whirlwind decade-plus for the teenager. “It took a few weeks for me to get my dual-citizenship sorted and then I went straight into the Santos reserves,” said Castillo, who put high school on the back burner for a different kind of education – out on the fields of Mexico’s top flight.
He made 78 appearances for Santos Laguna, helping lead the side to the Clausura title in 2008. It was then that “the huge offer” came from Mexico City super-club Club América. “I didn’t really want to leave Santos, because I liked it there and things were going well,” he said. “But you know – the money, the lifestyle, the challenge. You can’t really say no.”
The challenge was serious and, as Castillo admits, “you don’t just go to a Club like America and take off right away. It wasn’t easy.” Loan deals followed – Tigres, San Luis Potosi and Puebla. He won an Apertura in 2012 with Tijuana before another long-term deal came his way, this time with giants Monterrey, between 2015 and 2019.
