Pablo Larios

Lore & Background

Larios was a goalkeeper for Zacatepec, Cruz Azul, Puebla, and Toros Neza during his playing career. He played for the Mexico national football team at the 1986 FIFA World Cup, where Mexico reached the quarter-finals, and the 1991 CONCACAF Gold Cup. He also participated in the 1979 FIFA World Youth Championship. He was the goalkeeper trainer in the 2006 FIFA World Cup working for Ricardo Lavolpe. He has Japanese ancestors on his maternal side. In early September 2008, his 19-year-old son, Pablo Larios Garza, was reported missing and later found dead near the Rio Grande after attempting to illegally cross the border. Larios died on January 31, 2019, at a hospital in Puebla at age 58 due to an intestinal occlusion and respiratory arrest.

In Their Own Story

The floodlights at Azteca hummed their low electric note as the second half wound down. The score was level, the crowd a restless sea of blue and white. On the left, a full-back from the opposition stretched the ball, looking for the space behind. And there, already turning, already accelerating, was Larios. No hesitation. No looking back. He closed the gap in four strides, timed his challenge to the beat of the ball's bounce, and the winger stumbled into a harmless touch. The stadium exhaled. Larios did not celebrate. He simply pointed to the centre-back, barked a word of reassurance, and was already jogging back into position as the ball was played forward again. That was the game. That was the job. And he would do it again in ninety seconds, and again, until the final whistle made the noise around him.

Reader's Guide

Larios won the Mexican Segunda División with Zacatepec in 1983–84. With Puebla, he won the Mexican Primera División, Copa México, and Campeón de Campeones in 1989–90, and the CONCACAF Champions' Cup in 1991.

Did You Know?

• Larios was nicknamed 'El Arquero de la Selva' (The Goalkeeper of the Jungle) because he was from Zacatepec, a town in Morelos known for its humid and warm climate.
• He had Japanese ancestors on his maternal side.
• His son Pablo Larios Garza died in 2008 while attempting to cross the Rio Grande illegally to visit his girlfriend in the US.