Cuauhtémoc Blanco

At 51 years old, Cuauhtémoc Blanco has this physical status:

Cuauhtémoc Bravo (Spanish pronunciation: [kwaw [blanko]; born 17 January 1973) is a Mexican politician and former professional footballer who is the current Governor of Morelos under the government of Juntos Haremos Historia. He served as the municipal president of Cuernavaca, Morelos, for a time. Blanco, a footballer, was known for his attacking ability and spent the majority of his time as a deep-lying forward and as a defensive midfielder throughout his career. Blanco is regarded as one of the best Mexican footballers of all time, as well as one of the top penalty takers of all time.

Early life

Blanco was born in Mexico City, in the Mexican province of Tlatilco, but he grew up in Tepito. He was born in Faustino Blanco and Hortensia Bravo after the last Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, who's nickname means "one who has descended like an eagle."

Personal life

He was married to Marisela Santoyo from 1996 to 2003, with whom he has a son named Cuauhtémoc Jr., who was born the same year as their wedding date. Blanco had a love with Liliana Lago, who had a daughter, Bárbara, who was born in 2002, after her separation in 2000. Blanco married Natalia Rezende in 2015. Roberto, the couple's son, was born in 2016.

He appeared on the FIFA 10 video game's front page along with Frank Lampard and Sacha Kljestan.

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Football career

Blanco began his América career in 1992, where he received numerous awards, both team-based and individual, and he had various loan stints with Neca, Spain's Real Valladolid, and Veracruz. He joined the Chicago Fire in 2007, and he spent a loan stint with Santos Laguna during the 2008 Apertura championship. He returned to Mexico in 2010 to compete for several organizations, including Veracruz, Irapuato, Dorados, and Puebla-based Lobos BUAP and Puebla, where he resigned with the latter in 2015. He came out of retirement to officially end his América service in the following year.

Blanco has been a fan of the club's supporters for the most part of his career, with 333 appearances and 135 goals, making him a hero in the team's history.

Blanco made his debut in the Mexican Primera División in 1992, when he was 19 years old with América. In the Winter 1998 season for Las Aguilas, he scored his first Golden Boot with 16 goals. In 1998 and Summer 1998 at Necaxa, he was loaned out for 13 goals in 28 appearances. Blanco was later loaned to Real Valladolid of La Liga for the 2000-01 season. However, he sustained a broken leg while doing international service, which kept him out of the team for six months. Blanco returned to Valladolid for another loan season the following season, but he had trouble with homesickness and regaining his form. He had a knack for scoring in La Liga, with the most notable being a free kick against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.

Blanco spent the 2004 Apertura season with Veracruz, where they won their class but were disqualified in the playoffs by UNAM. Blanco was a popular player during his time in Argentina. Blanco won his first club championship as a player in May 2005, leading Club América to its tenth league title after Club América defeated United States G.A.G. With a total score of 7–4 (1–1, 6–3). He was named MVP in three years between 2005 and 2007.

During the championship final against Pachuca in 2007, he scored his final goal.

Blanco signed with Chicago Fire on April 2, 2007, moving to Major League Soccer in the United States. He was welcomed by 5,000 fans at Toyota Park as he conducted interviews with the media, signed autographs, and greeted supporters.

In 2007, he was chosen finalists for both the MVP and Newcomer of the Year awards. Blanco was the 2007 Goal of the Year winner for his goal against Real Salt Lake.

Blanco, the second-highest paid player in Major League Soccer, came after David Beckham, the Los Angeles Galaxy midfielder, made $2.7 million a year. He was a finalist for the MVP of the year award once more.

Blanco received the MVP award with an assist and one goal against West Ham United on July 24, 2008, a game in which he played 46 minutes. The MLS All-Stars defeated the 3–2 win.

After losing Christian Bentez, the Ecuadorian striker, was called out on November 19, 2008, Santos Laguna has resigned Blanco on a loan to play only for the Apertura 2008 championship. Blanco was officially launched to the media the next day wearing the number 9 jersey, and he said he was looking forward to awarding Santos a back-to-back championship. Blanco scored his first goal with Santos, a penalty, in the second leg of the championship quarter-finals against San Luis on November 29.

Blanco said in October 2009 that he would not be renewing his Chicago Fire and would instead sign with Veracruz of the Ascenso MX, which will begin in January 2010. However, after six months with Veracruz, he moved to Irapuato. Irapuato's won the 2011 Clausura, but the team didn't progress to the Primera División after losing to Tijuana in the promotional final.

Blanco joined Dorados de Sinaloa of Liga de Ascenso in December 2011. Blanco and Dorados won the Copa MX in Apertura 2012 with Blanco. Despite Blanco's that he would retire at the end of 2012, he changed his mind and spent another six months with Dorados. However, after the tournament ended, he did not renew his deal and was suspended from the team in June 2013.

Blanco joined Lobos BUAP for the Apertura 2013 Liga de Ascenso season. He did not renew his deal with BUAP and was fired from the club at the end of the season, in which the club failed to qualify for the play-offs after one year with the club.

Blanco decided to return to Puebla for one season in the Liga MX after considering retirement. He appeared in the Clausura's Copa MX final against Guadalajara on April 21, 2015, coming off the bench. Puebla went on to win the cup and then sent Blanco off as the champion in what was supposed to be his last game of his career.

Blanco will play in a formal Liga MX match against the club that started his career, Club América, on February 22, 2016, a month into his political career. If playing for the club, it would allow him to officially end his career. Blanco got off the ground wearing a number 100 jersey and played 36 minutes for América in a match against Morelia on March 5th before being replaced by Darwin Quintero. Blanco demonstrated his signature move, the Cuauhtemia, during the game, firing two shots on goal, one of which struck the crossbar from outside the penalty box. América, 4–1, had the match eventually win by América.

Blanco was a member of Mexico from 1995 to 2010 (with a special appearance in 2014). He was capped 120 times and scored 38 goals; he is the country's third highest goalscorer. He is the only Mexican to have earned Confederations Cup awards after winning the Silver Ball and Silver Boot at the 1999 Confederations Cup after a first-place finish on home soil prior to Oswaldo Sanchez's Golden Glove award in 2005. He became the first Mexican to score at three World Cup tournaments in 2010, a feat that Rafael Márquez and Javier Hernández equalled later in the 1998, 2002, and 2010 editions of the tournament.

Bora Milutinovic, Manuel Blanco's debut with the senior national team was in a friendly match against Uruguay on February 1, 1995. Blanco has competed for Mexico at three World Cups; he was part of the France 1998, Korea-Japan 2002, and South Africa 2010. He was also a member of the Confederations Cup in 1999, where he was the tournament's top scorer with six goals, including the winning goal against Brazil in the final. For outstanding player of the tournament, he was given the "Silver Shoe" and "Silver Ball" awards. Blanco set the record as the top scoring players in the Confederations Cup, with nine goals, three in 1997 and six in 1999.

In the final 23-man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, then national team coach Ricardo La Volpe dropped Blanco out of the team. Although Blanco was often injured and not in good shape, some people believed this was a result of the previous year's incessant bickering due to ongoing personal tensions between coach and player.

Blanco was a member of the 2007 Copa América team, scoring one penalty kick and scoring two goals also from penalty kicks, as well as the 2007 Copa América where he scored 2 goals also from penalty kicks. In his country's 2–1 World Cup qualifier victory over Canada over Tuxtla Gutiérrez on September 13, he earned his 100th cap for his nation, with only 15 seconds remaining in regulation time. He announced his retirement from international football following the match.

In May 2009, Blanco announced his return to the national team. He became a regular member of Javier Aguirre's squad, representing in all the World Cup Qualifying games. Blanco has since been a significant factor in Mexico's team regaining form and confidence.

Blanco scored the first opposition own goal and scored the second goal in a 4–1 victory over El Salvador on October 10th, 2009, helping Mexico win and claim a spot in the 2010 World Cup. He scored a penalty in the 78th minute of the 2–0 victory over France in South Africa's second round of group stage matches. He was the first Mexican to score a goal in three World Cup tournaments and the third-oldest goalscorer in World Cup history with this goal.

Blanco played a tribute game against Israel in 2014 at the Estadio Azteca, which represented his formal separation from international football. Mexico went on to win the game 3–0.

Blanco is known as one of the best Mexican footballers of all time, as well as one of the top penalty takers of all time, with his career winning 71 out of 73 goals, giving him a 92 percent success rate.

His brash, athletic, and confrontational playing style is on display and off the field, pulling innovative plays and being combative against the press, players, and coaches alike.

Blanco is also known for the Cuauhtemia, or Blanco Trick, which he mastered at the 1998 World Cup. He traps the ball between his feet and jumps through the defenders as he leaves the opposition players behind, allowing the ball to be released in the air and landing with it under control as he leaves the opposition players behind. The trick is simple to do, but it has been used as a special skill in the FIFA series of football video games.

On Mexican television and in print, Blanco has said that his goal celebration is an imitation of former Atletico de Madrid striker Kiko Narvaez's "Archer" holiday. Blanco explains in a 2005 interview with Mexican newspaper El Universal that Blanco explains that while watching a Spanish league match with his colleague Germán Villa, the two players decided to celebrate their next goal by imitating the "Archer" sign. Only Blanco did it, and Villa was chastised for not following his word until the end. Blanco celebrates scoring a goal by stepping like the Prehispanic Tlatoani Aztec emperor Cuauhtémoc, "in order to show love for the Mexican people and their indigenous Amerindian roots," according to the Chicago Fire official website.

Blanco is regarded as one of Mexico's most influential figures. "the wars, brawls, golazos, insults, passion, and ardent passion with which Blanco [...] lived both on and off the field, left a deep imprint on the Mexican game and a vivid portrayal of the character that is unquestionably lacking at present," ESPN's Tom Marshall says.

Political career

Blanco officially announced herself as a Social Democratic Party candidate for the municipal presidential elections in Cuernavaca, the Mexican state of Morelos, in January 2015. In a tight contest election in 2015, he defeated Maricela Velázquez of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party barely beating Maricela Velázquez of the incumbent Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Blanco was proclaimed the winner of the municipal presidential election in a subsequent election.

Blanco, the city's mayor, battled with allegations that he obtained a bribe to run for office and even murder. No one of these allegations has been proven to have any effect on anyone. Blanco resigned from the Social Democratic Party and sacked Roberto Yaz Moreno, the city council's secretary, in June 2016, triggering a controversy between Blanco and the opposition.

He joined the Social Encounter Party (PES) in March 2017.

Senator Rabindranath Solorio as the nominee under the National Regeneration Movement's coalition Juntos Haremos Historia for the Governor of Morelos, but PES, who was also a part of the coalition, argued that Blanco was the right option for the coalition's nominee. It was also determined in December 2015 that there would be an internal election to see who would be the coalition's leader.

After winning the nomination race against Senator Rabindranath Solorio on January 28, 2018, Juntos Haremos Historia presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador declared Blanco as the coalition's leader. On March 11, 2018, he officially registered to run for Governor of Morelos and succeeded Denisse Arizmendi Villegas in order to officially vote in the gubernatorial elections. He was in the lead, according to polls.

He won the 2018 gubernatorial elections by a landslide on July 1, making him the first former footballer to win a state governor election in Mexico. On October 1, 2018, he began his term as Governor. Governor John Kerry's biggest problems as governor include finding adequate funding for the state university (UAEM) and battling the state's high rate of crime. He was already facing marches protesting his government only three months into his term. Blanco charged his predecessor, Graco Ramirez, with organized crime, unlawful origins, and tax evasion on February 13, 2019.

People have begun to question Blanco's administration one year into his tenure as governor. He has been involved in political conflicts with Morena and PT, the three main candidates in Juntos Haremos Historia who won him over. He has been promoting PES, which has been dissolved nationally but remains strong locally. With an increase of 41% in murder, kidnapping 35%, and extortion 68%, crimes are on the rise. 80 women have been killed, 22 of whom have been labeled femicide. The federal Tax Administration Service pardoned a MXN $302,230 (US$15,800) from his time as a footballer on top of that. Roberto Soto Pastor, a former Graco Ramirezs collaborator, has sued Blanco for employing several members of his family and friends, including half-brother Ulises Bravo, sister-in-law Liu León Luna, uncles Carlos Juárez López, Jaime Juárez López, and Armando Shajid Bravo López, as well as a close friend named Baltazar Jonathan Alegra All MXN employees are paid from $45,000 to $3,100 (US$2,300) per month. According to the complaint, their selection is in breach of Código Penal de Morelos, Art. 276 (Morelos penal code, Article 276) which prohibits nepotism. In a meeting on October 11, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador explicitly condemned Blanco out for nepotism. The governor refutes allegations of nepotism.

Arias Consultores conducted a survey on January 8th, 2020, naming the best and worst governors. Governor Quirino Ordaz Coppel of Sinaloa has been voted the best by the people, while Puebla governor L. Miguel Barbosa Huerta was named the worst. Cuauhtemoc Blanco was second-last at No. 2 in the United States, coming in second at No. 128. 31.

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