After the announcement of the signing of the Ecuadorian Andrés Micolta for Pachuca, the Mexican press recalled the time of the tricolor with the team led by Guillermo Almada, the former coach of Barcelona SC.

In a note on the site Hidalgo criterion It is mentioned that 14 Ecuadorian football players passed through the ranks of Tuz, and only one reached the title, like Romario Ibarra, who is currently without a team after leaving the Spanish Real Oviedo.

He also remembers that Enner Valencia and Walter Ayoví reached the runner-up position in the 2014 season.

In addition, Ibarra, Valencia and Ayoví were identified as the “most productive” players at the club, with Byron Castillo, Junior Sornoza and Álex Colón contributing the least.

Below is the complete note from the Mexican portal:

Andrés Micolta, Pachuca’s first official signing for Clausura 2024, arrives in Bella Airosa with a mission to settle the debt the Ecuadorian footballers had with the Tuzos.

During the short tournaments, the Hidalgo team signed 14 players of this nationality, with the balance of only one club title, recently won by Romario Ibarra.

Krilo was the first Ecuadorian to win a championship with the Tuzos; Before that, the closest was runners-up Enner Valencia and Walter Ayoví, pillars of the team in that 2014 Clausura, in which Pachuca had a strong base of Mexican footballers, only with both Ecuadorians as foreign starters.

The first representative of this country in the ranks of Pachuca, as part of short tournaments, was Iván Hurtado, who arrived in Bella Airos after playing the Gold Cup in 2004, remaining in the ranks of the institution in the 2004-2005 season.

It took six years for the management to turn their sights to this country again, signing “long-arm” pretenders Segunda Castillo, as well as strikers Jaime Ayoví and Félix Borja.

However, the first and last spent only three tournaments in Bella Airosa, and the second only two, before he transferred to Arab football.

At the beginning of 2013, in one of the last moves of Grupo Pachuca and Grupo Orlegi, the Tuzos bought winger Christian Suárez, who had only played one year at Bella Airosa.

The following year, the board decided on Álex Colón and Enner Valencia, the latter was one of the most profitable footballers and economically, because after scoring a goal with the Tuzos, he added his participation in the World Cup, during the 2014 summer market they sold him for 15 million euros to English football.

Another one of the most productive on the field was the experienced Walter Ayoví, who already with a long career in Liga MX, strengthened the Tuzos for the 2013 Apertura, collecting four tournaments in Bella Airosa, with 76 games played and four goals.

Then came the discrete cases of Cristian Penilla and Júnior Sornoza, who even arrived as a rising player at the beginning of 2015 and their history at Bella Airosa was only six months, while Penilla was at least a full year.

In the summer of 2019, Romario Ibarra, an explosive, skilful and unbalanced winger, arrived on loan and convinced the management to exercise the purchase option the following year.

However, his stay in Pachuca was not easy either, as he struggled with various injuries that he mostly overcame during 2022, becoming a key figure for Guillermo Almada.

During the last Aperture 2023, the “bottom” was “hit” again with Byron Castillo, who will go down in history as one of the worst reinforcements in the history of Tuz.

Starting in 2024, Andrés Micolta has the mission of reclaiming the ground that Valencia, Ayoví and Ibarra have already won in Pachuca and represent Ecuador with dignity in Bella Airosa. (D)