In the news

Nery Castillo had his say on how he feels against the media on Wednesday.

Now, it's the media's turn. Castillo, of course, was the headliner throughout including on the cover of Mural.

"He Goes Crazy" reads the headline.

What good is just a headline, though, without a cartoon to accompany it?


Nery Castillo tries his hand at a piñata. As the Costa Rican player dangles saying "He's peeking! He's peeking!" a startled reporter says "Behind Nery, behind, behind... the target is on the other side."

The rundown

Here's some of the highlights from the Nery Castillo presser, translated into English by yours truly.

Nery's meltdown

Might the pressure be getting to the Mexican national team players?

It appeared Nery Castillo was feeling something - pressure, anger, frustration... something - during Wednesday's press conference.

He chastised the media, said they had no business criticizing players because they never played, among other things.

Nery news

Nery Castillo will start for Mexico on Wednesday against Ecuador in Arizona, Sven-Goran Eriksson said on Monday. Castillo has not played for El Tri since March and has struggled for playing time with Manchester City as well but Castillo is a talent and Mexico needs him on the field.

But that was not the most surprising Nery news on Monday. Guadalajara daily Cancha reported Monday that Castillo has been added to Chivas' squads for both the Copa Sudamericana and the Apertura 2008 season. In fact, Cancha reported that Castillo could be in action for Chivas on Saturday in their regular-season finale against Indios and could also play a part in the playoffs, if Chivas gets that far.

Cancha quoted Chivas VP Nestor De La Torre as saying that Castillo has been added to Chivas' roster and that the arrival of his international pass is the only thing keeping Castillo from playing for Chivas.

"All the papers and everything else has been submitted," De La Torre told Cancha. "The Federation has accepted him for the two tournaments and we're simply waiting for his international pass."

This could mean more than just a brief stay in Guadalajara for Castillo. If he joins Chivas now, then it might be safe to assume that he would be a part of their team next season as well.

Chivas have had an interest in Castillo for some time but the chances of him playing in Mexico appeared slim as his stock rose following the summer tournaments in 2007. Now that he's fallen off the face of the European club scene, Castillo's options are limited and a spell with Chivas would probably do him well.

ADD: The Cancha cover is from Tuesday's edition.

Nery on Cancha

And since I'm all about posting covers this morning apparently, here's Cancha, Guadalajara's top sports daily. The picture is of Nery Castillo and the headline reads "He's Coming! (to train)"

The next best thing

Chivas de Guadalajara were thwarted in their attempt to acquire Nery Castillo as a reinforcement for Copa Sudamericana. But they still got him anyway... sort of.

According to reports, Castillo will train with Chivas ahead of Mexico's game against Ecuador on Nov. 12 in Phoenix. It seems that this is the first step of Castillo's return to Mexico. Could it also grease the wheels for a possible move to Chivas? Chivas, after all, have been pursuing Castillo for much longer than recent weeks. And it seems that if the club is good to him while he's not affiliated with them, perhaps he'd be most open to a move there if he decided to play in Mexico.

With Castillo wasting away at Manchester City, it would benefit Mexico greatly to have Castillo playing a key role on a club, European or otherwise, if he is to play a role in qualifying next year - provided Mexico gets there of course. And if that is not an option in England, then perhaps he'd consider going to Mexico before anywhere else. After all, I can't imagine the City bench would be preferable to playing in his home country.

Nery set to return

Not too long ago, Nery Castillo was a key player for the Mexican national team. His performance at the 2007 Copa America was grand and left Mexican fans salivating at the prospect of watching him guide the Mexican attack for years to come.

Then, he fell off the face of the earth. A move to Spain fell apart and Castillo remained with Manchester City. Another move, this time to Chivas de Guadalajara, also did not happen. Castillo has yet to play for City this season.

But word came out of Mexico City that Castillo would be brought back into the national team picture regardless. Castillo is set to appear in Mexico's friendly against Ecuador on Nov. 12 in Phoenix, a week before their do-or-die qualifier in Honduras.

If Castillo had stayed with Olympiakos, perhaps he would never have fallen off the national team picture. But his turbulent club career hardly left Mexico coaches any choice but to leave him out of the picture. This might not be his last chance to show what he's got but it's an audition nonetheless.

It's a bit ironic in that the first time Castillo was called up to the national team, Mexico played the U.S. in February 2007. To think that in a span of 18 months of so since then he would have gone back to Europe undecided about his national team future (remember, he was eligible for Greece and Uruguay as well), would debut for Mexico, play well in both the Gold Cup and Copa America, would switch clubs twice, fall off the picture for both club and country and now is trying to resurface for both.

After all this turbulence, banking the future on a player the likes of Castillo may not be the best thing no matter how talented he is.