The striker came to try with Puebla at the age of 24, when the window of opportunity to make his MX League debut was closed, and it was a few shouts that threatened to truncate the career of the top Mexican goal scorer. the tournament
Santiago Ormeño is the Mexican with the most goals so far in the 2020/2021 season of the MX League, however, the striker spent three years in the Second Division before arriving in Puebla in 2018. When he was 24 years old, and the camoteros were led by Enrique Meza, the striker attended a test match that the same coach had requested to add new talent to his squad. At that meeting, Ormeño arrived dressed in white, as requested, but without shin guards, a problem that could truncate his future in his career, which he managed to face thanks to his cheerful personality.
“Suddenly I turn around and see a ‘guero’, half awkward and I said: ‘this boy has two straight legs, a head …’, but it turns out it was Santiago Ormeño”, Remembers Octavio Becerril, who was an assistant to Enrique Meza, and was responsible for whistling that square and allow the striker to play without shin guards.
The ‘Picas’ points out that the appearance of that tall player and thin complexion, changed when he gave the initial whistle, because although at age 24 he had no experience in the First Division, showed interesting things that they ended up liking ” ojitos’ Meza and his coaching staff.
“In one play they threw her towards the front center, Ormeño’s position and when I saw him rise, he suddenly lowered her with his chest, he made a very good reception to invite the players to come quickly to approach to follow the play, here it caught my attention “.
The detail of the shin guards did not go unnoticed by the improvised referee, since after the technical body of the Strip agreed to stay with Santiago Ormeño, Becerril asked permission to Enrique Meza to speak with the gunner who had passed by the basic forces of America, In addition to the Second Division of Cougars, Pioneers of Cancun and BUAP Wolves.
“I put a ‘pin …’ scolds him like you have no idea why he was going to try without shin guards, it’s my fault because I let him play this way. ‘I want you to tell me which team you came to try’, I he says: ‘Well, in El Pobla, professor’, I say to him: ‘Very well … and why don’t you wear shin guards?’, he says to me: ‘My granddaughter was robbed of me’, I started laughing, it’s amazing .
Octavio Becerril still remembers the quarrel he gave to the striker, especially because it was not explained that he was going to apply for a job and did not bring the tools needed to prove himself in a professional team, but all the ‘explanation he gave him, all he said to him,’ he made me laugh afterwards, because he has many exits and many arguments for you to free yourself with your anger and move on with him. ‘
The coach considers that the personality of Ormeño, who became known during the Tria MX, a tournament held before the cancellation of the 2020 Closing due to the Covid-19 pandemic, has helped him not to give up. -in no time until he achieved his goal which was to make his debut and stay at the top circuit, the same opinion as Enrique Vela, who led him in 2017 to Pioneers of Cancun in the Second Division.
“His personality is what has catapulted him to where he is. Here in the Second Division, Santi was a scoring striker, unfortunately sometimes you don’t have the continuity or the opportunity to prove yourself one hundred percent. I think the ‘boom’ or the part when Ormeño is released, is when the pandemic suspends the tournament and they make the virtual league.I think his personality helped him a lot to put his name in the media and when he left give the opportunity to the court and I think he has shown it very well, that he has a goal, that he is a charismatic player and that has helped him. “
Enric, brother of Carlos and Alejandro Vela is currently the technical director of the Third Division of Cancún FC, remembers Ormeño as someone cheerful, who always sought to make jokes with his teammates and coaches, but has marked an anecdote in which the personality is shown of the current striker from Puebla, who has taken him out of adverse situations.
“A funny situation or indiscipline, you could say. We were about to start training, when we went out on the field and to get warm, the assistant told me that Santiago is missing, who had not arrived. Then one of the times worries because it’s not normal for a player not to be able to train, we scored and he didn’t answer. Suddenly when we had been training for 15 minutes he appears running all disheveled, putting on his uniform and shoes to enter the court: Prof, prof, sorry, I fell asleep and I was just waking up, I saw it was late and I came as fast as I could ‘, so was Santi, between distracted and a very funny personality “.
“I always told you in a way, I knew how to get to you and instead of getting angry, you scolded him and then he made you smile, he always knew how to make us laugh after the anger.”
It’s been just two years and four months since his debut in the First Division and, after waiting for his chance, Santiago Ormeño is fulfilling his second tournament as the starting striker for La Puebla. The 11 goals he has scored in two tournaments leave him as the Mexican striker with the most goals in the season, beating players like José Juan Macías and Henry Martín, but it all started that afternoon at the La Franja training ground, where some shin guards were the biggest threat to his dream of making a debut, but once again, his personality took him afloat.