Antonio Carlos Santos and the day Hugo Sánchez called him a “slave” in America

By the beginning of the 1990s, Club America tried to maintain the success achieved during the eighties and among its great bets to try to achieve it, the signing of Hugo Sánchez was placed as the great standard, who returned to Mexico in 1992 after winning in Spain and with five pichichi trophies in his pocket .

To the unease of the historical Mexican footballer, inside the dressing room he met Antonio Carlos Santos, one of the highest quality midfielders at the time and who had been a member of the Aguilas since 1987, but who had a very particular conflict of interest in his personal life with Hugol.

The Negro Santos, as he was nicknamed on and off the courts, was then dating Emma Portugal, with whom he eventually had around 27 years of marriage; however, this relationship occurred after he started a family with Hugo Sánchez, with whom he had two children, so the brief time he had the two players coincided in the dressing rooms of Coapa would have been very tense.

This was revealed in an interview by another member of that team, Oscar Ruggeri, who had been world champion with Argentina in 1986 and who had also coincided with Hugo Sánchez at Real Madrid, so he announced how the two players faced in America.

Through the 90-minute football program, which was then broadcast on Fox Sports Argentina, Ruggeri was talking about the players he shared a dressing room with, until he ran into Carlos Santos and Hugo Sánchez, so he unexpectedly proceeded against the story.

“Santos married Hugo Sánchez's ex-wife (Emma Portugal) and we had them both in the locker room,” he began to describe to the surprise of the panelists and with a smile drawn on his face. “I would sit next to Hugo, the Pichichi and say to me: 'Oscar, tell the slave that when I call he won't answer, I want to talk to my children. '”

Afterwards, the former Eagles defender approached Carlos Santos and said: “'Negro did you hear? he told you a slave not to answer the phone”, and then reveal the tough response of the Brazilian midfielder, who did not limit himself and replied to warm up Sanchez:

This is how the two footballers confronted each other in the dressing rooms of Club América, a team that could not lift any trophies during that decade despite its great economic and sporting efforts, but that at first was able to bring together two former Real Madrid players (Ruggeri and Hugo Sánchez), in addition to one of the great pearls of Brazilian football, Antonio Carlos Santos.

Since then, Negro Santos had a relationship with Emma Portugal that lasted about 27 years, who even in an interview with Productora 69, revealed that Hugo had asked the American board that the condition for signing with them was the midfielder's departure.

This would have had an effect, as Santos left the club the same year of Sanchez's arrival and returned until Pentapichichi left America, something that did not prevent both from having some encounters inside the cream-blue locker room.

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