In the history of over a hundred years that America has, thousands of names related to the club have passed through it, either because of a past with it or simply because of their fandom for those colors, and some have even starred in episodes that have made history, like José de León Toral, who made history not with America, but with the country, as he was the actual author of the assassination of a Mexican president.

Who was José de León Toral?

Born in Coahuila on December 23, 1900, he had a childhood in which he played various sports, with the particularity that he was always connected to religion, even being a member of the Mexican Catholic Youth Association and the National League for the Defense of Religious Freedom.

Although he practiced various sports, De León Toral's desire was to be a football player, he tried his luck in some clubs, and when he started living in Mexico City, he joined the Club Centro Unión in 1918, a club that later became America.

It's true that his name does not appear in the records of the current Club America, as he only appeared in some games in the Copa Amistad del Club Asturias before the start of the season. Toral became part of the team that in those first years needed economic resources to acquire uniforms, so they looked for players and resources in religious institutions, one of them being San José and Alvarado, where Toral was studying, which is why he had the possibility of fulfilling his desire to play in a professional club and it was the emerging America club.

De León Toral and the assassination of a Mexican president

However, that sporting desire declined and his religious fervor increased, to the point that it could be said that he fell into fanaticism, since De León Toral held resentment towards Álvaro Obregón and Plutarco Elías Calles, as their troops raided Catholic temples during the Mexican Revolution.

De León Toral was active during the Cristiada War and was influenced by Mother Conchita, a nun from the Capuchin convent, and it was she who convinced Toral to take action against those opposed to Catholicism, and the measure for that was to assassinate Álvaro Obregón.

On July 17, Álvaro Obregón went to the restaurant La Bombilla, in the San Ángel neighborhood, where he attended a meal to celebrate that his inauguration was approaching. Toral followed him secretly at a nearby table. According to history, Toral drew the elected president and the people accompanying him, showing them his drawings. The last person he showed his work to was Obregón, and then he pulled out a gun and shot him six times, ending the life of the future president.

As expected, Toral was captured and sentenced to death. He was executed on February 9, 1929, and thus ended the life of the America player who assassinated a president.