Carlos Albert

Carlos Albert Llorente (10 July 1943 to 3 November 2026) was a Mexican footballer and one of the most outspoken sports journalists Mexico has produced. A central defender for Club Necaxa from 1961 to 1971, he played for Mexico at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and won gold at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. He then spent more than four decades in television, radio and newspapers, earning a reputation as a direct, combative and fiercely independent critic of the people who ran Mexican football.

Albert was born in Mexico City, the eldest of eight children of Carlos Albert, a radio and television chronicler who specialised in bullfighting and baseball. He grew up around broadcasting, but his first career was on the pitch. He made his debut with Necaxa and spent his whole professional career there, partnering the Argentine Pedro Dellacha and later the Uruguayan Francisco Majewski at the heart of the defence. He was selected for Mexico's squad at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, played for the senior national team in the late 1960s, and was part of the side that won the Pan American Games football tournament in Winnipeg in 1967.

His playing career ended in 1971, when Necaxa changed owners and became Atlético Español. Albert refused the new contracting conditions and left the game. Around the same time he had worked with fellow players, including Antonio Mota and Gamaliel Ramírez, to organise a footballers' union. The effort did not prosper, and it has long been reported that club owners froze him out because of it. He said later that he had gambled his career at 25 rather than give up his principles, and he remained a defender of players' labour rights for the rest of his life.

In 1978 Albert moved into broadcasting at the state channel Imevisión. His former playing colleague Raúl Orvañanos introduced him to José Ramón Fernández, head of the channel's sports department, and the three formed one of the best remembered sports teams in Mexican television for more than a decade. He is credited with covering six FIFA World Cups as a broadcaster, beginning with Argentina 1978. He also said the Mexican Football Federation blocked his accreditation for some tournaments because of his criticism of its leaders. He is widely credited with popularising the phrase "ratones verdes" (green mice) as a jab at the national team.

Albert left in 1995 after Imevisión became TV Azteca, reportedly because he disagreed with the editorial line of the new owners. He went on to Multivisión, CNI Canal 40 and Grupo Fórmula, and wrote columns for Reforma, El Norte, El Financiero, Esto, Ovaciones and El Universal. At Canal 40 in 2003 he conducted a famously tense interview with national team coach Ricardo La Volpe, who walked off the set mid segment. The clip became one of the most replayed moments in Mexican sports television.

In 2000 he was appointed director of the Instituto del Deporte del Distrito Federal under the Mexico City government. In January 2001 he was removed and barred from public office over alleged irregularities linked to work at the Magdalena Mixhuca sports complex and the Mexico City Marathon. He challenged the ruling and won an annulment case in December 2003 that cancelled the ban.

From 2007 to May 2012 he was a panelist on ESPN's Futbol Picante. He left ESPN after posting on Twitter that viewers should watch the first presidential debate of 2012 instead of a playoff match being broadcast by TV Azteca at the same hour. He joined Fox Sports in January 2013 but left by mutual agreement weeks later. He then worked on Efekto TV, AYM Sports, Radio Centro, 52MX and finally La Octava Sports, where on 29 October 2021 he announced his retirement from the media, saying he wanted more time with his family.

Albert died on 3 November 2026 at the age of 83. The cause of death was not made public. Tributes came from the Mexican Football Federation and from colleagues including José Ramón Fernández, David Faitelson, Raúl Orvañanos, Enrique Beas and Francisco Javier González, who described him as a brave, honest and uncompromising journalist who could never be bought or silenced. He was survived by his wife Guille and his children Bárbara and Carlos.