Jorge Campos Navarrete is a retired Mexican footballer, who played as a goalkeeper and striker. A notable player of Mexico in the 1990s and early 2000s, Campos was an eccentric player, known for his constant play outside the penalty area, his acrobatic, risky, and flamboyant style of goalkeeping, and his colourful playing attire. His main strengths as a goalkeeper were his leaping ability, athleticism, and speed when rushing off his line, as well as his ability to organise his defence, which enabled him to overcome his relatively short stature. He was widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers of his generation. Campos also made for an effective striker, a rare example of versatility in football. At times, he would start a game in goal, and transfer upfield later in the match, mostly at the club level. In total, he scored 34 goals throughout his career. His trademark, self-designed bright kits contributed to his popularity.
Club de Fútbol Universidad Nacional A.C., commonly known as Pumas de la UNAM, Pumas UNAM, UNAM, or Pumas, is a Mexican league football club based in Ciudad Universitaria. Club Universidad Nacional represent the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and play their home matches at Estadio Olímpico Universitario, located on UNAM's main campus. Universidad Nacional is one of the most popular clubs in Mexico. They have won seven Primera División championships and four international titles. The team is also known for their youth development system which has produced international players such as Hugo Sánchez, Manuel Negrete, Luis Flores, Claudio Suárez, Luis García, Alberto García Aspe, David Patiño, Jorge Campos, Gerardo Torrado, Efraín Juárez, Héctor Moreno, Pablo Barrera, Israel Castro, Eduardo Herrera and Jesús Gallardo. The 1990-1991 season was probably the most celebrated championships in club history, since the team won the League Championship against arch-rivals Club América. A new generation of players arrived, including Luis García, Jorge Campos, Claudio Suárez, Antonio Sancho, Israel López, Braulio Luna, Rafael García, Jaime Lozano, and Gerardo Torrado. The new decade starting with this season was, however, considered as one of the least successful in terms of championships and development of players. Towards the end of the decade, Hugo Sánchez became manager of the club for the first time.
Born in Acapulco, Campos started his career in 1988 in Mexico with Pumas. At that time the club's first string goalkeeper was Adolfo Rios, so because Campos desired first-team opportunities, he asked to be used as a striker. He performed notably in his first season, scoring 14 goals and contending for the title of top-goal scorer. In the following seasons he earned the position of first-choice goalkeeper and won the 1990–91 championship with Pumas. But even in the 1990-1991 season he kept playing as striker and he kept scoring as the seasons before. Most os the times Campos played with number 10 on the back, no matter if he was used as a striker or goalkeeper.
MEXICO NATIONAL TEAM
Mexico vs Ireland
Match Issued & Signed Shirt
This is one of the most Jorge Campos known shirts. It is a World Cup shirt and it was as usually designed by the player himself. But what makes this shirt so special is the fabric and its unique style. While Campos was usual to own design his uniforms, all of them were completely handcrafted by authentic craftsmen. But obviously all of his shirts, also if of the same style, were all different because they all had small details different from each other. This shirt was also hand sprayed in all of its colorful details. The fabric is not printed but all of the colors were hand sprayed making this shirt extremely raw and heavy as you can also see while fit by the player.
On the international stage, Campos started as goalkeeper for Mexico in two FIFA World Cup tournaments: 1994 and 1998. He would eventually collect 130 caps. At the 1999 New Year's Cup in Hong Kong, in which Mexico was invited as well as Egypt and Bulgaria, Campos' father was kidnapped in Mexico and Campos returned to Mexico to attend to the matter. Campos was invited several times to play with the Rest of the World Team against clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Milan. His last game with Mexico was in 2004 in a friendly against Tecos.
After retiring from both club and international football in the early 2000s, Campos became an assistant coach to Ricardo La Volpe, the former head coach of the Mexico National Team. He was an assistant director of the National team that played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He also owns a fast food franchise, Sportortas-Campos, specializing in tortas. On 31 July 2011, he appeared in the 2011 "Messi and Friends" friendly match in aid of charity where he played for a Rest of World XI. He entertained many of the crowd, pulling off many saves including stopping Lionel Messi. He currently resides in the Los Angeles area.
Match Worn & Signed Shirt
In 1996 Campos signed for Los Angeles Galaxy. He played in the United States, where he starred in Major League Soccer for three seasons for the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chicago Fire. He was the first major foreign star to be signed by the league and enjoyed considerable popularity in the United States. Campos played in two back-to-back matches during a double-header event at the Rose Bowl on 16 June 1996, playing for Mexico against the United States and then the Galaxy against Tampa Bay. With Los Angeles Galaxy he mainly wore the number 9 and he played as goalkeeper and as striker as well.
Watch Jorge Campos in a crazy Rainbow Flick Assist with Los Angeles Galaxy
As well as Pumas and Cruz Azul, Campos also played for such clubs Atlante, Tigres, and Puebla. He scored a notable bicycle kick goal for Atlante in the 1997 season. In that game, he started as goalkeeper, but as the forwards were failing to score a goal, the coach replaced a field player with another goalkeeper to send Campos to the attack.
Jorge Campos used to design the jerseys he was wearing. Most of the jerseys he wore while playing with Mexico was designed by him as well. He also had a sportswear's clothing company called Garcis that was Campos jersey's supplier and for a while also Mexico National Team's supplier. All of his jersey were colorful and fancy. He loved rhombus shapes so he was usual to sewn fabric rhombus's shapes all over his jerseys. One of his nicknames was "Surfer" as he used to surf in Acapulco while he was young so he was printing "SURFER" in all of his shirts.
Match Worn Training Boots
Jorge Campos also won the championship with Cruz Azul in the Primera División de México Invierno 1997 (México First Division Winter 1997), although he was the second string goalkeeper to Oscar Perez. He was regularly used as a substitute striker during this period. He also played in the United States, where he starred in Major League Soccer's first three seasons for the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chicago Fire. At the 1999 New Year's Cup in Hong Kong, in which Mexico was invited as well as Egypt and Bulgaria, Campos' father was kidnapped in Mexico and Campos returned to Mexico to attend to the matter. Campos was invited several times to play with the Rest of the World Team against clubs like Real Madrid, Barcelona, and Milan. His last game with Mexico was in 2004 in a friendly against Tecos.
After retiring from both club and international football in the early 2000s (decade), Campos became an assistant coach to Ricardo La Volpe, the former head coach of the Mexico National Team. He was an assistant director of the National team that played in the 2006 FIFA World Cup. He also owns a fast food franchise, Sportortas-Campos, specializing in tortas. On 31 July 2011, he appeared in the 2011 "Messi and Friends" friendly match in aid of charity where he played for a Rest of World XI. He entertained many of the crowd, pulling off many saves including stopping Lionel Messi.
Campos has appeared in commercials for the American sportswear company Nike. In 1996, wearing a black jersey (in contrast to the colorful jerseys he wore in games), Campos starred in a Nike commercial titled "Good vs Evil" in a gladiatorial game set in a Roman amphitheatre. Appearing alongside football players from around the world, including Ronaldo, Paolo Maldini, Eric Cantona, Luís Figo and Patrick Kluivert, they defend "the beautiful game" against a team of demonic warriors, before it culminates with Cantona striking the ball and destroying evil. Campos has appeared in EA Sports' FIFA video game series, featuring in the Classic XI for 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa, FIFA 11, FIFA 12, FIFA 15 and FIFA 16. Campos is also a commentator for TV Azteca.