“A footballer dies twice: when he retires and he dies later when God makes the decision to take him,” he once said. Sebastián Abreu, former Uruguayan soccer player. Now a third death can be added: when a player’s history is stained by a scandal or crime. He Omar Bravo case It has clouded what was a legacy of a footballer who, at least in sports, was seen as a reference. He is the top scorer for one of the most popular teams in his country such as Guadalajara, scorer in a World Cup, member of the Soccer Hall of Fame and ambassador for the next World Cup in 2026. Bravo, 45, has been linked to proceedings for having sexually abused a minor.
Bravo grew up in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. Far from being a soccer player, he wanted to emulate the baseball player Fernando Valenzuela in baseball or the boxer Julio César Chávez. He played soccer just for fun until his talent attracted recruiters, including those from Chivas. “I arrived practically as a wild player because I didn’t have that academy or experience that others had,” Bravo said in the podcast. The Red and White Voice. His goals paved the way for him to stand in the front row of the team as a generational talent. He debuted in the First Division in 2001 and the following years were effervescent: fame, goals, the Mexican team and the desire to move to Europe. “He was a distant, obscure guy, isolated from public opinion. He didn’t like giving interviews, he didn’t look you in the eyes,” recalls Raymundo González, a journalist who has covered soccer in Guadalajara for the last 30 years, and clarifies: “In training, yes, he was a very dedicated guy, 200%.”
In 2006 it represented his peak as a footballer. He won the League with Chivas, played in the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where he scored a double against Iran. Bravo wanted to play in Europe and he let his owner know, Jorge Vergarawhom he took to the limit with his attitudes. The sports director at the time, Néstor de la Torre, had to relegate him to the Second Division subsidiary team. In his prime, Omar Bravo looked untouchable in Guadalajara. A night of partying went on too long and he was arrested by traffic authorities for driving while intoxicated after leaving a brothel in Guadalajara. De la Torre had to go after him and his partner Alberto Medina to free them early in the day. “That week, Chivas had the team photograph at the Jalisco stadium. Vergara made them climb the goal crossbar and more or less told them: ‘Let’s see, you guys who like to walk in the tubes, get on and sit there’. In some way he punished them because all the photographers were there, it was the image of the day,” says Raymundo González in a conversation with this newspaper.
In 2006, Bravo was also in the media spotlight when he refused to acknowledge having a daughter with his ex-partner Claudia Verónica Hernández, with whom he had a relationship when he was 22 years old and she was only 15. The soccer player tried to avoid the controversy based on his fame. After the sexual abuse complaint in 2025, Hernández separated her daughter and herself from any relationship with Bravo. The player went to Spain in 2008 to Deportivo A Coruña. He only lasted half a year because being a substitute did not suit him well with only 20 games played and three goals. He returned to Mexico with the Tigres. Then he returned to Chivas (2009-2010), traveling to the United States with Kansas City. He was in Mexico City with Cruz Azul, Atlas and with Chivas, where he closed his time in the First Division and where he managed to score 132 goals, a record that no one has been able to take away from him. The last match he played was with the Leones Negros of the University of Guadalajara in 2020. Bravo moved away from professional football, tried to coach youth teams, but refused to participate on several occasions in matches with other former footballers. True to his style, he kept any requests for interviews with the media at bay.
When Bravo’s file of child abuse was made public, it was a shock to the soccer bubble and throughout Guadalajara. “It was quite a surprise, a negative one. Bravo always showed seriousness, except for that incident of driving while intoxicated. He had no off-field problems, at least not public ones. Nobody imagined that a character like him would have a legal problem of this nature,” considers journalist González. “This city has a magnet for scandals. If it wasn’t a car accident, arrests, soccer figures who invested in shady businesses…” he adds.
Bravo is accused of having sexually abused a minor under 11 years old and that they continued until she was 17. The young woman had to document videos, audios and more than a dozen screenshots to demonstrate everything he experienced and everything he could not say publicly due to the threats he suffered from the former athlete. The Prosecutor’s Office also stated during the week that it had under review two other research folders against the former soccer player that were archived.
