An investigation by the Ecuadorian Football Association (FEF) is attempting to determine the nationality of defender Byron Castillo, who plays for Barcelona in Guayaquil, and who is suspected of Colombian descent.
According to the investigation conducted by the director of the Ecuadorian Football Association (FEF), Jaime Jara, the evidence suggests that Castillo acted like an Ecuadorian with false documents and claims to have evidence that the 20-year-old footballer was born. in the Colombian city of Tumaco, on the border with Ecuador.
The manager specified the new details in an interview with the radio station Mach Deportes, in the Ecuadorian capital. Jara assured that he has presented all documentation to the FEF Disciplinary Commission to penalize the player for dealing with altered or false documents.
The manager insisted that Castillo is Colombian because he has documents from the Colombian registry office in the city of Tumaco. Therefore, it will be the Disciplinary Commission that will determine any sanction for the player who, according to the manager, has a legitimate right to defend himself.
Castillo has become one of the key figures of Barcelona, with whom he won the title last year and started this season as a starter. The inquiries into Castillo’s nationality have been ongoing for several years, but the FEF authorized him as an Ecuadorian in 2019, although it also warned that he could reopen the investigation if necessary.
For his part, player entrepreneur Marco Zambrano assured a local station in 2018 that Castillo had been investigated six times up to that point and that the Ecuadorian registry office had validated his information twice. Zambrano had also said that the government’s Citizen Participation Council at the time should send an apology.
Meanwhile, Barcelona president naturalized Argentinian Ecuadorian Carlos Alejandro Alfaro Moreno told local journalists on Wednesday that his player had been authorized by the FEF as an Ecuadorian after the investigation process in 2017, when he was transferred from Quito’s Aucas.