Adolfo "Bofo" Bautista Herrera (born May 15, 1979 in Dolores Hidalgo, Guanajuato) is a Mexican footballer attacking midfielder who currently is unattached. He is popularly known by his nickname of "Bofo", as well as for his shaved head (although he recently has grown hair), single digit jersey number, "1", and his passes. After his mother's death, he wore on his jersey "Bofo My Angel" as he considered his mother to be his angel. He is also called this on FIFA 07. After Chivas de Guadalajara won the Apertura 2006 season, Bautista changed the back of his jersey to show a tiny set of angel wings.

[edit] Club career

[edit] Beginnings

Before reaching the Primera Division played in amateur leagues in Dolores Hidalgo, San Diego de la Unión and San Miguel de Allende.

Bautista made his debut on March 7, 1998 at the age of 18. He played with Tecos UAG from 1998–2002 where he scored 15 goals for the team in those four years. Bautista's first goal in the Mexican Championship was in the Invierno 2000 tournament against Necaxa on September 17, 2000, where Tecos lost 3-1.

In late 2002, Bautista was transferred to Monarcas Morelia where he scored 8 goals in 21 games and was an important player on the squad. He made a deadly frontline with Chilean footballer Reinaldo Navia where together they packed over 15 goals for the team. He played for Morelia for two seasons, appearing in the Apertura 2002, Clausura 2003 tournaments where the team came second place and reached the championship finals in two consecutive seasons. It was believed that Monarcas Morelia was the club that launched Bautista's career.

In mid 2003, Bautista was transferred to C.F. Pachuca where much was expected from him, and very little was showed in the field, he spent most of his time on the bench. In 19 games, he scored only one goal against Jaguares de Chiapas and he struggled to find his form. Despite his poor performances, Pachuca still managed to reach the finals against UANL Tigres of Monterrey. UANL Tigres won the first of two games 1-0 at home and scored another goal in the return game in Pachuca's home stadium. Bautista scored a goal for Pachuca in the 77th minute and gave Pachuca a 3-1 victory over their opponent and took hold of the Championship title. Bautista's stay at Pachuca was marred with disputes with the coach Victor Manuel Vucetich, and he soon desired to leave the club.

[edit] Chivas de Guadalajara

After a long transfer period, Bautista was transferred to the "All-Mexican Team" in 2004, Chivas de Guadalajara. The Apertura 2004 season was one of Bautista's worst performance in his career, scoring three goals in 19 games. However, in the following season, he re-gained his form and had a successful tournament.

In 2005, he participated in the Copa Libertadores cup in which their most noticeable win was over Boca Juniors in their home game 4-0. The away game was tied 0-0, and during a small turmoil after the game showed on tape where Boca coach Jorge José Benítez is caught on tape spitting in Bautista's face. Chivas went on and lost to Atletico Paranaense in a global score of 5-2.

During the 2006 Apertura, Bautista led Chivas to win the final against Toluca. Bautista is known for his creative "ball control", he takes pride in giving passes to his teammates and prefers to play as a Forward and Attacking Midfielder. Bautista and his teammates Omar Bravo and Alberto Medina make a deadly offense to beat. On June 11, 2007 was transferred to Jaguares de Chiapas after Chivas' coach Jose Manuel de la Torre was not happy with Bautista after losing against rivals América in the Semi-Finals of the Clausura 2007 in which Bautista clearly did not do anything. He was put on the Transfer list along with Diego Martinez(who fell out of favor with Vergara).

Despite getting off to a slow start with Guadalajara, by the end of his time with the Chivas Bautista had become the man. A combination of incredible passes, and scoring prowess helped "El Bofo" in establishing a cult-like following amongst his fans.^[1] On June 11, 2007 Bautista was transferred to Jaguares de Chiapas in what many think was the most important signing for any team. However, before being transferred he pleaded for another chance to stay. The decision came to Jorge Vergara who tried his best to make peace with Jose Manuel de la Torre and 'Bofo', but failed.

[edit] Jaguares de Chiapas

Bofo was sold to Chiapas for $5 million dollars and on August 4, 2007 Adolfo 'Bofo' Bautista played his first game with Chiapas who tied 1-1 against Atlante. Bautista was given the number 1 (which is mostly used by goalkeepers). On October 31, 2007 'Bofo' scored his second goal with the team against Veracruz. Bofo gave a good game to the fans. On the Clausura 2008 he seemed to gain back the form and skills he displayed when he played for Chivas de Guadalajara. Bofo helped the team get to the playoffs but they were eliminated by Cruz Azul in the quarter finals. One of Bofo's best tournament was the Apertura 2008 were Bofo finished as the 3rd top goal scorer scoring 9 goals in the tournament and was the only Mexican in the top 10 goal scorers in the tournament. He couldn't play the beginning of the Clausura 2008 because of an injury. His first goal of the tournament came on matchday 9 on March 7 in a match against his former team Chivas de Guadalajara. On the Apertura 2009 he played only 8 of 17 matches scoring one goal in the first team.

[edit] International career

Nevertheless his results in his International career have been seen as somewhat of a letdown. He has been criticized in the international arena for being a showman and inconsistent. Bautista was left out of Mexico's 23 man squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup tournament by former coach Ricardo Lavolpe; he has never played a FIFA World Cup tournament.

Bautista was called up by former coach Hugo Sánchez several times to play in the Mexico National Team. Bofo was called to play with the Mexican National Team in a friendly game against Paraguay on March 25, 2007. In that game, Bofo helped Mexico score a goal with a pass to Jared Borgetti. His ninth goal in the National Team came on March 28, 2007 in an international friendly match against Ecuador's National Football Team. This late goal assisted by fellow Chivas team mate Omar Bravo gave Mexico a 4-2 win over Ecuador. He was chosen by then coach Hugo Sánchez to represent Mexico in the 2007 Gold cup, On June 17, 2007 in a quarter final match against Costa Rica of the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup once again Bofo gave a pass to his teammate Jared Borgetti to scored the final 1-0 scored in Extra-Time. He was again called to represent Mexico for the 2007 Copa America. Bautista was called since 2007 Copa America to play a friendly match against the USA on February 6 2008 where Mexico tied 2-2 in the Reliant Stadium in Houston, Texas. Bautista played 71 minutes and then was substituted by Zinha. He then played vs Ghana which Mexico won 2-1. In Summer 2008 he was included in by then new coach Sven Goran Eriksson's first list for a training camp for the match vs Honduras which was going to be played on August 20. Since then he did not received a call from Sven. Even though he played with a lot of enthusiasm with Jaguares, Eriksson preferred to called up Carlos Ochoa and Vicente Matias Vuoso rather than Bofo.

[edit] International goals

#	Date	Venue	Opponent	Score	Result	Competition
1.	January 21, 2002	Pasadena, United States	Guatemala	3–1	Win	2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup
2.	March 13, 2002	San Diego, United States	Albania	4–0	Win	Friendly
3.	March 13, 2002	San Diego, United States	Albania	4–0	Win	Friendly
4.	June 19, 2004	San Antonio, United States	Dominica	10–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
5.	June 19, 2004	San Antonio, United States	Dominica	10–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
6.	June 27, 2004	Aguascalientes, Mexico	Dominica	8–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
7.	June 27, 2004	Aguascalientes, Mexico	Dominica	8–0	Win	2006 FIFA World Cup qualification
8.	July 13, 2004	Piura, Peru	Ecuador	2–1	Win	2004 Copa América
9.	March 28, 2007	Oakland, United States	Ecuador	4–2	Win	Friendly

[edit] Honors

International:

Mexico

• CONCACAF Gold Cup:
  • Runner-up (1): 2007
• Copa América:
  • Third Place (1) : 2007

Club:

C.F. Pachuca

• Mexican Championship - Apertura 2003

Chivas de Guadalajara

• Mexican Championship - Apertura 2006

[edit] External links

• FootballDatabse provide Bofo's statistics
• Adolfo Bautista stats at MedioTiempo.com (Spanish)

[edit] References

Mexico squads v • d • e Mexico squad – 2002 CONCACAF Gold Cup 1 Martínez • 2 Arias • 3 Balderas • 4 Hierro • 5 de Anda • 6 Sosa • 7 Gutiérrez • 8 Campos • 9 Ochoa • 10 Garcés • 11 de Nigris • 12 Ortíz • 13 Sancho • 14 García • 15 Noriega • 16 Reyes • 17 Espinosa • 18 Bautista • Coach: Aguirre v • d • e Mexico squad – Copa América 2004 1 Sánchez • 2 Suárez • 3 Briceño • 4 Márquez • 5 Davino • 6 Torrado • 7 Valdez • 8 Pardo • 9 Borgetti • 10 Bautista • 11 Osorno • 12 Pérez • 13 Muñoz • 14 Morales • 15 Oteo • 16 Méndez • 17 Palencia • 18 Carmona • 19 Lozano • 20 Osorio • 21 Arellano • 22 Altamirano • Coach: Lavolpe v • d • e Mexico squad – 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup Runners-up 1 Sánchez • 2 Magallón • 3 Salcido • 4 Márquez • 5 Osorio • 6 Torrado • 7 Medina • 8 Pardo • 9 Borgetti • 10 Blanco • 11 Morales • 12 Corona • 13 Ochoa • 14 Pinto • 15 Castro • 16 Lozano • 17 Fonseca • 18 Guardado • 19 Bravo • 20 Arce • 21 Castillo • 22 Rodríguez • 23 Bautista • Coach: Hugo Sánchez v • d • e Mexico squad – Copa América 2007 Third Place 1 Sánchez • 2 Magallón • 3 Pinto • 4 Márquez • 5 I. Castro • 6 Torrado • 7 Medina • 8 Correa • 9 Landín • 10 Blanco • 11 Morales • 12 Cacho • 13 Ochoa • 14 Pineda • 15 J. Castro • 16 Lozano • 17 Bautista • 18 Guardado • 19 Bravo • 20 Arce • 21 Castillo • 22 Rodríguez • Coach: Hugo Sánchez